S.B. Woo, President of 80-20 sent e-mails une 4 to 80-20 members on 2004 presidential election. Below is his statement:
The top polls, be they Democrats (D) or Republicans (R), who count electoral votes for the next presidential election (PE)., will all agree with the following: Bush may be able to win in 2004 without winning CA. But Democrats cannot possibly win the next P.E. without winning CA. You may say, "Assume that I also agree. Why will it mean that 80- 20 is now in a good position to win equal opportunity for me & my children?" Four reasons. 1) CA has 55 electoral votes, 20% of what's needed to win the next P.E. Without CA, D will lose the next P.E. even if it wins a majority of the "contested states" such as FL, MI, MN, WI, WA...etc. 2) However, CA is a safe Democratic state, having voted D in the last P.Es. In 2000, Gore won over Bush by 54/42, or by a margin of 12 points. For Bush to win in 2004, he must persuade 6% of CA voters to switch from D to R. (Note: taking 6 points away from D and adding the same to R causes a difference of 12 points!) Persuading 6% of CA voters to switch is extremely unlikely especially if our economy remains in a funk. 3) There are 7% APA voters in CA. All reliable polls showed that 80-20 delivered 70% of those votes to Gore. See footnote. 4) Should 80-20 endorse Bush in 2004, it'll cause a swing of 10 points in CA. (Explanation: Let's assume 80-20 can still only deliver 70% of the APA vote which is 7% of the CA vote. That'll mean delivering 5% of the CA votes, because 70% of 7% is 5%. 5% switching from D to R means a difference of 10 points!). Bush, as the President, can give out goodies during the campaign season to overcome the remaining 2 negative points . Most top political pros will agree with the above 4 statements. Hence, Bush will want to knock out D from the onset, by getting us to switch. The D will want to protect its jugular by getting us to stay. Consequently, 80-20 is in a great position to bargain with both major parties to win our EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN WORKPLACES. Using elections to induce politicians to do the right things for the common people is THE AMERICAN WAY. That is how our forefathers had intended for democracy to work, although Asian Americans, being new immigrants and new to democracy, might not be aware of it.