U.S.A. November 5, 2018 THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7 More diverse Orange County, California, morphs from GOP past By Michael R. Blood The Associated Press ULLERTON, Calif. — Pushy midday shoppers nose their carts through the Korean market, stocking up on bottled kimchi and seaweed spring rolls. A few doors away, customers grab pho to go at a Vietnamese takeout counter. Across the street, lunchtime diners line up for tacos “al pastor” — spit-roasted pork — at a Mexican-style taqueria. It’s a snapshot of how much Orange County, California, has changed. For decades, the county southeast of Los Angeles represented an archetype of middle-class America, a place whose name evoked a “Brady Bunch” conformity set amid free- ways, megachurches, and Disney- land’s spires. The mostly white, conservative homeowners voted with timeclock regularity for Republican candidates like Richard Nixon, whose getaway from Washington, the Western White House, sat on the coast. The Korean barbecue shops and Mexican bakeries along Orange- thorpe Avenue in Fullerton are a signpost of the shifting demographics and politics that have emboldened Democrats eager to flip four Republican-held U.S. House seats in Orange County. The districts, partly or completely within the county, went to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and have become closely watched national battlegrounds as part of Democrats’ strategy to retake it in November. In an election season shaped by divisions over President Donald Trump and the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct, perhaps the most telling evidence of the changing county is in the 39th Congressional District. The seat is held by long-serving Republican representative Ed Royce, a pillar of the Washington establishment who, like most of his party’s nearly all-male leadership in congress, is older and white. The contest to succeed the retiring congressman is between two very different candidates: Young Kim, a South Korean immigrant Republican woman, and Gil Cisneros, a Hispanic Democratic man. The racially mixed ballot has opened questions about the relevance of party labels, race, and the inclination to embrace one’s own. It comes as Hispanics and Asians together now make up the majority of Orange County’s 3.2 million people. In 1980, about 80 percent of the population was white. The once-dominant Republican Party also is clinging to a tissue-thin edge over Democrats in voter regis- tration numbers — a dropoff that reflects not just the arrival of new faces but their more liberal politics. Kim is trying to become the first Korean-American woman elected to congress. She represents the kind of candidate the state GOP has been trying to cultivate for years to reflect a more diverse population. F BELOVED RESIDENT. This undated photo shows Asian elephant Sujatha at the Santa Barbara Zoo in Santa Barbara, California. The zoo said it had to euthanize Sujatha, one of its most beloved and oldest resi- dents, after experiencing declining health for the past few years. (Santa Barbara Zoo via AP) California zoo euthanizes beloved 47-year-old elephant SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A California zoo had to euthanize one of its most beloved and oldest residents, a 47-year-old Asian elephant named Sujatha, officials said. Sujatha was euthanized in her enclosure surrounded by her caretakers at the Santa Barbara Zoo. CEO Rich Block said in a video posted on Twitter that Sujatha’s death “is perhaps the most difficult moment” in his 20 years at the facility. “And I know for the people that care for the elephants this may be the toughest moment in their entire career,” Block said. “There is no way to describe the sadness that is felt.” Sujatha had been in declining health for the past few years but was able to live comfortably with treatment, Block said. Her wellbeing declined precipitously in the past couple weeks and she stopped responding to treatment, he said. Sujatha and her female companion, Little Mac, arrived at the zoo from India in 1972, when they were just one-and-a-half years old, and they’ve lived together ever since. After Sujatha was euthanized, zoo officials said they allowed Little Mac to visit her in hopes of helping the grieving process. Zoo officials say elephants are known to grieve for their companions and that if Little Mac is too distraught, she could have to be moved to another facility. Block praised Sujatha and Little Mac for being “ambassadors for Asian elephants in Santa Barbara for 46 years.” “Children who first met them in the 1970s have brought their own children, and some even their grandchildren, to meet these wonderful creatures,” Block said in a statement. “We are grateful to Sujatha and Little Mac for how they have enriched all our lives.” ASTHMA IS ON THE RISE. Help us find a cure. 1-800-LUNG-USA TALKING STORY IN ASIAN AMERICA Tu Phan Branch Manager, NMLS #7916 Call about refinances & purchases Offering FHA/VA/Conventional Mortgages (503) 780-6872 DIVERSE RACE. Young Kim, a candidate running for a U.S. House seat in the 39th District in California, talks to volunteers working an evening phone bank at her campaign office in Yorba Linda, California. Kim is trying to become the first Korean-American woman elected to congress. A sign of the change is in the 39th District, where the Korean immigrant Republican, Kim, is running against Gil Cisneros, a Hispanic Democrat. