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Redistricting:
Its Impact on Asian Americans
Part 1: The Importance of the Census
by Jeffrey Yong

This past fall the first Asian American in New York City history was elected when John Liu won his race for New York City Council from the 20th District in Flushing.  This was a historic occurrence and might very well have signaled the arrival of Asian Americans as a force within New York City politics.  However, something which is happening now, but began in 2000, could negatively impact that historic beginning.  What could do that, you might ask?  The answer is the constitutionally required process of redistricting, which occurs every ten years.  One census redistricting proposal currently being considered for the 20th District would seemingly aim to insure that John Liu is the last Asian American elected from that district.  But before we can get into that we need a little background, which is the topic of the first article of this series.

2000 was a big year for American's.  Not only was it the beginning of a new century, a Presidential and Congressional election year, but also the year when all American’s participated in a national Census.  Now the Census is not just a massive project undertaken by the government every ten years for the sole purpose of finding out how many Americans there are, but also serves other much more important purposes. Those other purposes actually and directly impact on all Asians in the US in some way, including fiscally for your neighborhood and community, and much more importantly politically.  Let me explain.

The Census is what the government uses to determine how much federal money is to be distributed to each state and community when it comes time to determine the budget.  Through a complex formula written into every funding bill, the Census numbers serve as the base number for how much your city, your county, and your state will get from any particular federally funded program, like federal Medicare funding and highway funding.  The big idea here is the more people in your state, the more money your state gets from the Federal government.  That’s why states spend so much money urging people to fill out their census surveys and why there was so much fuss over how to figure out how many people in each state did not fill out and return their surveys.  The more people who neglect to fill out the census the less money your state and local government gets.  So lesson number one: Fill out your census!

However, beyond the fiscal importance of the Census, the biggest impact, at least in this writer’s opinion, is the political importance.  For it is the numbers from the Census that are used to determine the Congressional, State Senate, State Assembly, and local elective office districts within every state.  Following the final tally of the Census every ten years, every state redraws district lines for every elective office based on population changes and shifts which have occurred in the last ten years.  That’s what happened ten years ago in 1990 and that is what is happening now.  For every district where you have a representative, the lines of your districts are being redrawn.

This is the importance of the Census.  The results of this survey every ten years determines how many representatives your state gets and where the lines of your local elective district are.  But beyond this, it is where these lines are placed which can play a very important role in whether minorities, not just Asians, though Asians are included, have a chance to be represented in the various legislative branches. Redistricting can create districts where minorities, such as Asians, are the majority of voters in that district, increasing the chances of getting a minority member elected, or districts can be drawn to minimize minorities in each district and insure the continuation of the status quo in our legislative bodies.

This is exactly what is happening right now, and what we will examine more in future articles in this series.  We'll look at current plans for redistricting in New York City in regards to City Council Districts and how one specific proposal will directly impact the future chances of getting an Asian into the City Council.  This particular proposal affects the 20^th New York City Council District and would cut the district in half -  essentially dividing the Asians into two separate districts, diluting their strength as a voting block, and making it harder to elect any Asian American at all. 

In future issues we will examine the impact of this proposal on future elections, what we can do to make sure this proposal doesn’t pass, and the success Asians have had in the district in the most recent council election with the historic election of John Liu as not only the first Asian American member of the New York City Council, but the first Asian American elected to any major office in New York State.

This is Part 1 of a multi-part series on redistricting and Asian Americans by Jeffrey Yong who has been involved in local and state politics since 1996, taking part in the 1996 Congressional and Presidential elections, 2001 NYC Mayoral Elections, as well as having interned with the Office of US Senator Chuck (Charles E.) Schumer.  He is a graduating senior at SBU whose dream is to also become a US Senator.