Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View

It's the weekend before the primary elections, and Stan Matsunaka is dining with a small group of supporters at the Imperial Chinese restaurant in Denver.

He seems energized as much by the company of the 20-some Asian Americans - Chinese, Japanese, Thai - around him as by the six-course meal served up by the restaurant's owner, Johnny Hsu. Matsunaka is animated and forceful both in dinner conversation and in an impromptu Q&A session after the meal. Other curious diners in the restaurant look on, wondering about the man standing in the middle of the room in his Oxford shirt and loosened tie, waving his arms and pounding his fist into his palm to underscore a point.

This isn't how Asians are supposed to be - at the dinner, Matsunaka isn't quiet, pious and accommodating. People could tell he wants something, and that he wants it badly enough to make a spectacle of himself, a decidedly un-Asian sight.

Matsunaka realizes that as a Japanese American in public office, he's a minority within a minority. "There were two things I was taught when I was growing up: never talk about yourself, and never ask your friends for money. But in politics you end up having to do both," he says with a chuckle.

A native Coloradoan born in Fort Morgan, Matsunaka has been a Democratic State Senator representing State District 15 in northern Colorado since winning the office in 1994 as an underdog. When the Democrats won the majority in 2000, he was elected president of the Senate. After a brief candidacy running for governor, Matsunaka earlier this year switched campaigns to run as the US Congress from Colorado's 4th District, representing a vast area that encompasses much of eastern quarter of the state.

Matsunaka didn't have a challenger for the primaries - he watched the two Republican candidates go at it, hoping for Marilyn Musgrave, a conservative, anti-abortion, pro-guns Republican, to win the contest. And she did, making Matsunaka's task heading into November much easier than if he were fighting against a moderate Republican. The task was also made a little more easy by the entrance of a Libertarian candidate into the race, who will probably erode some of the Republican's support.

This isn't how Asians are supposed to be - at the dinner, Matsunaka isn't quiet, pious and accommodating.

But at the pre-primary dinner, Matsunaka is not taking his presumed opponent for granted, nor the sprint to the general elections. Although he has the backing of the national Democratic leadership, including the blessings of house leader Richard Gephardt who urged him to run, Matsunaka knows the next two months of campaigning will be tough. He won't simply assume that his district's more moderate Republicans would vote for him instead of Musgrave, even though he has a solid record as a fiscal conservative. And, he knows that Musgrave will come out of the primaries swinging herself - flush with support from the national Republican party.

"After Tuesday the Republican money will come in," he warns. "I'm still the underdog, because this district has been a Republican seat for over 30 years."

Larimer County is the most solidly Republican county in the state. But being the underdog didn't keep him in 1994 from running for - and winning - the state senate seat from an incumbent Republican. As Senate President, the first Asian America in the position, Matsunaka built a bi-partisan state lawmaking body, working in concert with the decidedly Republican Gov. Owens.

His Congressional campaign touts the issues and positions you'd expect to hear from a moderate Democrat running in a conservative district: He's concerned about healthcare and state and federal budget cuts, civil rights vs. national security. He'll fight for schools for the next generation of leaders. He wants affordable and accessible health care. In a nod to his constituents, he wants a forward-looking rural agenda. And, he's afraid that talk of war with Iraq is based more on economics than security.

"I have three children, and two are in college. I'm very concerned about them if we go to war," he says. "Each generation has to make a decision for their children."

Matsunaka is also keenly aware of his heritage, not just as a fourth-generation Coloradoan, but also as a Japanese American. He often cites "Go for Broke," the motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Japanese American group of World War II soldiers that included his father, as a slogan for his career. The media have picked up on the slogan to the point where it doesn't have much meaning, but when he looks you in the eye and says he's living those words, he comes across quite sincere in his convictions. "Going for broke means we're pretty much putting everything in it," he states.

He's also sincere when he cautions against any racial backlash in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, bristling at a question about interning people of Middle Eastern heritage. "I say not just 'no' but 'HELL NO,'" he says. "It didn't work back then (with Japanese Americans during WWII) and it won't work now."

With such issues, Matsunaka keenly feels the need for more Asian Pacific Americans working within the American political system. He jokes about how if he's elected the APA caucus in Congress would increase by 25 percent, but he adds seriously that Asians need to realize they can be a political force.

"Asians make up a little less than 3 percent of the state's population, but they can be really influential if they band together as a group," he says. He believes in building coalitions between various Asian communities, and appreciates the support of the pan-Asian group dining with him at the Imperial.

He notes there are several younger Asians at the end of the table. He especially would like young Asian Pacific Americans to get interested in politics, and says he speaks to student groups every chance he gets to try and inspire them to enter public life. They may not be interested now, he says but, "there will be a time in your life when you'll need to know how to be political."

For more information about Stan Matsunaka's run for Congress, you can visit the campaign's Web site.

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Copyright 1998-2002 by Gil Asakawa -- not for use without permission.
Contact me if you'd like to run "Nikkei View" in your publication.
Thanks for reading!

ARCHIVES

WILL COLORADO SEND AN ASIAN TO CONGRESS?

Copyright 1998-2002 by Gil Asakawa -- not for use without permission. Contact me if you'd like to run "Nikkei View" in your publication. Thanks for reading!

Copyright 1998-2002 by Gil Asakawa -- not for use without permission.
Contact me if you'd like to run "Nikkei View" in your publication.
Thanks for reading!