White House AAPI Initiative to Hold Entrepreneurship and Small Business Summit on Jan. 7 in Silicon Valley

U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will keynote a Jan. 7, 2011, summit on entrepreneurship and small business growth in Mountain View, Calif., sponsored by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

President’s Advisory Commissioner Dilawar Syed (in photo) will lead this gathering, the first in a series of economic summits to be conducted by the White House AAPI Initiative in order to raise awareness of the Administration’s efforts to encourage entrepreneurs and small businesses to drive economic growth.

The Summit is free of charge, but registration is required. Add yourself to the Facebook event.

Below is the initial descriptions of the panels and sessions.

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Just one week left in this campaign and the energy is infectious! Our modest little office is now filled with volunteers on a daily basis, making phone calls and knocking on doors. Ever since Early Voting began a couple weeks ago, our operations are surprisingly smooth and streamlined, despite the records we break on a daily basis. The enthusiasm of our volunteers and interns keeps rising, and Karl Rove’s new attack ad only motivates our staff to work even harder. News articles are written about our plucky campaign on a daily basis and the Sacramento Bee visited us last Saturday. Our campaign office was packed with volunteers and interns, many of whom had no idea that it would be such a momentous occasion. Dr. Bera delivered another stirring speech to get our volunteers fired up and ready to go!

One Week Left!

Today was my birthday and I could not imagine a better way to celebrate than spending a fulfilling day in our campaign office. I am not joking. It is a core life principle of mine to make an impact on the world and every day I spend here on the campaign, I feel like I am contributing to a greater cause that could have incredible ramifications on our country. 15 hours a day goes by pretty quickly and there is nothing to complain about because I know that every vote counts. Every volunteer or intern that I can recruit to our office will be responsible for getting many more votes for Dr. Ami Bera and it is this multiplying effect that attracted me towards the field campaign. I used to be an apathetic, cynical non-voter who believed that my sole vote meant nothing. However, when I realized that I could be responsible for getting many more votes through my active involvement, I knew it was important for me to assume a leadership role.

Dr. Bera’s election to Congress would be such a powerful statement for several reasons:

1. We will be one of perhaps three races in the entire country to knock off a sitting Republican this year. In our current political climate, this will be a great accomplishment and one that we can be proud of for the rest of our lives.
2. Dr. Bera will be the first Indian-American congressmember since Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian American member of Congress, was elected in 1956.
3. The New Immigrant vote from Latinos and AAPIs in this district (comprising 25 percent of the population) will be a deciding swing vote in the race and will demonstrate our growing political voice.

With only one week left until Election Day, you can help make Dr. Bera’s victory a reality by making phone calls from your home. If you can call potential voters for us during these last weeks, you will allow our volunteers to knock on doors and make the personal one-on-one interactions that are more likely to drive our constituents to their polling places. Please call me at 626-512-2249 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 626-512-2249 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email me at brian@beraforcongress.com if you are able to volunteer for us.

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Volunteer for Dr. Ami Bera, one of Time Magazine’s “Top Races to Watch” and one of the best opportunities to unseat a sitting Republican this year.  Visit http://www.beraforcongress.com/page/s/websignup to sign up as a volunteer or contact Brian Wang at brian@beraforcongress.com or (626) 512-2249 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (626) 512-2249 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Our interns are awesome.

Super Awesome Interns

Eric is a high school intern who wants to pursue a career in medicine and public service, with Dr. Bera as a worthy role model. One day, I take Eric out canvassing in the local neighborhood to knock on doors. Although shy and mild-mannered at first, Eric finally musters up the courage to go it alone and talks to three undecided voters, all of whom decide to vote for Dr. Bera. I really enjoy seeing him realize the power that he has to help our voters make the right decisions.

Alagu is a young leader in her high school who organized an all-night dance-a-thon for charity. She regularly shows up wearing football jerseys or board-game costumes to match her weekly themes at school. She also wants to become a doctor and has a huge heart. Alagu is such a confident, poised young woman and I can already envision her running for office someday or assuming a major leadership position.

Our interns make phone calls to voters, greet our volunteers, train them how to phone bank, confirm our next day’s volunteers, and bring in many of their classmates to volunteer. They contribute so much and help out our staff greatly; we cheer loudly every time they enter the door because they are so invaluable!

We also began to engage in some lively competitions between the interns and regular staff. It started with the number of calls they make each day but we recently started a daily challenge to see who can guess correctly the artist, title and album of every song that is played on our Pandora station. There are some fierce competitors in this office, yelling loudly and fighting to poach easy wins off of other’s guesses, just to get our name on the all-time charts. I am currently tied at third all-time and feel older than ever as these kids refer to my favorite music as oldies and classics.

