By Naomi Silver

Last Sunday at the Des Peres Lodge, a large group of people, mostly Asian-Americans, repeated the words "Voting Is Power." For the first time ever, representatives from six major Asian-American communities in St. Louis County came together to host a forum for the St. Louis County Executive race.

Incumbent Charlie Dooley, Democrat, and former St. Louis County Executive Gene McNary, Republican, were welcomed by an audience of close to 100 people from organizations representing many of the 100,000 Asian-Americans living in the St. Louis area. Also present at the forum were Anna Crosslin, President and CEO of the International Institute, Anne Rynearson, Senior VP for Culture and Community at the International Institute, and Bill Federer, Republican candidate for the third congressional district.

The event was organized by Dr. Cody Ding, of The Organization for Chinese-Americans (OCA), and co-chaired by Eling Lam from OCA. Rene Foronda, President of the St. Louis Philippine-Americans, opened the forum; Jay Kim, President of the St. Louis Korean-American Association, served as moderator; and Jason Tang, President of the Organization for Chinese- Americans, made the concluding remarks.

Sponsors included the Organization for Chinese-Americans, the St. Louis Korean-American Association, the Coalition of Asian-Pacific Americans, the St. Louis Philippine-Americans, and the Japanese-American Citizen League,

The two candidates were given opportunities to voice their opinions and answer questions during several portions of the forum. Charlie Dooley began his opening remarks segment of the forum by recounting his 25 years of experience in a variety of public offices and briefly named the issues he considered to be most vital to the St. Louis area: creation of jobs, the economy, quality healthcare, and safety. Mr. Dooley also spoke about the importance of partnering with St. Louis City and other counties, as well as partnering with St. Louis area's Asian-American communities.

In his opening remarks, Mr. McNary introduced himself and spoke about his qualifications for the position of County Executive. He cited his experience as County Executive for 15 years, as well as his role as head of the INS under former President George Bush. He described his extensive travel throughout Asia as an immigration lawyer, and he acknowledged the contributions to our region by St. Louis's Asian-American communities. Each candidate was then given two minutes to answer questions previouslysubmitted by the various organizations to the moderators.

The first question addressed by the candidates was whether or not they had Asian-Americans on staff. Mr. McNary replied that he would attempt to hire a diverse staff and pointed out that his law partner is Chinese-American. Mr. Dooley stressed that although he currently does not have any Asian-Americans on staff, he is sensitive to minority needs because of his experiences as an African-American.

The issue of relations between Americans and new immigrants was raised when the candidates were asked how they would help to integrate new Hispanic and Asian immigrants into St. Louis's American communities. Mr. Dooley said that he would fight hate crimes and that he had, in fact, fought to get a hate crime bill passed in the county. Mr. McNary pointed out the contributions that recent immigrant communities had made to neighborhoods, using the Bosnian revitalization of the Bevo area as an example. He also said that he would promote cultural fairs to promote immigrant populations.

The candidates were also asked what their top three priorities would be if elected to office. Mr. Dooley listed jobs, healthcare, and safety. He mentioned increasing the number of jobs in the St. Louis region through a proposed casino in St. Louis County, as well as through future plans for Lambert International Airport. Mr. McNary said he considered the economy to be his priority because he believes that a healthy economy is paramount to solving all other issues. He criticized Mr. Dooley's mishandling of the county budget, suggesting Mr. Dooley's administration had created a deficit that would cause the county to lose its' triple-A bond rating. Mr. Dooley later refuted the claim that the county budget was not balanced, saying that it is, in fact, balanced as required by law.

The issue of the increase in property taxes in the county was also raised. Mr. McNary said that assessments must be fair, and that he opposes drive-by property tax assessments. Mr. Dooley stated that the county has not increased the tax rate for the past 16 years, and he said that if elected, he would work to freeze the tax rate for senior citizens.

When asked how the candidates would work with Asian-American communities to
promote trade between our region and Asia, Mr. Dooley responded that he his administration has been working with China and Indonesia. Mr. McNary responded that his campaign would make use of talent within local Asian-American communities to promote trade.

Each candidate was asked how his administration would help small business owners to prosper. Mr. Dooley spoke about the St. Louis County Economic Council's business "incubator centers" in place, with a fourth one planned to help mentor small business owners. Mr. McNary discussed improving St. Louis's infrastructure, streamlining the business permit procedure to make it easier to establish businesses, and re-developing older suburbs to help businesses flourish. Both candidates also addressed the need to provide loans to small business owners.

The final question was about funding the new Cardinal's stadium. The candidates were asked if they were in favor of providing public funding for new arts facilities instead of funding a new stadium for the Cardinals. Mr. McNary mentioned how much the Cardinals benefit St. Louis by attracting people, both local and tourists, to the downtown area. Mr. Dooley said he supports funding the arts in order to sustain the quality of life we enjoy in St. Louis, and he pointed out the source of funds for the new stadium does not come out of the pockets of St. Louis residents but rather from taxes on hotels and motels.

The question segment of the forum ended with open-floor questions that were collected from the audience. The focus of all four questions was on jobs and the economy.

Finally, the candidates made some brief closing remarks, and Mr. Tang asked the audience to share the information from the forum with their communities. He also reminded community representatives to encourage members of their communities to register to vote by October 5 and to vote in the general election on November 2. As the forum concluded, the candidates were presented with plaques in appreciation of their participation in the forum. Engraved on each plaque was the new motto of the Asian-American community, "Voting Is Power."