In the U.S., Indians Gain Political Clout

In the U.S., IndiansGain Political Clout
Democrats and Republicans AlikeCourt Highly Successful Group
By NISHAD H. MAJMUDAR
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNALAugust 17, 2004; Page A4

During the Democratic National Convention in Boston last month, party Chairman Terry McAuliffe took time to thank a group of delegates and supporters for their backing, telling them: "I will never forget your friendship."
In the audience were members of a growing and increasingly potent political force: Indian-Americans. Numbering close to two million, Indian-Americans may be a small voting bloc, but they are the nation's wealthiest ethnic minority group and a prime target for both parties in a closely fought election.
Moreover, Indian-Americans are becoming more politically active, energized by issues such as post-9/11 discrimination and rising medical-malpractice-insurance costs for the huge cadre of Indian doctors.
"There are two things that the parties know about: The community's wealthy and they haven't become entrenched in a single party yet," says Nishith Acharya, a former Clinton administration staffer who organized various rallies for Indian Democrats in Boston. "Both parties are making a big push to convince our community that they're the party that represents it best."

GROWING FORCE

According to the latest census data, the median income of Indian-American households in 1999, the most recent year for which data is available, was $63,669, or $21,700 above the national level. Nearly 30% of the half-million Indian-American households had incomes above $100,000, compared with 12% of all U.S. households. Many Indian-Americans made fortunes during the dot-com boom.
During the 2000 presidential campaign, just one Indian-American ranked among fund-raisers who gathered more than $100,000 for George W. Bush. This year, four Indian-Americans are in that class of 300 contributors dubbed "pioneers" by the Bush campaign. Zach Zachariah, a Fort Lauderdale cardiologist from southern India, has earned "Ranger" status for helping raise $20 million as co-chairman of finance for the president's campaign in Florida.

For more modest donors, Florida Indian-Americans supporting President Bush threw a series of $2,000-a-person cocktail receptions that included both Indian and American hors d'oeuvres. "The Americans love the Indian food," says Raghavendra Vijayanagar, a Tampa heart surgeon who is chairman of the Indian-American Republican Council, founded three years ago to pursue legislation on medical malpractice and small-business issues.

On the Democratic side, a newly formed fund-raising group, South Asians for Kerry in 2004, established chapters in four cities. Last month, the New York chapter raised $1 million at a breakfast featuring the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry, and vice-presidential nominee, Sen. John Edwards. By contrast, such fund-raisers for the 2000 nominee, Al Gore, were rare in the South Asian community, which includes smaller populations of ethnic Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalese and Sri Lankans.

At the Democratic convention in Boston, there were five separate gatherings for Indian-Americans and South Asians, compared with just one informal event at the 2000 convention in Los Angeles. In addition, the number of Democratic delegates of South Asian origin more than doubled, to 55, from 25 four years ago.

In part, analysts say Indian-Americans are more active in politics because the first major wave of immigrants has assimilated. "People who came to the U.S. in my generation through the 1970s and early '80s were in this country to make a good life for themselves," says Inder Sud, an adjunct professor of international affairs at George Washington University. Now that the community overall has achieved economic success, it is prepared to focus more of its efforts on civic activism, Mr. Sud says.

Some Indians also were jolted by the post-Sept. 11, 2001, security buildup, concerned that Sikhs, Indian Muslims and those with dark complexions were subject to discrimination or racial profiling. One response was a new group called the Sikh Coalition. Formed in late 2001, it runs voter-registration drives at temples and keeps a database of post-9/11 hate crimes on its Web site.

"The tightening of civil liberties...and the resultant discrimination by federal authorities has really impacted our lifestyles," says Harpreet Singh, a Sikh Coalition co-founder.
With the global war on terror, some Indian-Americans are worried that the U.S. is becoming too close to Pakistan, which India accuses of sponsoring terrorism in the disputed region of Kashmir.
There are no reliable statistics on recent voting patterns by Indians, but many political activists believe Indian Democrats outnumber Republicans. The U.S. India Political Action Committee, a nonpartisan group formed in 2002 to lobby for issues of interest to Indians, surveyed its 25,000 members and found that 60% were Democrats and 40% supported the Republicans.

But Republicans seem to be making inroads among a prominent group of Indians -- physicians concerned about the escalating cost of medical-malpractice insurance. Some of the 38,000 Indian doctors in the U.S. are particularly incensed by the addition of Sen. Edwards, a former trial lawyer who made much of his fortune by suing physicians, to the Democratic ticket.
"The medical community would have a very hard time supporting someone who is never going to be in favor of tort reform," says Sharad Lakhanpal, a Dallas rheumatologist and Bush Pioneer. Dr. Lakhanpal also is the immediate past president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, a group that has been courted by Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

In past elections, a scant number of Indians have run for office. But this is slowly starting to change. This year, nearly a dozen South Asians are running for U.S. Congress, though just one, Republican Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a former gubernatorial candidate, is considered a strong contender. If victorious, Mr. Jindal would become the first Indian-American elected to Congress since 1956, when Dilip Singh Saund was a representative from California.

In hopes of fostering a new generation of political hopefuls, another newly formed group, the Indian American Leadership Initiative, began training young professionals in skills such as polling, fund raising and media relations in 2001. So far, about 300 have completed the training, though none have run for office.

"It used to be that Indians felt like it was enough to make money and be successful," says Mona Roy, a Lexington, Mass., patent attorney and Kerry supporter. "We were the good minority where we'd stay in the background and didn't make noise."

For this election, Ms. Roy says she will canvass in New Hampshire, write letters to newspaper editors and make phone calls to undecided voters. "I did not do this stuff for Gore-Lieberman and I'll never forgive myself for it," she says. "I was rich, it didn't matter. "

Write to Nishad H. Majmudar at nishad.majmudar@dowjones.com1

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