Fil-Am elected to US Congress; 8 others lose

CHICAGO, Illinois – Ohio state senior Sen. Stephen C. Austria was elected to the US Congress in last Tuesday’s election, becoming only two of the Filipino-Americans to win in the elections across the United States. The only other member of the US Congress to claim Filipino parentage is African-American congressman Robert "Bobby" C. Scott (Democrat, Virginia), whose mother is a daughter of Filipino Valentin Cortez Hamlin. Austria, a Republican, collected 168,666 votes or 58.70 percent against Democrat’s Sharen Neuhardt’s 118,680 votes or 41.30 percent for the open seat of the 7th District of Ohio. His campaign manager, Brad Mascho, referred this reporter to a press statement issued by new congressman as saying, “I am honored to be chosen by the voters of the 7th District and from Fairfield County in particular. I’m ready to go to Washington, roll up my sleeves and get to work." Austria, 50, said, “The No. 1 issue we’ve got to get to work on is the economy. We’ve got to create new jobs and bring new businesses into the area. We’ve got to keep government spending under control, and I’m going to have a challenge in D.C. to do that." Ed Navarra, the region 3 chairman of the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA), broke the news of Austria's election to a NaFFAA mass e-mails that asked Filipino-Americans to extend to him his congratulations and best wishes. Austria was invited by a NaFFAA official Ernie Gange to become a guest at the recent NaFFAA national empowerment convention Seattle, Washington but “decided to stay with his campaign the last minute." Austria is the son of the late Dr. Clement G. Austria, a native of Tiaong, Quezon in the Philippines, and Jean Brockman, a nurse, of Cincinatti, Ohio. In a previous e-mail to this reporter, the senator-turned-congressman’s wife, Eileen, said when he was still very young, Steve went to the Philippines three times in 1960 and 1961 and also spent six weeks in the Philippines shortly after graduating from high school. “Steve’s folks wanted him to stay for good in the Philippines but his mother prevailed upon him to come back to the United States." Eileen said Dr. Austria “graduated from University of Santo Tomas Medical School and fought with guerillas under US Army General Douglas McArthur ... they would stop school to help Americans – then return to school." Eileen said Dr. Austria came to Cincinatti to attend a medical school. “Jean was a nurse and he was a doctor and that is how they met." Steve is the eldest of nine children, who all graduated from Catholic universities and colleges. Steve holds a degree in political science from Marquette University. After working as as financial planner with the American Express for 16 years, Steve ran and won as state representative in Ohio in 1998, moving up to the Ohio Senate in 2000 and was re-elected in 2004. Women candidates Only one other Filipino-American woman candidate out of seven who ran in the presidential elections on Nov. 4 prevailed while two other Filipino-American men who also ran for election also lost. Cheryl Moss was re-elected to another six-year term as district judge of District 8, Family Division, Department I of Las Vegas, Nevada. She collected 314,571 votes or 68.48% to beat her challenger, Greta G. Murhead, who polled 144,811 votes or 31.52%. The other others who lost were Chicago-area real estate lawyer Democrat Aurora Abella Austriaco, who garnered 17,621 votes or 45% against Republican Rosemary Mulligan, who tallied 21,200 votes or 55% to keep her post as State House Representative of the 65th District of Illinois; and Republican Conchita Applegate, who got 16,264 votes against incumbent Democrat Fiona Ma 80,929 votes to keep her grip on California’s State Assembly – District 12. Also losers were Mitz Lee, who had 114,334 or 45% in her failed re-election bid to keep the San Diego (California) Unified School District Board seat from John Lee Evans who polled 136,121 votes or 54.35%; Ditas de los Santos Yamane and Filipino-American gentleman Fideles Ungab, who both lost by placing a distant fourth and sixth by polling 1,911 votes or 13.79% and 1,467 votes or 10.50%, respectively, in a field of eight candidates vying for two vacant slots in the city council of National City, California. Myrna Lim lost also by placing third among eight candidates for the Board of Supervisors, District 11, of San Francisco, California, tallying 2,392 or 16.48% that was led by John Avalos with 4,371 or 30.12% and Ahsha Safai with 3,562 or 24.54%. Noelani Sallings also lost when she placed third with 9,237 votes or 24.40% for the Santa Clara Unified School District TA 2 in California that was led by Albert Gonzales with 13,776 votes or 36.40% and Don Bordenave with 9,745 votes or 25.75%. The only other male Filipino-American candidate to have lost is prominent lawyer Rodel Rodis, who failed in his re-election bid as member of the Community College Board of San Francisco. Rodis placed seventh with 35,319 votes or 7.86% among the 10 candidates vying for the top four slots. Big consolation Although he lost, Rodis said in his column that he was consoled that Sen. Barack Obama won as US president. “But I honestly don’t feel too bad about my loss because Barack Obama won. For my sons, his victory was far more important than mine. “There were 10 Filipino-American candidates who ran for public office in the San Francisco Bay Area and I believe all of us lost." Rodis said. “For many of the candidates, it was sore lack of funding. The Filipino community does not yet understand the political culture of American politics where money is its “mother’s milk. Filipinos would rather spend money gambling in casinos than in supporting political candidates." “In my case, the explanation for my loss can be found in the question I posed in a recent column “Daly’s City?". The answer turned out to be a resounding “Yes". Supervisor Chris Daly targeted me for defeat and he prevailed. The three district supervisorial candidates he backed (Eric Mar, David Chiu and John Avalos), who were labeled as his “puppets" in a TV campaign commercial, were all elected. The candidates he backed for the College Board also won." - GMANews.TV