Yes, I know. I apologize for the very annoying title of this post. I am sure a lot of you saw this article making the rounds this morning. It is about South Asian donors (Indian Americans in this case) stepping-up to donate to the candidates they support around the country. My cousin was one beneficiary of such donations:
On the last day of the third quarter, Democrat Manan Trivedi hosted a fundraiser for friends and family — his extended network of “Uncles and Aunties” — that raised $10,000 in two hours at the Lantern Lodge, an Indian-American-owned restaurant and hotel in southeastern Pennsylvania.
As one of three higher-profile Indian-American candidates running for Congress next year, Trivedi estimates that 20 percent to 25 percent of the $127,500 he raised in the first three weeks of his campaign for Pennsylvania’s 6th district open seat came from his connections to the Indian-American community. And he said he’s only begun to tap into the affluent ethnic network, which has recently become fertile fundraising ground. [Link]
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p>Money from desis alone is never going to be enough, and it should never be the only place a candidate reaches out, but it sure as hell seems to make a difference. In this case it was the difference between being forced out of a race that had barely begun vs. the opportunity to gain momentum and endorsements after a strong initial fundraising total. The best example of the desi dollar coming close to enabling an upset was Ashwin Madia’s race last year in Minnesota:
After Iraq War Veteran Ashwin Madia (D) lost a competitive open-seat race in the 2008 cycle to now-Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), it wasn’t clear when the next viable candidate would come along.
Madia raised about $2.4 million for his race. His fundraiser, Pandit, estimated that 25 percent to 30 percent of that money was from the Indian-American community.
Pandit said many Indian-Americans look to the Jewish community as their model for political activity.
“I think sort of emulating the Jewish community is what we’re doing right now,” Pandit said. “Our goal is where they are now, we’re aspiring to get where that community is. We don’t have the history of being in this country that a lot of Americans do.” [Link]
By no means am I advocating that South Asians should give blindly to any South Asian candidate or only too South Asian candidates. Ideally, the number one criteria for donating to a political campaign should always be, “does the candidate support my issues and my values and do I believe they can be an effective advocate?” If the answer is no then keep your money in your pocket. However, if a desi candidate pops up on the map and your answer to the previous question is yes, then why not?
“The Indian-American community has responded overwhelmingly in a way that I don’t think they’ve responded previously,” [Ami] Bera [D-California]said. “Obviously, there’s a fair amount coming out of our community and also from the broader medical community, and the overlap between the two.” [Link]
Overall, I hate that there is so much money in politics. Myself and fellow SM blogger Ravi got a taste of it at the DNC last year and it left us feeling a bit queasy. It is just the reality of our decaying system however. Money often makes the difference for a candidate, and our community finally seems to be loosening the spigot. I think you will increasingly see evidence that it does in fact make a difference.
Maybe I’m just sleepy, but I don’t get the headline. Could someone tell me what “Indian-Americans Priming the Pump” means?
I am skeptical of any desi politician, they never had a good track record of decent governance. I am afraid that if they are elected in large numbers they would bring in the problems like grass root corruption, appeasement/religious politics…For ex: There is not even a single south asian country that can claim of having a good government. I would donate money but probably not for a desi politician.
Wow Akash. That is quite a sad view you have. Biased against the abilities of an entire ethnicity?
Akash wrote:
By that logic, we should have never elected President Obama, since Kenya ranks 147th on Transparency International’s Corruption Index.
I am coining AHEAD (Always HElp Another Desi).
It has worked wonders for many other ethnicities where nepotism is stealth or blatant.
I am an Indian physician on Staff at Reading Hospital, and a resident of Berks County. I hate to tell you no one has heard of Dr Trivedi or that he is running for office. In fact, I found out about it through the SM websire, and your postings. So it is kinda strange he has more of a presence on this website than he has with the local voters. Does not bode well for the eventual outcome.
Akash, you are right, as an Indian I am proud of my culture etc. but I distrust desis who are in politics, specifically the ones who immigrated and brought their crooked politics with them. The South Asians who were recently arrested for insider trading, were involved in Democrat Party politics and are donors to that political party.
Check out these campaign contributions: Raj Rajaratnam (contributed $87,000 to Democrats) http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=NY&last=Rajaratnam
Roomy Khan (Tipper A) http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?zip=94027&last=Khan&first=Roomy
The what party? Democrat’s an adjective son. Not a noun.
Sorry, it’s a noun, not an adjective.
Sorry master, thank you for the english lesson.
Rather than donating money to Indian-Americans in their quest for money, glory and power, donate it to something more worthwhile, like the India literacy project. http://www.ilpnet.org/ ILP was founded by Dr. Parameshwar Rao, a nuclear scientist trained in the U.S. He returned to India and dedicate his life to improving the lives of the rural poor in India.
Rather than donating money to Indian-Americans in their quest for money, glory and power
Sorry but this is a silly characterization of a politician. It’s important that Americans get involved politically, and if some people feel they have the ambition, skill and ideals that make them want to run, the voters should judge the candidate – not the act of running for political office. – lol
Not an English lesson so much as a snide way of encouraging you to refrain from playing the kinds of lame Orwellian word-games that make one sound like a partisan hack.
Deepika wrote:
So we’re expected to assimilate into American culture, but we’re not allowed to have any of the benefits of actually being American (like running for office)?
Deepika wrote:
Don’t get me wrong, though– I believe that donating to this organization is a very good investment. In fact, it might give you a higher ROI than donating to a Indian-American’s campaign, since we’re still viewed as “foreign” by American voters.
Au contraire. Disaffection with and skepticism of the political system is as American as Apple Pie and Bourbon.
Yoga Fire is a grammar Nazism.
i think this is hilarious, primarily because desis are among the wealthiest brackets in the US and donate the least across the board.
My mom always says that desis have high incomes, but not so high wealth. I guess she means we don’t own the banks.
There is also a marked tendency to spend money on flashy cars and enormous houses rather than putting it into productive investments.
Yeah, she makes a lot of fun of the 5000 sq. foot house brigade!
Venu just did a post about it at The South Asian Philanthropy Project. Very interesting stuff out there about Indian-Americans and political giving. I wish there was more data out there about what the facts are about our giving. I also wonder if political giving is just harder to talk about – no tax breaks, the risk of your candidate losing, etc.
Then how a guy with average looks & limited social skills get laid!??
By that logic, we shouldn’t trust Jewish politicians or white politicians either, because Bernie Madoff was also a contributor to the Democratic Party. I guess if a non-South Asian stereotypes South Asians because of a few bad apples it is called prejudice…is it not so if South Asians do it?
ahhh nothing says democracy like cash money. God Bless America.
“does the candidate support my issues and my values and do I believe they can be an effective advocate?â€
Good question. Unfortunately one party is not as inviting as the other. These three pictures were on the RNC facebook page http://rawstory.com/2009/10/gops-facebook-photos/. One was of President Obama saying miscegenation is a crime against American values, and if you scroll down the page the next picture is Mother Teresa feeding a poor Indian child and under that it says “”Enabling scab-eating mouth breathers will do them no good. How do we expect them to take care of themselves?” ” Nice huh? The last is a picture of a rifle aimed right at John Kerry’s head.