Background & Summary of Esther Lee's Campaign
Background & Summary of Esther Lee's Campaign
My active involvement in the Republican Party did not inspire me to run for public office. Although I had been very active in the Republican Party since 1980, I never dreamed about running for public office because of my language and cultural “differences.” I have mentioned earlier regarding my initial involvement in community affairs in spring 1972 and political arena in 1978. Unexpected, I was encouraged to run for Congress at the suggestion of Ron Kaufman, the political director of President Bush’s White House in 1991.
My service to the Bush Administration led to my congressional race. I was appointed to serve President Bush as the Deputy Director of the OBEMLA (Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs) of the US Department of Education in June 1990. It was not a comparable appointment because I supported Senator Robert Dole instead of President Bush during the GOP Primary in 1998. The major reasons for me to take sides with a non-Texan in Texas were: 1) Senator’s recognition of Asian Americans’ accomplishments in the USA and 2) His desire to involve Asian Americans’ in the political and legislative process. In order to seek a better appointment during Bush’s second term to commemorate with my credentials and background I wanted to campaign hard to cumulate a lot of “chips” for President Bush’s reelection. In early spring 1991, I went to see Mr. Kaufman and sought his advice regarding my role in the upcoming reelection of President Bush. I asked him if I should stay in Washington, DC or return back to Houston to campaign for President Bush. Since President Bush’s popularity was in the peak after the victory of the Desert Storm, Ron felt the President was very safe to be reelected without any problems. However, he pointed out that the Democratic controlled Congress needed more Republicans to support President’s legislative agenda. He suggested that I run for Congress in Houston.
It was a struggle for me whether I should take Ron’s advice. I prayed and analyzed a lot after the meeting with him. I even retreated to the Holiday Inn in Chevy Chase in NW of Washington, DC to seek God’s guidance. Finally, I decided to run as a calling and mission in the summer of 1991. I felt it was about the time for Chinese Americans to be visible in the national political arena and especially the Republican Party. At that time, there was no Chinese American congressman representing the growing Chinese American population in the US. Most of Chinese or Asian American elected officials at state level was affiliated with the Democratic Party including all Japanese American legislators in Congress. Yes, I did want to win the race. However, I was not afraid to lose because I strongly believed that the foundation I laid would lead Chinese/Asian Americans to higher ground. It was my goal to inspire and galvanize the Chinese/Asian Americans, particularly the younger generation, regardless of the outcome of my campaign. I believed that like building a pyramid, every bit of political participation would carry us closer to the top.
There were three political factors that were advantageous to my candidacy: 1) Redistricting in Texas after the 1990 census added three more congressional seats. My district consisted more middle class and professional voters than before. 2) The coattail of a popular Republican President would enhance the victory of a Republican candidate. 3) The 1992 GOP National Convention held in Houston would provide Republican candidates with more media exposure than usual.
Immediately, I contacted my friends around the country to organize fund raising events. I resigned from the US DOE position and resumed teaching at the University of Houston/Clear Lake (UHCL). Before I stepped down as the Deputy Director, I was invited by the UHCL president to be their summer commencement speaker in August, 1991.
I launched my fundraising efforts among Chinese Americans throughout the country in the fall, 1991. There were 14 out-of-town fundraising dinners held in major cities, i.e., New York City, Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, CA, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Phoenix, Chicago, Albany, NY, Dallas, and Washington, DC. Being a columnist of the Chinese daily newspaper World Journal with worldwide circulation, and a political activist in Texas attracted and galvanized many Chinese immigrants. I advocated the dire need for Chinese Americans to take part in the mainstream politics based on the historical lessons and the fact of having no representation in Congress. I shared my conviction to inspire Chinese Americans’ political participation and my journey in the Republican Party with my contributors. I informed them with great optimism that I would have the support of the Jewish and Black communities in Houston in the general election even though they traditionally voted for the Democrats. They felt a minority Congresswoman would certainly better represent them than a white Democrat. The challenge for me was to win the primary and then the minority in the district could vote for me during the general election where no separate voting places for Democrats and Republicans. Although I could not guarantee of my victory I assured my supporters that I was paving the way for the next generation. Indeed my campaign inspired many Chinese Americans who started running for local, state and federal offices soon after my narrow margin defeat. They finally realized that it was possible to run and even to win an election. Meanwhile, those Chinese American community leaders who took part in my campaign and fundraising efforts became involved in partisan politics and made great stride in later days.
