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Korean-American groups seeking to solidify influence in District 37 – NorthJersey.com
BY Susan C. Moeller
Korean-American leaders want to increase their community’s political influence, both locally and statewide, and some are pressing the state’s Legislative Apportionment Commission to create a concentrated block of Asian voters by moving Fort Lee and Edgewater into the 37th District with Palisades Park and Leonia.
STAFF PHOTO BY COLLEEN WHITE
Broad Avenue in Palisades Park has various types of Asian-owned businesses. Local Korean-American leaders are lobbying that Fort Lee, Edgewater, Leonia and Palisades Park be combined into one district.
The apportionment commission is charged with redrawing the state’s legislative map to reflect population changes revealed in the 2010 census. Any changes to district boundaries must be released by April 3.
Chejin Park, a staff attorney for the Korean-American Voters Council, testified on behalf of his organization at a public hearing before the commission on March 16.
Most of eastern Bergen County’s growing Korean and Asian population was put in the 37th Legislative District after the 2000 census, according to a summary of Park’s remarks before the commission.
“However, Fort Lee and Bridgewater, which comprise the core of the Asian-American community along with Palisades Park and Leonia, were separated from the rest of the Asian-American community and placed into the 38th Legislative District,” Park stated. The legislative map currently separates concentrated populations of Korean registered voters, according to Park.
Of Bergen County’s 9,142 registered Korean-American voters, 1,442 are in Fort Lee, and another 1,417 are in Palisades Park, according to Park’s data. Another 338 are in Leonia, and 299 are in Edgewater.
“Fort Lee and Palisades Park are the top two towns with Korean voters … By splitting those two towns into two different legislative districts, Korean-Americans’ voice in the N.J. Legislature was significantly limited,” Park argued.
He pointed to the composition of the Legislature as evidence of the problem. Ethnically, the Legislature does not match the state.
Asian-Americans make up 20 percent of New Jersey’s population, but there are only two Asian representatives in the New Jersey Legislature – Kevin O’Toole and Upendra Chivukula. To reach the 20 percent mark, four or five Asian-Americans would need to be elected, Park said in an interview after the hearing.
COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST
Park urged the commission “to recognize Palisades Park, Fort Lee, Edgewater and Leonia as a ‘community of interest’ and keep the four municipalities in one legislative district.”
There is a historic case for “keeping a community of interest together,” Park stated.
Communities of interest are defined by “shared interests or some common thread of social, economic or political interests,” Park stated, arguing that Palisades Park, Leonia, Fort Lee and Edgewater clearly meet the standard.
They “are the core of the Korean-American community in Bergen County” Park continued. Palisade Park’s population is 57 percent Asian; Fort Lee’s, 38 percent; and Edgewater and Leonia, each 35 percent.
A coalition of Asian-American groups, including the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, also recommended moving Fort Lee and Edgewater into the 37th District.
The Asian-Pacific-American community is one of the state’s fastest growing, but it is “vastly underrepresented” in the Legislature, according to remarks prepared on behalf of the coalition.
25% THRESHOLD
To remedy that, the coalition would like to see three legislative districts redrawn, to make their Asian-Pacific population 25 percent or greater. This would allow more opportunities for Asian-Pacific Americans to be elected to office.
“There is historical precedent, both in New Jersey and nationwide, that strongly suggests a minority group gains a significant voice in the democratic process when their population meets or exceeds this population threshold,” according to remarks prepared by coalition representatives.
“African-Americans are a model for minority representation because of their long history and level of activism in United States history,” according to the coalition’s statement.
Of the state’s 15 African-American legislators, only one comes from a district with an African-American population significantly below 25 percent, coalition members noted.
LOCAL INFLUENCE
Andrew Kim, a former president of the Greater Fort Lee Korean-American Association, also wants more Korean influence at the local level.
“We need to be fairly represented,” Kim said. “That’s how we got involved in Board of Education elections.”
While Fort Lee’s nine-member school board includes three Koreans, Kim is concerned about opportunities in municipal politics.
“City council, it’s a more political situation,” he said.
“This town is totally controlled by Democrats, and they don’t allow us to have any room,” Kim said.
“They don’t even want us to be there to tell the truth, I’m so mad about that right now,” Kim said.
Kim noted that no Koreans are part of Fort Lee’s Democrat County Committee, which has 38 members.
Kay Nest, the Fort Lee Democratic Party chairwoman, declined to comment.
Kim added that of the 118 appointed positions available in the borough government, six have gone to Koreans.
“They need to do better,” he said.
But Mayor Mark Sokolich disagreed with Kim’s characterization.
“I don’t make appointments based on ethnicity,” Sokolich said. “I make appointments based on qualification and experience.”
That said, he added. “We certainly try to make sure that there is an appropriate ratio of appointments so that all sectors of the community are properly represented.”
The Korean community has not been excluded in borough appointments, Sokolich added.
“We have members of the Korean-American community on the Planning Board, Board of Adjustment, Board of Health and virtually all important committees and boards in this town.”
“With me its qualifications and experience first,” Sokolich concluded.