Probe Of Locke Donors Seen As Setback Asian Americans Got Involved, But Now There’s Fear Of Pullback
In Washington state, Asians make up about 6 percent of the population, but the Asian community traditionally has lagged in voting and running for office.
And an investigation into campaign contributions to Gov. Gary Locke from members of a Buddhist temple last year could discourage some Asian Americans from future political involvement, an Asian American community leader says.
Locke is the first Chinese American governor in the country.
“The larger chilling effect to the Asian community is that people don’t want to run for local office, and they don’t want to get involved,” said Sharon Maeda, a former public affairs secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“There’s a sense that if you give money, they might investigate you and your name might be in the newspaper. You may have done absolutely nothing wrong, but you’ll be implicated anyway,” she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The state Public Disclosure Commission is reviewing $13,070 in donations that Locke received from people associated with the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond.
The commission also is reviewing how Locke’s campaign handled the return of a $5,000 cash donation from the temple’s grand master. At the time, state law limited cash donations to $50 and individual donations to $1,100 for the primary election and $1,100 for the general election.
The commission says it will be at least a month before it concludes an inquiry into the contributions.
To single out a small group of people associated with the temple from among the 9,117 Locke campaign donors overall could reverse the progress made in persuading Asian Americans in this state to be more politically active, said Maeda, who has worked for 20 years to combat racism in media coverage.
Huang Young, president of the Organization of Chinese Americans in Seattle, said Locke’s 1996 candidacy brought a new level of political activism by Asian Americans locally.
Both Maeda and Young said that if illegal activity has taken place, they want it investigated. But they question whether the donations would even be of interest if they didn’t involve a Buddhist temple or donors with “foreign-sounding” names.
xxxx REVIEW The state Public Disclosure Commission is reviewing $13,070 in donations that Locke received from people associated with the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond.