Chu vs. Chu: Unique Congressional Face-Off

MICHEL MARTIN, host:

And now we go to California where a special election is taking place today. At stake is the 32nd Congressional district seat vacated by former Congresswoman Hilda Solis. She left that post to become President Obama's Labor Secretary. Voters will choose between two women named Chu, that's Judy Chu, the Democrat, and Betty Chu, the Republican. The candidates, both Chinese-Americans are vying for the seat in a predominantly Latino district. Here to tell us more is Rebecca Kimitch. She is a reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

Ms. REBECCA KIMITCH (Reporter, San Gabriel Valley Tribune): Hi, thanks for having me here.

MARTIN: Before we get to the candidates, I do have to ask, are they related? I understand that they are.

Ms. KIMITCH: They are by marriage. Betty Chu is married to Judy Chu's husband. I'm sorry married to Judy Chu's cousin.

MARTIN: And I understand that Judy Chu, the Democrat is heavily favored, it's a - it's considered a Democratic leaning district. And I do want to mention that there's another candidate, a Libertarian, Christopher Agrella.

Ms. KIMITCH: Christopher Agrella, yes. And it is a heavily Democratic district. It's - registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans about two to one. And Democrats in the primary pulled in about 70 percent of votes, so.

MARTIN: Is there any and forgive me. But is - Hilda Solis had represented the district. It's my understanding that it's heavily Latino, it's just, I think, interesting to people perhaps who don't live there how it is that two Chinese-Americans came to be the representatives of the respective top political parties…

Ms. KIMITCH: Absolutely.

MARTIN: …vying for the seat.

Ms. KIMITCH: Absolutely. Yes, it is a heavily Latino district. It's about 64 percent Latino and about 20 percent Asian, as well. So there is a large Asian population as well. And it is - the primary is kind of what's seen as the main event because it is such a Democratic district. And the race, the main event that people watched was the race between Judy Chu and Gil Cedillo, a state Senator who's very well-known in Latino political circles. He's part of the Latino movement that really pushed Latinos forward in Los Angeles politics.

But part of the situation was, he's kind of an outsider in the 32nd District and in the San Gabriel Valley. There's part of the district, East Los Angeles that he was raised in and he did grow up in part of the district. But as far as his political career, it was mostly just outside of the district.

MARTIN: And finally Rebecca, are there any national themes emerging in this race? I mean, typically, special elections don't draw the same attention and turn out that the regularly scheduled ones do. Any big things we should be looking toward when we look at the result?

Ms. KIMITCH: Well it is this question of whether these two Asian-Americans that are in this post-racial world. So that's part of one of the questions and or whether Latinos can consider a Chinese-American as part of - as also representing minorities in a way so that, you know, when they're voting for her, they're not necessarily voting against Latinos but also for another minority, who can represent their needs when it comes to immigration, bilingual issues, discrimination, ESL in education and things like that?

MARTIN: And finally, turn out as we said, special elections typically don't draw that much interest. But is there in this case?

Ms. KIMITCH: Right, well, during the primary, there was about 23 percent turnout - and that certainly had something to do with the results. It's hard to say whether these Chinese-Americans would have won had there been a larger Latino turnout. And when it comes to today's election, you know, they're looking at about single digits, maybe 10 percent, 11 percent.

MARTIN: All right. Rebecca Kimitch is a reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. She was kind enough to join us from our NPR West studios in Culver City. Thank you so much for joining us.

Ms. KIMITCH: My pleasure.

MARTIN: We'll keep you posted about the results of the special election on our Web site at npr.org.

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