My opponent was Dolly Madison McKenna, a white investment banker. She was not as active as I in Republican organizations and her residence was not even in the district. She did not live in Houston long as I did. Yet, she had the support of Republican women including the Bay Area Club for which I had contributed my time, and leadership for various campaign functions. Obviously, race was a major factor when it came to compete. Discrimination and prejudice prevailed. At that time, the Roll Call magazine in Washington, DC pointed out this congressional primary was unprecedented expensive in GOP history. At the end, McKenna only led around 1200 votes.
Houston Chinese Americans could have made a history if they had delivered the difference of 600 votes – divided the 1200 votes by two. Their lack of faith in me and commitment to my campaign was understandable. A year earlier there was a very articulate native Chinese American young lady running for Houston City Council but only received 6% of the votes. Thus, local Chinese Americans were apathetic and did not expect me to have a close race; they did not come out to vote for me. As a result of my defeat, they realized that they had underestimated their own candidate and political strength. This lesson possibly paved the road for two future Chinese American city council persons in Houston within two years and one state representative within six years.
As I predicted and promised, my campaign did have the ripple effect in the political arena. Chinese Americans are no longer exploited by the Democrat Party and are equally represented and recognized in the Republican Party. Now, Republican President Bush has one Chinese and one Japanese American cabinet members: Secretary Elaine Chao of the Labor Department and Secretary Norman Mineta of the Transportation Department. No previous administration, either Democrat or Republican, had any Asian American cabinet member.
After losing the primary in March, I went to the White House and visited its political director, Mr. Ron Kaufman. Upon Ron’s recommendation I was appointed to serve as the National Coordinator for Asian/Pacific American Coalition for Bush/Quayle ’92 campaign. I worked full-time at the campaign HQ in Washington, DC from June until November 3, 1992. No Asian American had ever been hired full-time for a leadership role by a presidential campaign.
COMPAIGN STRUCTURE AND OPERATION
In 1991 I returned from Washington, DC to the University of Houston/Clear Lake (UHCL) to teach in fall, and took the spring semester 1992 off for the campaign. Prior to my departure from my position as Deputy Director of OBEMLA, US Department of Education, I had begun to contact my Chinese friends around the country for possible support via fundraising events. Thus, I was able to have funds to get the campaign organized and hire three staff members initially: Steven Stockman, Tony Chao and Mackie Gail in the fall of 1991. Meanwhile, I formed a steering committee by seeking endorsement from all precinct chairmen and GOP activists in the district including the GOP state chair, George Strake, Jr.
A. Personnel
Steven Stockman, later a one-term congressman, was a student at UHCL when I was the faculty advisor to his conservative student organization – Young Conservatives of Texas and College Republicans. He was the president of the student group and very active among the young Republicans throughout the state. I even hosted events for them and spoke at their meeting on UHCL campus. Since he challenged long-time congressman Jack Brook of Port Author, TX earlier, he had the campaign experience and knowledge. I hired him as campaign manager. Unfortunately, he talked more than he worked; the campaign plan was delayed according to his own timeline. Meanwhile, it was found that he was actually launching his second bid to defeat Brook by using my campaign printing budget without my knowledge. Thus, I had to seek other sources of help. After several interviews, I chose a political consulting firm headed by Jim Foster who quickly terminated Steve and hired Anne Hart as the campaign manager.
Anne Hart was recommended to me by Jim Foster; I did not know much about her background. She was paid well during the three months, January through March, 1992. She was more like a media relation person and executed the instructions from the consultants.
Tony Chao was also a student from UHCL. He just finished his master’s degree in Computer Science. With his bilingual background and social skills in Houston he was able to successfully recruit many Chinese Americans. His primary focus was in the Chinese community and organized the volunteers.
Mackie Gail was a long-time friend of mine. I persuaded her to help me as my most trustworthy staff for both personal and professional matters. She did everything I asked and needed. She even moved into Dawn Lin, an acquaintance’s house, at my request so she could be closer to the campaign HQ.
