The "Coveted" Political Contributers
As I continued my procrastination and internet browsing (see previous post), I came upon this article on the Indian-Americans and their political contributions, financially and otherwise. In a study conducted by my Alma Mater:) (If you don't know, maybe the color scheme is a clue!), it shows that:"Thus, political scientists note that, compared to other Asian Americans, Indian Americans are “most ideally poised to enter the political arena given their high socio demographic levels and English proficiency.” In addition they are already signaling “a strong presence with the large number of viable candidates, and their campaign donations have no plateau in sight.” The
prediction is that “one should not be surprised to see a more noticeable
presence of Indian-Americans on the political scene in the next few decades.”
It may seem that since some wealthy Indian-Americans may have the money to finance election campaigns, they would be the ideal voters to attract. However, it's that predictable:
"A new study claims that media impressions of Asian American contributions are shaped largely by fast and loose commentary glibly put forth and then recirculated among politicians, activists, pundits, and journalists. “Beyond the many casual statements lacking hard evidence, we know little about the patterns of Asian American campaign contributions.”
So here comes the academia's purpose for research (and to end your guessing game)...
"That’s why Wendy K. Tam Cho and Suneet Lad of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have studied Indian American campaign contributions in their paper entitled 'Subcontinental Divide, Asian Indians and Asian American Politics'. The authors note that although Asian Indians have all the makings of a coveted electoral group (i.e., high income levels and a growing base of voters), research on the extent and character of this group’s political leanings is scant. The authors claim that although Indian Americans have given substantial sums of money, “we have few notions of their political tendencies or the preferences manifested by their donation patterns,” the authors say."
However, I'm not completely satisfied with the results that the article claims the study revealed.
"The study points out that the rate of growth in Indian-American campaign contributions exceed the growth rate of the population. Whereas the Indian-American population has doubled during each decennial census, the rise in contributions has far overshadowed even this phenomenal population growth.
The study concludes that, as a group, Indian Americans “display all the makings of a coveted bloc, untethered to either major party.” They go on to predict “the perfect strategy may engender the group into a partisan fold early and sustain their loyalty for generations to come” and that “the political development of the Asian Indian group is malleable.”
The article poses the following questions, questions which I, myself, would like to have answered:
- Do they vote for their own ethnic candidates?
- Is their socioeconomic status the key variable?
- Whose campaigns are they contributing money?
- Why do they contribute? Do they contribute money to influence politicians?
- Are they successful in pushing their favorite policy issues?
- Or, are they more interested in contributing to Indian-American or even Asian-American candidates as, perhaps, a gesture of ethnic pride or solidarity?
I guess I'll have to read their paper to find out more, but I wish the answers to the questions I mentioned above were more highlighted in the article itself.
posted by payal @ 8:22 PM
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