Judy Chu Takes It! The Runoff will be a Breeze…

Everyone I have spoken to about the 32rd Congressional District race knows I supported Chu from the get go. As someone who is extremely familiar with the district, and its myriad of ethnic intricacies, Chu was the best person for the job. Now I get to celebrate her victory and my bet with some micheladas!

One thing LA has yet to remember is that identity politics can only take you so far when the Latino male politicians throughout the past four decades have robbed our communities out of equitable policy, budget transparency, and public works projects that were inclusive and effective. I am not including Cedillo in this category, but I do want to drive the point home that representatives from ethnic communities do not always represent ethnic communities well. We can name names another time… but most of them start with ‘A’s.’

The 32nd CD is a Latino and Asian ethnic epicenter. Where the top Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants this side of the Western Hemisphere post up. Where high schools have nothing short of an Asian and Latino student body. This is the future of the country, and Chu is well positioned to follow the amazingness that Congresswoman Solis’ in providing much needed social services and structural policy changes than any of her counterparts in this race.  One more thing: it is far more important to have APAC on the Hill more equipped to represent Asian and Pacific Islander’s interests than to add another male into the divisive and ineffective Congressional Hispanc Caucus. Just saying… Let’s build people, and when building, all communities need to be at the table and we need to empower each other. 

So to Chu, thank you for being a woman of color role model who will move us forward into the 21st century in the same direction that Secretary Solis’ has done for the past two decades.

Photo Courtesy of Francine Corr, LA Times