Ray and Janet Baker were a couple from UHCL. Ray was with the AV center with strong high tech, media, and publication backgrounds. He designed the initial pamphlets for me. They were actually better than the commercial mail outs ordered by Jim Foster later. He also designed the flyers for me to run for the delegate from Congressional District #25 to the National GOP Convention. Janet, his wife, worked for a bank as an accountant. She acted as the treasurer of the campaign.
These are the key salaried people involved in my campaign. They worked long hours as I did. One night Tony commented, “Esther, you are like the Energizer Bunny in that TV commercial. We are all tired but you are still running. . .” Tony and Mackie usually did not leave the HQ before I did. In addition, there were many other supporters serving on various role and capacity.
B. Operation
From the very beginning, more than 500 volunteers, primarily Chinese Americans, were the back bone of the campaign even though they were not citizens yet. People were recruited via churches, social organizations, university and Chinese schools. They signed up for different “shifts” and assignments under the leadership of Tony Chao. They put hand written notes with the literature for the door hangers to solicit votes from the identified households (file:volunteerNotesDoorHange(Flyers)’92.) I regret that I did not formally recognize and appreciate their contribution to the campaign after we wrapped up the campaign by the end of March. However, I did take a “thank you” tour to revisit most of the cities where people hosted fundraising events for me. (file: newsclippings: WJ120392) The World Journal newspaper clippings recorded some anecdotes on the Election Day from morning to late night. Additional 150 yard signs were placed at voting places and major streets over night. Young people, age 10-15, participated in the campaign with their parents. I witnessed the pride and enthusiasm of all volunteers regardless of their age and gender.
The shape of the district was very irregular and spread out like a telephone receiver. The campaign HQ was set up in a more populated SW area of Houston: 9119 S. Gessner, Suite 101, Houston, TX 77074, with phone: 713-988-1347 and fax: 713-988-3409. This 1200 sq. ft. office space was donated by Mr. Sung Chin Pue and Mr. Yeh Te Yuan as the newspaper clippings, files WJ121091 and WJ120392, report. It was officially opened on October 19, 1991. Since I lived in Clear Lake City, SE of Houston, an hour drive from the HQ, I had to rent an apartment close to the HQ.
Ann Hart, the campaign manager, mainly worked closely with the consultants and followed their instruction for mailing, radio ads, public relations, and some correspondence. Tony Chao was in charge the volunteers while Mackie was the receptionist and secretary. Tony assigned all Chinese precinct coordinators in addition to the GOP precinct chairmen committed to my campaign. I spent most of my time in walking and fundraising. Basically, Jim Foster believed that it was not beneficial to show my oriental face too often due to the anti-immigration sentiment in the district. As a result, we only had radio ads and no TV ads. All printed literatures focused on attacking my opponent instead of showing me all the time. In addition, he tried to minimize my public appearance at GOP clubs or community events. At one point, my opponent named me as a “stealth” candidate. Thus, I spend most of my time for walking around the neighborhoods, and raising funds. Jim Foster hired a fund raising company to use their data base to raise money. The reception was held at Marriott Hotel and organized very professionally. Yet, the net revenue was not much.
FUNDRAISING
Based on the Roll Call publication in Washington, DC, this primary campaign was the most unprecedented expensive one for party primary. I raised nearly $300,000 for this primary race. I am very thankful and proud of the support and contribution from over 1000 people in 14 different cities in the US in addition to Houston: Dallas, New York City, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angles, San Jose, Chicago, Minneapolis, Albany, Atlanta, Phoenix, Washington, DC, New Orleans, and St. Louise. Evidently, my campaign not only inspired the Asians/Chinese Americans in Houston but also nationwide. The fundraising events launched in September, 1991 shortly after I returned to Houston. The first one was the greater New York metro including Queens and Flushing under the leadership of Mrs. Mei-lin Tan and her husband Mr. Henry Tan. As a result of these events and campaign speeches quite few event attendees/supporters became candidates for public offices later including the younger generation. (Later, Mr. and Mrs. Tan’s son, Carl became involved in NY GOP politics. The photos of some events could be found in a separate file.)
The National Asian American Steering Committee for my campaign was formed in January, 1991. Unfortunately, some of the newspaper clippings and correspondence via fax are no longer legible.
The details of my campaign including sponsors/organizers, posters, photos, and newspaper clippings are in separate files.
