April 18th, New York City: The Asian American Federation of New York hosted a policy breakfast meeting today with New York City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Democratic candidate for Mayor in this year�s election. Over 50 civic and business leaders from the Asian American communities of New York attended the event, the second in a series of meetings between the Asian American Federation and New York City mayoral candidates. The Policy Breakfast Series was initiated by the Federation to ensure that City significantly address Asian American community concerns this year.

In his introduction, Cao K. O, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation stated, "Asian Americans now constitute over 10% of the New York City population. We as a community must increase our voting power and play a more meaningful role in the election of Mayor." He added, "As part of the process, we need to find out not only how each candidate is good for the future of the City, but also for the future of Asian New Yorkers."

Moderated by Nora Chang Wang, former Commissioner of the Department of Employment under Mayor Giuliani, the meeting began with opening remarks from Speaker Vallone. Mr. Vallone stressed his experience in New York City government and outlined a number of priorities including public safety, education, and affordable housing. In addition, he cited the passage of the Campaign Finance Reform bill twelve years ago as a major accomplishment during his tenure as Council Speaker. "If this is supposed to be a country that says that everyone has the opportunity to run for office, how can you do that if someone can spend $40 million on his campaign, and the playing field is not level?" The new law, which has repeatedly been challenged by the Mayor, matches private contributions to candidates for Council and citywide elections. The Speaker added "with this law, it isn�t going to be about who has the most amount of money - it�s going to be about who has the best ideas - and it�s a four-to-one match."

A panel of experts then asked for responses to questions concerning issues of significant concern to the Asian American communities, including education, housing, economic development, support for senior citizens, and voting rights. The panelists were: Ms. Sayu Bhojwani, Executive Director of South Asian Youth Action; Ms. Margaret Fung, Executive Director of Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Mr. Myong Juch, former president of the Korean American Grocers� Association; Mr. Kwang Suk Kim, Executive Director, Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York; and Mr. Christopher Kui, Executive Director of Asian Americans for Equality. The last part of the meeting allowed some time for questions from the attendees.

After the meeting, Parag Khandhar, Policy Associate at the Asian American Federation stated, "The Federation Policy Breakfast Series is a strong first step for the community to engage in an active dialogue with each candidate for citywide office." Khandhar added, "Asian American New Yorkers have a vested interest in who will be elected to represent them. The Asian American Federation will make certain that community interests are on every elected official�s agenda."

The Asian American Federation of New York is a not-for-profit leadership organization with 36 member agencies that serve the city�s diverse Asian American communities. In addition to extensive community capacity-building initiatives, the Federation manages the Asian American Community Fund and represents the diverse Asian American community in the public policy arena by connecting community concerns with substantive policy analysis and action. For more information, please visit our website: www.aafny.org.

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