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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(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

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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By Keith Kamisugi, Curtis Chin and Mike Fong

October’s Filipino American History Month is an opportune time for other Asian American communities to evaluate our progress in supporting the efforts of Filipino Americans in achieving fair and more equal representation for their community in politics.

One glaring fact demonstrates why this issue is ripe for discussion: no Filipino American has ever been elected to the California State Assembly, a body representing a state that is home to approximately 60 percent of Americans of Filipino heritage.

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The AP Seattle Times reports that a senior administration official says that President Barack Obama’s likely pick for Commerce secretary is former Washington Gov. Gary Locke.

And from POLITICO: “Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.) tells POLITICO that she heard former Gov. Gary Locke (D-Wash.) floated as a nominee for Commerce Secretary in a one-on-one conversation she had at the NGA meeting with another governor.”

And more from The Fix.

Gov. Locke was the first Asian American governor of a Mainland state and the first Chinese American governor in the country. Gov. George Ariyoshi (D-HI) was our country’s first Asian American governor (1974-1986); his successor, John Waihee (D-HI) was our first Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian governor (1986-1994) and Benjamin Cayateno (D-HI) was our first Filipino American governor (1994-2000).

UPDATE:  Article in tomorrow’s Washington Post.

UPDATE (Feb. 24, 5:30 p.m. ET): AP is reporting that President Obama will in fact appoint Gov. Locke to SecCommerce.  Official announcement expected tomorrow.

Asian Pacific Americans for Progress PAC (APAP PAC) today announced the launch of its Glen S. Fukushima Campaign Fellowship and the placement of the Fellow with Dr. Judy Chu’s campaign for California’s 32nd Congressional District, which will be vacant should current Congresswoman Hilda Solis resign to become the U.S. Secretary of Labor.

The campaign fellowship is made possible through a donation by Glen. S. Fukushima, a former Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Japan and China at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Executive Office of the President.

APAP PAC is currently accepting applications. Go to www.apaforprogress.org/apap-pac to learn more and apply. Applications are due on Feb. 28, 2009, at 11 p.m. Pacific Time.

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David Hou invited me to write this for ningin.com, a site covering Asian media and pop culture.

A Black man born in Hawai’i with an Asian sister was sworn into office Tuesday as our President. He took the oath of office on the same bible used by Abraham Lincoln for the exact same oath 148 years ago, realizing the dreams of countless African Americans and others who previously never imagined this moment.

President Barack Obama now leads our country into uncertain and troubled times. But he begins work on our nation’s ills with unprecedented numbers of Asian Americans in substantive roles in this Administration.

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Less than an hour ago, Obama supporter David Chiu was elected the President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

David was elected Supervisor this past November in District 3 of San Francisco, which covers the northeastern quadrant of the city, including Chinatown, Union Square, North Beach, the FIsherman’s Wharf area and the FInancial District.

In addition to being the first Chinese American elected from the district, he becomes the first Chinese American to serve as board president.

Coverage here in the Chronicle and the Bay Area Reporter.

UPDATE: Post by Valerie Soe on David and Eric Mar, also an early Obama supporter.

The Vietnam Veterans of America today described President-elect Obama’s selection of Gen. Eric Shinseki as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs a “promising choice” citing Shinseki’s “integrity and personal fortitude to usher in the real changes needed to make the VA a true steward of our nation’s veterans and their families.”

“Veterans of all political persuasions should take heart and applaud this choice,” said John Rowan, the organization’s national president.

Shinseki would be only the third Asian American appointed to a Cabinet position, following Norman Mineta’s tenure at both Commerce and Transportation and Elaine Chao’s stint at Labor.

Veterans Affairs is the second largest department in the federal government, established 20 years ago this coming March by President Reagan.

The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder mistakenly noted that Shinseki’s name was absent from any speculation of potential nominees. Dale Minami and Maeley Tom both mentioned Shinseki as a superbly qualified Cabinet member.

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The NY Daily News reported yesterday that soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton passed up an offer to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee, which was just relinquished by Sen. Robert Byrd of W. Va. The article failed to mention that Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawai’i was being tapped to succeed Byrd and that the move would have been a seismic break with Senate leadership tradition.

But given that the article cited no sources, even anonymous ones, and that no other news outlet independently reported this, the account was most likely vapornews.

The article’s omission of Inouye and his role in the musical chairs makes me wonder how, or if, Sen. Inouye will break his practice of working mostly under the radar as Appropriations chair. The Senator has never sought the spotlight and he’s not one of those making the Sunday talk show rounds.

Being quiet and effective as a politician is maybe not as lauded today as it was in another era of Hawai’i politics. “Quiet and effective” was in fact a camapign slogan for Hawai’i Gov. George Ariyoshi, who became the country’s first Asian American governor.

Sen. Inouye’s style of leadership on the high-profile committee may be perfect for the new Obama era and our tough economic times: we need more things getting done without all the political posturing.