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Korean American candidates make last-ditch effort to win votes

November 3, 2014

Michelle Park Steel, left, and Young Kim, right, during their campaigns for the Nov. 4 general election. (Park Ji-hye/The Korea Times)

Southern Californian Korean American candidates running in tomorrow’s general elections engaged in last-minute hands-on campaigning this weekend.

Orange County Supervisor 2nd District candidate Michelle Park Steel and State Assembly 65th District candidate Young Kim, both Republicans, spent a busy weekend appealing to voters despite the rain.

Steel, who is the first-ever Korean American up for a supervisor seat in Southern California, attended an event Saturday benefiting Alzheimer’s disease in Huntington Beach, Calif., to meet with voters at a booth.

Her camp said they were targeting undecided voters in Huntington Beach, an area that makes up about one-third of Steel’s potential constituents with a population of about 200,000.

“Of the about 4,000 Korean American voters in the area, about 1,200 had voted as of Saturday morning,” Steel said. “The only way to show power to the American government for yourself and for the Korean American community is through voting.”

After campaigning out of her Stanton, Calif., headquarters, Steel continued at a Korean church in Orange County Sunday.

Kim spent Saturday with 100 volunteer supporters from Sacramento campaigning around the Fullerton area.

She said she’s rounded each area five or six times during her campaign to meet with Korean American voters. Her camp has also focused on phone campaigns to get every last vote.

Southern California will see 10 Korean Americans vying for seats in the election, including State Senate 24th District Democratic candidate Peter Choi and State Assembly 60th District Democratic candidate Ken Park.