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Super Tuesday!

November 7, 2013

Korean Americans fare well in general elections across U.S. 

Soo Yoo and her supporters were all smiles as the election results came in.

Soo Yoo and her supporters were all smiles as the election results came in.

Soo Yoo, left, and Delegate Mark Keam.

Soo Yoo, left, and Delegate Mark Keam.

Korean American candidates fared rather well in Tuesday’s general election across the United States.

In Southern California, a Cerritos educator, Soo Y. Yoo, was elected to the ABC Unified District. She came in second behind incumbent Lynda Johnson with 3,337 (24.48%) votes.

Voters who live in the district, which includes neighborhoods in Artesia, Cerritos, Lakewood, Norwalk, Hawaiian Gardens and Long Beach, had a choice between four candidates who sought three seats. Yoo said “I would like to, first of all, make an effort to be a good student, learn my role as a board member. But, most importantly, I would like to use all my years as an educator and as a college admissions consultant to enhance the district for students,” in her post election interview with the Press-Telegram.

In the neighboring city of Hawaiian Gardens, however, Phil An’s bid to become a city councilman fell short. An received 146 votes to come in seventh among eight candidates, but only 72 votes behind the third place finisher.

Incumbents Virginia Democrat Delegate Mark Keam and New Jersey Republican State Senator Kevin O’Toole were both re-elected for a third term. Senator O’Toole’s mother is Korean.

In New Jersey, Palisades Park City Councilman Jason Kim and Fort Lee School Board President Yusang Park successfully kept their seats, and Daniel Park won a seat as a Tenafly city council member in his first attempt.

I-Ho Pomeroy, known as Lee I-Ho to Koreans, also won in Bozeman, Montana to become a city councilwoman, but Shari Song appears to have come up short in Washington state’s King County Council race.