As of June 19, 2010
My active involvement in the Republican Party did not inspire me to run for public office. Although I had been very active in the Republican Party since 1980, I never dreamed about running for public office because of my language and cultural “differences.” I have mentioned earlier regarding my initial involvement in community affairs in spring 1972 and political arena in 1978. Unexpected, I was encouraged to run for Congress at the suggestion of Ron Kaufman, the political director of President Bush’s White House in 1991.
My service to the Bush Administration led to my congressional race. I was appointed to serve President Bush as the Deputy Director of the OBEMLA (Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs) of the US Department of Education in June 1990. It was not a comparable appointment because I supported Senator Robert Dole instead of President Bush during the GOP Primary in 1998. The major reasons for me to take sides with a non-Texan in Texas were: 1) Senator’s recognition of Asian Americans’ accomplishments in the USA and 2) His desire to involve Asian Americans’ in the political and legislative process. In order to seek a better appointment during Bush’s second term to commemorate with my credentials and background I wanted to campaign hard to cumulate a lot of “chips” for President Bush’s reelection. In early spring 1991, I went to see Mr. Kaufman and sought his advice regarding my role in the upcoming reelection of President Bush. I asked him if I should stay in Washington, DC or return back to Houston to campaign for President Bush. Since President Bush’s popularity was in the peak after the victory of the Desert Storm, Ron felt the President was very safe to be reelected without any problems. However, he pointed out that the Democratic controlled Congress needed more Republicans to support President’s legislative agenda. He suggested that I run for Congress in Houston.
It was a struggle for me whether I should take Ron’s advice. I prayed and analyzed a lot after the meeting with him. I even retreated to the Holiday Inn in Chevy Chase in NW of Washington, DC to seek God’s guidance. Finally, I decided to run as a calling and mission in the summer of 1991. I felt it was about the time for Chinese Americans to be visible in the national political arena and especially the Republican Party. At that time, there was no Chinese American congressman representing the growing Chinese American population in the US. Most of Chinese or Asian American elected officials at state level was affiliated with the Democratic Party including all Japanese American legislators in Congress. Yes, I did want to win the race. However, I was not afraid to lose because I strongly believed that the foundation I laid would lead Chinese/Asian Americans to higher ground. It was my goal to inspire and galvanize the Chinese/Asian Americans, particularly the younger generation, regardless of the outcome of my campaign. I believed that like building a pyramid, every bit of political participation would carry us closer to the top.
There were three political factors that were advantageous to my candidacy: 1) Redistricting in Texas after the 1990 census added three more congressional seats. My district consisted more middle class and professional voters than before. 2) The coattail of a popular Republican President would enhance the victory of a Republican candidate. 3) The 1992 GOP National Convention held in Houston would provide Republican candidates with more media exposure than usual.
Immediately, I contacted my friends around the country to organize fund raising events. I resigned from the US DOE position and resumed teaching at the University of Houston/Clear Lake (UHCL). Before I stepped down as the Deputy Director, I was invited by the UHCL president to be their summer commencement speaker in August, 1991.
I launched my fundraising efforts among Chinese Americans throughout the country in the fall, 1991. There were 14 out-of-town fundraising dinners held in major cities, i.e., New York City, Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, CA, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Phoenix, Chicago, Albany, NY, Dallas, and Washington, DC. Being a columnist of the Chinese daily newspaper World Journal with worldwide circulation, and a political activist in Texas attracted and galvanized many Chinese immigrants. I advocated the dire need for Chinese Americans to take part in the mainstream politics based on the historical lessons and the fact of having no representation in Congress. I shared my conviction to inspire Chinese Americans’ political participation and my journey in the Republican Party with my contributors. I informed them with great optimism that I would have the support of the Jewish and Black communities in Houston in the general election even though they traditionally voted for the Democrats. They felt a minority Congresswoman would certainly better represent them than a white Democrat. The challenge for me was to win the primary and then the minority in the district could vote for me during the general election where no separate voting places for Democrats and Republicans. Although I could not guarantee of my victory I assured my supporters that I was paving the way for the next generation. Indeed my campaign inspired many Chinese Americans who started running for local, state and federal offices soon after my narrow margin defeat. They finally realized that it was possible to run and even to win an election. Meanwhile, those Chinese American community leaders who took part in my campaign and fundraising efforts became involved in partisan politics and made great stride in later days.