Whenever I look at the youthful office, I feel assured the election of Obama in 2008 was the civil rights movement for our generation. These young high schoolers and college students care passionately about the world around them and want to see leaders who represent them. Our district is ready for change and these youth are at the front lines, dedicating all their spare time to make it happen. They are just as inspiring and invigorating as our candidate, and should give us all great hope for our future.

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Volunteer for Dr. Ami Bera, one of Time Magazine’s “Top Races to Watch” and one of the best opportunities to unseat a sitting Republican this year. You can make online phone calls from home so that our local volunteers can knock on doors and make the personal contacts. Visit http://www.beraforcongress.com/page/s/websignup to sign up as a volunteer or contact Brian Wang at brian@beraforcongress.com or (626) 512-2249 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (626) 512-2249 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

(Cross-posted from aapidemocrats.com)

Voting can be an intimidating experience for Americans with limited English proficiency, who may face discrimination and disenfranchisement. Attorneys and law students with language skills can help protect the vote at the polls on Election Day, by signing up at: http://my.democrats.org/page/content/voter_protection_signup.

If you are interested in helping with limited English proficient and Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, please write “AAPI VP Task Force” in the “other” category after the language selection.

Help Recruit Bilingual Volunteers in Key States:

The DNC National Lawyers Council is assisting in recruiting Asian American, Pacific Islander, and bilingual attorneys and law students for voter protection activities. If you are interested in joining these recruitment efforts, contact Anna Chu or Van Luong, co-chairs of the AAPI Voter Protection Task Force at the DNC National Lawyers Council, at anna.l.chu@gmail.com or loung_van@yahoo.com. Our target states are California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

Key Contacts:

Anna Chu
Co-Chair, AAPI Voter Protection Task Force
DNC National Lawyers Council
415-246-8138
anna.l.chu@gmail.com

Van Luong
Co-Chair, AAPI Voter Protection Task Force
DNC National Lawyers Council
luong_van@yahoo.com

The momentum is strongly in our favor and many experts have raised our campaign as one of the most likely races to defeat a GOP incumbent this year. We are poised to take this victory and everyone can envision our success. The third Congressional District in Sacramento is less than ten percent Asian and/or Pacific Islander, according to the most recent Census data, and new immigrants (e.g., Latinos, Asians and Pacific Islanders) are the least likely to vote of all ethnic groups. We need to make our voices heard and elect a leader who reflects the true diversity of our community.

With just one month left before Election Day, now is the time to get involved. You can make a huge impact on this race and help preserve the Democratic majority in the House. You can make phone calls from your home or office in any part of the country, as long as you have a computer with internet access. If you can help make phone calls, we can send more volunteers to knock on doors and make the one-on-one personal connections with voters that are more likely to result in getting their support. Our volunteers and interns are the reason why Dr. Bera will win this year and we will win with your help!

Commitment to Service

Please contact me at brian@beraforcongress.com or 626-512-2249 if you are interested in volunteering or being an intern during these last two weeks of the campaign. We are looking for leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to service and we hope you will get involved!

I wake up every morning around 8 am, shower quickly and jump into the car. I head over to work where I sit in an office until about 11 pm every night. We spend most of the day making calls to recruit volunteers, training volunteers how to phone bank, attending events to recruit volunteers, and organizing events for our volunteers to recruit their friends. You can see that our volunteers are certainly the core of our campaign. The grassroots energy is infectious and truly heartwarming.

A super-volunteer drops by with a box of donuts and bags of chips for our phone bankers. Another super-volunteer helps us take out the trash and comes by with a bucket and mop to help clean the restroom for us! After just a couple weeks, I am already greeting our regulars when they step inside the door as if I am having a reunion with my old college buddies. Interns on their way back to college are given farewell hugs and cheers go up in the office every time a caller makes her hundredth call or contacts a supporter.

The day passes by quickly and although we are hard at work, racing to meet deadlines or goals – our teams are drama-free and handle our stress with a strong dose of humor. The group is tight-knit and we laugh throughout the day, doing embarrassing dances to celebrate the scheduling of a new volunteer shift or sharing awesome answering machine messages with each other. One evening, we attend a youth concert hosted by the local Democratic Party in Sacramento. The dance floor is relatively empty for the first couple songs but my field organizers grab some signs and start dancing, getting other attendees to jump up and join the fun. This is the young, energetic rock-star campaign to join this year and we are not afraid to show it!

