Indian-Americans on the 2010 American Political Scene

By now, even the most apolitical person has seen the Indian-American Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. And many people have also heard the name of Nikki Haley, the Republican candidate for Governor of South Carolina, who jumped from last to first in the Republican field after an endorsement from a certain former Governor of Alaska. In a recent opinion piece in The Daily Beast, Tunku Varadarajan writes that Jindal and Haley are "exploding racial attitudes-and why the Dems don't get it."

I guess when Varadarajan wasn't paying attention, the Boston Globe and Christian Science Monitor were both paying attention. The Boston Globe ran this article titled Record number of Indian-Americans seeking office, while the Christian Science Monitor ran The rise of the Indian-American candidate, as Nikki Haley and others run. Contradicting Varadarajan's claim of how the Democrats "don't get it", the articles point out that there are actually SIX Democratic candidates for the United States House of Representatives and an organizations like the Indian American Leadership Initiative and US India Political Action Committee are actively promoting Indian-Americans on the political scene.

The Indian-Americans running for Congress are:
Dr. Manan Trivedi (PA - 6th District)
Reshma Saujani (NY - 14th)
Raj Goyle (KS -4th)
Dr. Ami Bera (CA - 3rd)
Ravi Sangisetty (LA - 3rd)
Surya Yalamanchili (OH - 2nd)

Also, one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party, Kamala Harris, is considered the favorite to win as California's Attorney General. Harris is the daughter of a Black father and Indian mother and has often been spoken of as a future presidential candidate in Democratic circles.

So even though the two most prominent Indian-American politicians are Republicans, they are clearly outnumbered by the Democrats this year. And regardless of your political affiliation, it is important to see Americans of all shapes and stripes making their own impact on our great American democratic experiment that has existed for 234 years and counting!

This and that...

Just a couple of quick thoughts on the past few hours/days in politics:

• Obama's speech has been analyzed to death. Politico has a nice review of what Obama was saying between the lines.
• Jindal was just plain weak. He's been analyzed to death too. There's a reason I call him the Indian Clarence Thomas: extreme right-wing ultra-conservative that doesn't say much but when he does say something he sounds like an idiot.
• I don't know anything about Gary Locke other than his Democratic response to one of W.'s State of the Union addresses. I reached out to a friend in Washington state to get his thoughts but haven't heard back.

That's it for now. More when I get another chance...