Hank Gilbert Adds APIA Outreach Director

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 04:45 PM CST

Hank Gilbert has enlisted political dynamo Geeyung Li to serve as APIA Outreach Director. Gilbert is the first candidate to create and fill an APIA outreach position for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary. With the selection of Li, Gilbert has doubly demonstrated his valuing of the Asian American community.

Li is not only the first Outreach Director (of any identity group) for the Gilbert Campaign, but Li is also the first Asian American enlisted to a senior position in any of the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial campaigns. The Schieffer campaign has an Asian American on the campaign committee, but otherwise only has Asian Americans in low-level volunteer positions. The Shami campaign has yet to formally launch and therefore has no Asian American in any position. The Friedman campaign had the, for lack of a better word, "best" response to my query:

While we have a Jew, a Palestinian, and a redneck, we do not yet have any Asian-American staffers.

We have not considered race, ethnicity, gender or sex in our hiring at this time, but would expect our campaign and a Kinky administration to look like Texas.

When reached for comment about his joining the Gilbert campaign, Li said:

I am excited and humbled by the opportunity to serve the Asian American community. I believe the focus and outreach that Hank Gilbert has is the right step towards not only identifying and communicating the tangible needs that exist within such a diverse ethnic group, but also in building a group of civically engaged Asians that can have a permanent voice on the state level. I hope we can move forward on that, even if it is a small step, during this election cycle.