their ancestries back

[00:05.22]to Asia and the Pacific Islands - about .5 percent of the U.S. population.

[00:10.80]Asian Pacific Americans acknowledge that although

[00:14.11]they cannot influence U.S. politics by sheer numbers,

[00:17.42]they stress that their populations are heavily concentrated in 16 key states,

[00:22.18]where they believe they can serve as swing voters,

[00:24.88]a crucial block to tip the balance in close elections.

[00:28.30]National Council of Asian Pacific Americans chairwoman

[00:31.61]Karen Narasaki says her group has a diverse membership.

[00:35.89]"In the United States, Asian Pacific American cover Pacific Islanders,

[00:40.50]obviously from the islands in the Pacific Rim,

[00:43.27]as well as Asia - both East Asia and Southeast Asia - and South Asia,

[00:50.18]which would include the Indian subcontinent,

[00:52.60]India, Bangladesh, Pakistan," she said.

[00:55.44]Getting them to agree on anything is not easy. But in mid-February,

[01:00.16]eighteen national Asian Pacific American groups got

[01:01.99]together under the council's auspices and,

[01:04.80]for the first time, issued a united platform outlining the community's priorities.

[01:10.38]Ms. Narasaki, who is also the president of the

[01:13.22]National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium,

[01:16.03]says two-thirds of Asian Pacific Americans are foreign-born,

[01:19.92]so it is no surprise that one of the major issues of concern is immigration.

[01:24.92]"You will see in the platform, for example,

[01:27.98]interest about comprehensive immigration reform," she said.

[01:31.40]"In addition to bringing [the] undocumented out of the shadows,

[01:36.41]we also want to make sure the backlogs for family

[01:40.37]immigration are addressed. Right now, for example,

[01:43.57]if you are Filipino American and you are waiting to

[01:47.35]bring over a beloved brother or sister,

[01:50.66]you could be waiting up to 22 years."

[01:52.07]Asian Pacific Americans, as a group,

[01:54.44]are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States,

[01:57.83]but they still do not have significant overall numbers.

[02:01.32]Ms. Narasaki sees the best chance to influence elections

[02:05.21]is in states where Asian Pacific Americans have the highest concentrations.

[02:09.92]Many of these states have so-called Super

[02:11.90]Tuesday primaries and caucus contests on March 2.

[02:15.40]"New York, Texas, California,

[02:16.41]Minnesota - these four have very large Asian Pacific

[02:19.73]American populations - particularly California.

[02:22.53]California has over a third of the APA population," she explained.

[02:26.31]"And it is about 12 to 13 percent of the population of that state now.

[02:30.81]So, obviously, it can make an enormous difference for candidates."

[02:34.99]In the current U.S. political landscape, the inevitable question is,

[02:39.06]do Asian Pacific Americans tend to side with

[02:41.61]the Democratic Party or the Republican Party?

[02:44.31]"I think the challenge Asian Pacific Americans have

[02:46.91]faced in partisan politics is that the Democratic Party

[02:50.97]largely believes that many Asians are Republican,

[02:54.18]and the Republican Party believes largely that Asians are Democrat,

[02:58.17]"So, neither party has invested what they need to invest

[03:02.24]in terms of educating our community about their perspective."

[03:06.92]Victoria Lai, the Democratic Party's director of

[03:09.62]Asian Pacific Islander American outreach,

[03:12.21]says she thinks accusations that both political parties

[03:15.53]have overlooked Asian Americans is fair criticism.

[03:19.02]According to Ms. Lai, one lesson her party has learned from the National

[03:22.29]Council on Asian Pacific Americans

[03:24.17]is how the Asian Pacific American vote

[03:26.54]could have determined the 2000 presidential election.

[03:29.75]"NCAPA, the organization that recently released a policy platform,

[03:28.75]highlighted a number of states where the

[03:31.23]population of Asian Americans in the state

[03:34.72]was greater than the difference

[03:37.13]between Al Gore and George Bush in the 2000 elections,"

[03:41.60]she said. "Now, that just goes to show that there

[03:43.58]are a plethora of Asian Americans who could show up to

[03:47.36]the polls and change the future of the campaign,

[03:50.78]and how our country is led in the next few years."

[03:54.09]Republican Party spokeswoman Christine Iverson says her party

[03:57.69]is also aware of the importance of attracting as many votes as possible.

[04:02.19]"Asian Americans are very important to the Republican Party," she said.

[04:04.89]"We are aggressively reaching out to as many voters as we can.

[04:09.57]We believe it is going to be a very close election

[04:11.44]and we are focused right now on reaching out to

[04:14.47]a number of different groups - Asian Americans are one of those groups."

[04:17.45]"What is up? We are KAI.

[04:18.64]Did you know that you can make a difference?

[04:20.48]Did you know that you have a voice?

[04:22.17]Did you know that we can make a change?

[04:23.65]Did you know that we can be heard? Make a change? How? How can we do this?

[04:27.64]Exercise your right, as Asian Americans. Voice your vote,"

[04:30.81]says a public service announcement recorded by KAI,

[04:34.01]a group of five Asian American singers in San Francisco.

[04:37.72]Of the approximately eight million eligible Asian Pacific American voters,

[04:42.80]only about half are registered to vote. Christine Chen,

[04:46.29]executive director of the Organization of Chinese Americans,

[04:49.60]says the numbers are low, but the turnout of registered voters is high.

[04:54.61]"In terms of the Asian community, in comparison to other minority groups,

[04:58.49]is we have a low voter registration rate,

[05:01.81]but we have a large voter turnout rate," she said.

[05:04.90]"So, the key is, if we can get them registered to vote,

[05:07.60]they are more than likely to actually go out and vote."

[05:10.27]One Indonesian American who is excited about her first

[05:13.69]chance to vote in a U.S. presidential election is Dewita Soeharjono,

[05:18.62]who became a citizen last May. One-month later,

[05:22.00]she decided to volunteer for the Howard Dean campaign.

[05:25.17]"Unless you make a noise, your voice be heard,

[05:28.30]they are not going to do anything," she said.

[05:29.53]"So, that is why I decided to participate in it

[05:33.59]- just to know how the process works," she said.

[05:37.09]"Because everything is new to me as well."

[05:39.07]Ms. Soeharjono became involved with a group called Asian

[05:41.95]Americans and Pacific Islanders for Dean,

[05:44.54]and says she was crushed when Howard Dean withdrew from the campaign.

[05:48.75]But she says the group's 100-plus members around the

[05:51.81]country have become committed to staying politically active.