Seattle's Asian Vote Tough Bloc To Unlock -- Community's Various Factions Trip Up Many Eager Politicians

Three short stories speak volumes about the state of Seattle politics, Asian-American style:

Martha Choe, at the time undecided about which City Council seat to run for, shakes a few hands at an early meeting held by the 34th Legislative District Democrats. The husband of a state legislator asks: "How many more Chinese do we need on the City Council?" Choe politely explains she is Korean and retiring Councilwoman Dolores Sibonga is Filipino. To which this well-educated white man replies: "Well, you know what I mean."

A bit later in the campaign:

The Women's Political Caucus thinks it has a sure winner in Choe only to discover another Asian-American candidate, Betty Patu, has entered the race. The caucus sends someone to talk the Samoan youth worker out of running. But the representative becomes so impressed with Patu she comes away convinced she should run.

Still later:

A two-way race becomes a three-way race when King County corrections officer Maria-Lina Ambalada enters the campaign. Ambalada doesn't talk about the issues facing the city. She's upset Sibonga has endorsed a Korean candidate (Choe) instead of a Filipino. Why does that matter? "The tiger and leopard are both cats, but you don't see them running around together," she says.

Such are the complexities of running for a Seattle City Council seat many perceive to belong to the Asian community.

On the one hand, many non-Asians tend to lump Seattle's Korean,

Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Japanese, Samoan, Laotian and Filipino populations under the general title of Asians.

In truth, that "community" is composed of dozens of competing factions and interests, making it difficult for any single official - no matter which ethnicity - to represent them.

Non-Asian candidates compare politicking in the Asian community to walking through a minefield. And Asians say at times the competing interests place far too many demands on elected officials.

"I feel sorry for Dolores (Sibonga) and (Councilwoman) Cheryl (Chow)," says Dorothy Cordova, director of the Filipino American National Historical Society. "As a person of Asian descent they are expected to deliver so much."

It's difficult to be an Asian elected official in Seattle because there is no single Asian community in the city.

Members of the Chinese-American community, for example, are separated by the provinces they came from, the route they took to get here, and the year in which they came.

Their experiences have little to do with other Asian immigrants, yet many in the Asian-American community expect Asian elected officials to unite.

One of the most difficult decisions Chow has had to make as a council member came right after she took office.

The council might still be trying to select a president if Chow hadn't switched her vote from Sibonga to Paul Kraabel.

Some Filipinos still hold that decision against Chow, just as some resent Sibonga's endorsement of Choe, a Korean, to replace her.

Though occasionally the various ethnic groups have tried to unite to increase their political clout, most of the time they have little to do with each other.

"Asian Pacific Americans is a term that's been imposed on us," says Cordova.

"We were Chinese, Japanese, Korean before we came here. We don't speak the same language. We don't have the same religion. The circumstances under which we came here are different. But we woke up one morning and all of a sudden we were Asian."

In Seattle, that term encompasses nearly 61,000 people.

Included are about 15,000 Filipinos, whose culture is more Hispanic than Asian; 10,000 Southeast Asians who have fled conditions in Cambodia and Vietnam; and numerous generations of Chinese who arrived in the U.S. from different parts of Asia and under a multitude of circumstances.

What most of them want from government is about what everybody wants from their elected representatives: affordable housing, better police protection; recreational programs for their children and better schools.

In addition, though, there are some common interests shared only by minority groups. Velma Veloria, assistant to state Rep. Art Wang of Tacoma, says they result from the racism in this country.

"There are certain issues that are of specific interest to us," she says.

"The Civil Rights Act of 1990, the hate-crimes bill here in Washington state, and bilingual education. Those are things in common that we can work on together."

How sensitive City Council members are to those needs determines the support they'll get from influential members of minority communities.

One way to win that support is to listen.

Bob Santos, a frequent lobbyist for the International District Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), says everyone on the City Council does that.

Another way involves hiring Asian staff. Councilman George Benson, for example, has a long history of employing Asians on his staff. Most recently Chinese-American Grace Chien was an administrative assistant.

Chien not only kept him in touch with the Asian-American community, she discouraged at least one candidate, Cheryl Chow, from running against him.

Three years ago, when Chow was deciding which race to enter, she says she eliminated Benson's seat because of Chien's presence on Benson's staff. Chow ran instead against Jeanette Williams and won.

Asian Americans take great pride in Chow's and Sibonga's accomplishments. In them they have role models, plus influential people who have a built-in understanding of the needs of the Asian-American community.

But long before Sibonga and Chow were elected, the community had learned to work the system.

At one time, five Asian Americans were working as legislative assistants for council members, and the community had several high-ranking administrators in City Hall.

"One of them would call and say, `Hey, there's some money over here that hasn't been allocated,' " said Santos. "We were on it in a minute. We were first in line for a lot of things. We built housing, child care and services for the elderly. And where other communities might bask in that, we go right back for more."

One of the community's recent successes is at Eighth Avenue South and South Dearborn Street, where Metro owned property valued at nearly $2 million. Metro officials wanted to use the property or sell it.

Several influential people in the Asian-American community put pressure on Metro Council members to support the transfer of land to the International District PDA.

Santos promised Chow his support in her election campaign if she'd go along with the deal.

Eventually the federal government helped out.

In October, Seattle bought the land for $150,000 and transferred it to the International District PDA, which is developing the property for low-income housing, day care and services for the elderly.

"It was all very political," says Santos. "That's the game."

It is a game, however, that will get increasingly harder to play as Seattle's Asian-American population spreads out and diversifies even further.

For now, the impression still exists that Santos and a few other leaders speak for the Asian community.

Santos knows better, but he's not about to stop doing something that has worked thus far.

"I get calls from a lot of politicians who think if I vote for him, 61,000 Asians will follow," says Santos.

"That's not true, but why not use it? That's what politics is all about."