My opponent was Dolly Madison McKenna, a white investment banker. She was not as active as I in Republican organizations and her residence was not even in the district. She did not live in Houston long as I did. Yet, she had the support of Republican women including the Bay Area Club for which I had contributed my time, and leadership for various campaign functions. Obviously, race was a major factor when it came to compete. Discrimination and prejudice prevailed. At that time, the Roll Call magazine in Washington, DC pointed out this congressional primary was unprecedented expensive in GOP history. At the end, McKenna only led around 1200 votes.
Houston Chinese Americans could have made a history if they had delivered the difference of 600 votes – divided the 1200 votes by two. Their lack of faith in me and commitment to my campaign was understandable. A year earlier there was a very articulate native Chinese American young lady running for Houston City Council but only received 6% of the votes. Thus, local Chinese Americans were apathetic and did not expect me to have a close race; they did not come out to vote for me. As a result of my defeat, they realized that they had underestimated their own candidate and political strength. This lesson possibly paved the road for two future Chinese American city council persons in Houston within two years and one state representative within six years.
As I predicted and promised, my campaign did have the ripple effect in the political arena. Chinese Americans are no longer exploited by the Democrat Party and are equally represented and recognized in the Republican Party. Now, Republican President Bush has one Chinese and one Japanese American cabinet members: Secretary Elaine Chao of the Labor Department and Secretary Norman Mineta of the Transportation Department. No previous administration, either Democrat or Republican, had any Asian American cabinet member.
After losing the primary in March, I went to the White House and visited its political director, Mr. Ron Kaufman. Upon Ron’s recommendation I was appointed to serve as the National Coordinator for Asian/Pacific American Coalition for Bush/Quayle ’92 campaign. I worked full-time at the campaign HQ in Washington, DC from June until November 3, 1992. No Asian American had ever been hired full-time for a leadership role by a presidential campaign.
COMPAIGN STRUCTURE AND OPERATION
In 1991 I returned from Washington, DC to the University of Houston/Clear Lake (UHCL) to teach in fall, and took the spring semester 1992 off for the campaign. Prior to my departure from my position as Deputy Director of OBEMLA, US Department of Education, I had begun to contact my Chinese friends around the country for possible support via fundraising events. Thus, I was able to have funds to get the campaign organized and hire three staff members initially: Steven Stockman, Tony Chao and Mackie Gail in the fall of 1991. Meanwhile, I formed a steering committee by seeking endorsement from all precinct chairmen and GOP activists in the district including the GOP state chair, George Strake, Jr.
A. Personnel
Steven Stockman, later a one-term congressman, was a student at UHCL when I was the faculty advisor to his conservative student organization – Young Conservatives of Texas and College Republicans. He was the president of the student group and very active among the young Republicans throughout the state. I even hosted events for them and spoke at their meeting on UHCL campus. Since he challenged long-time congressman Jack Brook of Port Author, TX earlier, he had the campaign experience and knowledge. I hired him as campaign manager. Unfortunately, he talked more than he worked; the campaign plan was delayed according to his own timeline. Meanwhile, it was found that he was actually launching his second bid to defeat Brook by using my campaign printing budget without my knowledge. Thus, I had to seek other sources of help. After several interviews, I chose a political consulting firm headed by Jim Foster who quickly terminated Steve and hired Anne Hart as the campaign manager.
Anne Hart was recommended to me by Jim Foster; I did not know much about her background. She was paid well during the three months, January through March, 1992. She was more like a media relation person and executed the instructions from the consultants.
Tony Chao was also a student from UHCL. He just finished his master’s degree in Computer Science. With his bilingual background and social skills in Houston he was able to successfully recruit many Chinese Americans. His primary focus was in the Chinese community and organized the volunteers.
Mackie Gail was a long-time friend of mine. I persuaded her to help me as my most trustworthy staff for both personal and professional matters. She did everything I asked and needed. She even moved into Dawn Lin, an acquaintance’s house, at my request so she could be closer to the campaign HQ.