On Sunday, September 26, I attend a candidates’ forum at Sacramento State University, hosted by APAPA, the APIA Public Affairs Association. Again, I am extremely impressed by the turnout of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Several hundred Californians, most of them of AAPI descent, fill a large auditorium to hear speakers such as Senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina speak to the audience.

A Nation of Immigrants

Dr. Bera delivers an impassioned speech that leaves a palpable buzz in the crowd. They did not expect such a strong and inspiring performance after some of the other speeches. We recruit a good group of high school students to sign up as volunteers and interns. I meet some folks who don’t live in the area but want to donate, and I am not surprised that Dr. Bera has outraised his rival, the Republican incumbent. As the son of Indian immigrants, Dr. Bera values hard work and appreciates the sacrifices made by older generations who immigrated to America to give their children better opportunities. I am proud to be working on behalf of an AAPI candidate who knows and understands where he comes from and embraces his unique culture and heritage.

Democrat Ami Bera is running a strong campaign against incumbent GOP Congressman Dan Lungren of California’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes most of Sacramento County, all of Alpine, Amador and Calaveras counties, and part of Solano County.

Elk Grove, Calif.-resident “Bera has been an Associate Dean for Admissions at the UC Davis School of Medicine and was the former Chief Medical Officer for the County of Sacramento,” wrote India Journal in an article last Friday, which included a Q&A with Dr. Bera.

More than having a strong chance at unseating an incumbent Republican Congressman, Dr. Bera is running against an elected official with a shameful track record of opposition to civil rights and issues important to people of color.

Almost 25 years ago, a coalition of Asian American individuals and organizations formed to oppose Lungren’s appointment as Calif. state Treasurer, citing his voting record as “anti-minority, anti-civil rights, anti-women, anti-poor and anti-elderly,” the Los Angeles Times quoted Donald K. Tamaki, a San Francisco attorney and spokesman for coalition. “He is a radical, an extremist on many positions.” (See the full article pasted below.)

A quarter-century later, Lungren’s been taking pay raises, double dipping into tax funds and plagued by ethics issues.

Visit Dr. Bera’s website and find out how you can be a part of firing Dan Lungren from Congress.
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My first three weeks as a AAA-Fund Campaign Fellow for the Ami Bera campaign have been a whirlwind. I land in Sacramento on Saturday night, September 11th, and show up for Orientation at the campaign office in Elk Grove on Sunday morning. The first thing I notice when I knock on the door is that I am greeted by an Asian American. Scott Matsumoto, an intern and staff member at Dr. Bera’s office for the past four months, opened the door for me and introduced himself. As the afternoon progresses, I find myself surprised once again to see so many diverse individuals coming in to volunteer with the campaign. People of all ages, races, religions, political affiliations, abilities and sexual orientations are extremely well-represented in this office.

The energetic vibe and diverse makeup of the volunteer base reminds me much of the Obama campaign. Later that afternoon, Dr. Bera drops by to visit the volunteers and grab some pretzels to snack on. Instantly, the enthusiasm of our volunteers rises another notch as volunteers glance excitedly behind them and take pictures on their cell phones while other volunteers rapidly finish their messages.

The Rock Star Campaign

Dr. Bera is a rock-star candidate. He has the charisma, the buzz, and the “it” factor that separates certain candidates above the rest. I have met many AAPI and non-AAPI elected officials and there are a lot of dorky, socially awkward ones, who have the best of intentions but we all agree that they still need to hone their social skills. Dr. Bera is a natural; he exudes confidence and warmth. I stand up to shake his hand nervously myself, then realize I’m starstruck and tell myself to regain my composure. I am a professional, a staff member, and I need to get back to making phone calls while Dr. Bera chats with our volunteers.

– Brian Wang

From the Office of Public Engagement:

On Monday, November 2^nd at 3:30 p.m. EST, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett will hold an extended online chat to discuss how health insurance reform will impact minority communities and all Americans.  Submit your questions now at http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ope/webform/valerie-jarrett-health-insurance-reform-all-americans, or join us on Monday here at WhiteHouse.gov or at Facebook.com/WhiteHouse to submit your question live during the discussion.

Cross-posted from Reappropriate:

The Washington Post is running a series called “Voices of Power” wherein top White House staffers are interviewed about their positions in the Obama administration. Today, the Post published video and a transcript of their conversation with Chris Lu, who, as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary, is one of the most prominent Asian Americans in the White House.

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