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) Kim, 55, was born in South Korea block in the modern conservative and grew up in Guam, then later movement and the rise of the Reagan came to California for college. She revolution. became a small-business owner and Fullerton, like Orange County, was was elected to the state assembly. once known for groves of Valencia She’s running as Royce’s preferred oranges that blanketed its landscape successor after working for him for and oil fields that lay beneath it. That years, but her path is complicated by changed with the development of Trump, who is unpopular in a state California’s freeway system, which where Democrats hold every created the transportation arteries statewide office and a 39-14 that gave rise to a vast Sunbelt advantage in house seats. suburbia. Kim talked up the robust economy After World War II, jobs in defense at a recent campaign stop, but she’s and manufacturing were plentiful. also emphasizing her independence The population boomed, and many of from the White House on issues like the new arrivals were from the trade. She’s not in favor of increased Midwest, and conservative in their tariffs imposed by the administra- outlook. tion. Those voters, alienated by the rise She never mentioned the president of national liberalism, “ended up in a brief speech. building the Ronald Reagan move- “I’m a different kind of candidate,” ment,” said Raphael Sonenshein, exe- she said. cutive director of the Pat Brown Insti- As a Democrat, Cisneros, 47, knows tute for Public Affairs at California he’s the face of change in the State University, Los Angeles. long-held GOP district, anchored in Several trends have been making northern Orange County and the county more favorable for running through slices of neighboring Democrats over time, said Paul Los Angeles and San Bernardino Mitchell of Political Data Inc., a counties. He sees shifting nonpartisan research firm. Among demographics as an asset: the district them: more Latinos and Asians are has grown about equally divided registering as independents and between Republicans, Democrats, fewer as Republicans. and independents, as it is with Much of that can be attributed to Asians, Hispanics, and whites. the preferences of younger Cisneros, a Navy veteran and Californians, who have been one-time Republican who won a eschewing major-party labels. $266-million lottery jackpot with his Another big change is with the wife, describes his candidacy as the voting habits of Asians. A surge in next step in a life committed to public immigration from Southeast Asia in service, which started with his time the post-Vietnam War years brought in the military. He has said he left the in a wave of strongly anti-communist GOP because it became deeply voters. But younger Asians grew up conservative, adding in a recent in a different era. interview that voters are eager to see Millennial Asians “are some of the a change in gridlocked Washington. most liberal voters in the state,” “This is not the same district that it Mitchell said. was 15, or even 10 years ago,” he said. On a recent afternoon outside a Orange County might seem like an library in Yorba Linda — the city unlikely battleground in the fight to where Nixon was born and where his control congress. In popular culture, presidential library was built — it is a place often reduced to initials, 76-year-old retired computer “the O.C.,” and a stereotype: a programmer Don Jacques of Brea wealthy enclave of buff residents said he welcomes the diversity on the living in conspicuous excess on hill- ballot. The registered Democrat and sides overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Cisneros supporter has lived in the Overlooked is the county’s political county since childhood. pedigree: Its Republican-rich “It’s about time for this kind of suburbs are seen as a foundation change,” Jacques said. 12817 S.E. 93rd Ave. Clackamas, OR 97015 n Polo Polo’s “Talking Story” column will return soon. Copyright©2018 Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation. NMLS#2289. 4750 S. Biltmore Lane, Madison, WI 53718, 1-877-699-0353. All rights reserved. Fairway is not affiliated with any government agencies. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and were not approved by HUD or a government agency. This is not an offer to enter into an agreement. Not all customers will qualify. Information, rates and programs are subject to change without notice. All products are subject to credit and property approval. Other restrictions and limitations may apply. Equal Housing Lender. The Asian Reporter is published on the first & third Monday each month. 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