Ray and Janet Baker were a couple from UHCL. Ray was with the AV center with strong high tech, media, and publication backgrounds. He designed the initial pamphlets for me. They were actually better than the commercial mail outs ordered by Jim Foster later. He also designed the flyers for me to run for the delegate from Congressional District #25 to the National GOP Convention. Janet, his wife, worked for a bank as an accountant. She acted as the treasurer of the campaign.
These are the key salaried people involved in my campaign. They worked long hours as I did. One night Tony commented, “Esther, you are like the Energizer Bunny in that TV commercial. We are all tired but you are still running. . .” Tony and Mackie usually did not leave the HQ before I did. In addition, there were many other supporters serving on various role and capacity.
B. Operation
From the very beginning, more than 500 volunteers, primarily Chinese Americans, were the back bone of the campaign even though they were not citizens yet. People were recruited via churches, social organizations, university and Chinese schools. They signed up for different “shifts” and assignments under the leadership of Tony Chao. They put hand written notes with the literature for the door hangers to solicit votes from the identified households (file:volunteerNotesDoorHange(Flyers)’92.) I regret that I did not formally recognize and appreciate their contribution to the campaign after we wrapped up the campaign by the end of March. However, I did take a “thank you” tour to revisit most of the cities where people hosted fundraising events for me. (file: newsclippings: WJ120392) The World Journal newspaper clippings recorded some anecdotes on the Election Day from morning to late night. Additional 150 yard signs were placed at voting places and major streets over night. Young people, age 10-15, participated in the campaign with their parents. I witnessed the pride and enthusiasm of all volunteers regardless of their age and gender.
The shape of the district was very irregular and spread out like a telephone receiver. The campaign HQ was set up in a more populated SW area of Houston: 9119 S. Gessner, Suite 101, Houston, TX 77074, with phone: 713-988-1347 and fax: 713-988-3409. This 1200 sq. ft. office space was donated by Mr. Sung Chin Pue and Mr. Yeh Te Yuan as the newspaper clippings, files WJ121091 and WJ120392, report. It was officially opened on October 19, 1991. Since I lived in Clear Lake City, SE of Houston, an hour drive from the HQ, I had to rent an apartment close to the HQ.
Ann Hart, the campaign manager, mainly worked closely with the consultants and followed their instruction for mailing, radio ads, public relations, and some correspondence. Tony Chao was in charge the volunteers while Mackie was the receptionist and secretary. Tony assigned all Chinese precinct coordinators in addition to the GOP precinct chairmen committed to my campaign. I spent most of my time in walking and fundraising. Basically, Jim Foster believed that it was not beneficial to show my oriental face too often due to the anti-immigration sentiment in the district. As a result, we only had radio ads and no TV ads. All printed literatures focused on attacking my opponent instead of showing me all the time. In addition, he tried to minimize my public appearance at GOP clubs or community events. At one point, my opponent named me as a “stealth” candidate. Thus, I spend most of my time for walking around the neighborhoods, and raising funds. Jim Foster hired a fund raising company to use their data base to raise money. The reception was held at Marriott Hotel and organized very professionally. Yet, the net revenue was not much.
FUNDRAISING
Based on the Roll Call publication in Washington, DC, this primary campaign was the most unprecedented expensive one for party primary. I raised nearly $300,000 for this primary race. I am very thankful and proud of the support and contribution from over 1000 people in 14 different cities in the US in addition to Houston: Dallas, New York City, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angles, San Jose, Chicago, Minneapolis, Albany, Atlanta, Phoenix, Washington, DC, New Orleans, and St. Louise. Evidently, my campaign not only inspired the Asians/Chinese Americans in Houston but also nationwide. The fundraising events launched in September, 1991 shortly after I returned to Houston. The first one was the greater New York metro including Queens and Flushing under the leadership of Mrs. Mei-lin Tan and her husband Mr. Henry Tan. As a result of these events and campaign speeches quite few event attendees/supporters became candidates for public offices later including the younger generation. (Later, Mr. and Mrs. Tan’s son, Carl became involved in NY GOP politics. The photos of some events could be found in a separate file.)
The National Asian American Steering Committee for my campaign was formed in January, 1991. Unfortunately, some of the newspaper clippings and correspondence via fax are no longer legible.
The details of my campaign including sponsors/organizers, posters, photos, and newspaper clippings are in separate files.
As of June 19, 2010