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Political Mobilization and Incorporation: The Case of Vietnamese-Americans in Orange County, California

Abstract In a February 6, 2007 special election to fill the vacated first district seat for the Orange County Board of Supervisors, two Vietnamese-American candidates surprised local political observers by passing the pre-election front-runners and sharing, almost equally, just under half of the total votes cast, guaranteeing the seating of a Vietnamese-American as an Orange County Supervisor. Anecdotal reports claim their success was due to extensive, successful mobilization efforts among Vietnamese-Americans, resulting in election of a coethnic supervisor and, hence, greater political incorporation. A year later the victor, then the incumbent, faced only Vietnamese-American opponents (two) to win reelection. We use registration and vote history data and elite interviews to assess whether mobilization of the Vietnamese-American community occurred. Because the February 2007 election was a special election, mobilization and turnout can be studied independent of the confounding effects of other contests. We find evidence for ethnically-specific mobilization in 2007 and for continuation in 2008 when ethnic solidarity rather than ethnic victory was at stake. However, the evidence suggests that there is little carryover to another contest with no ethnic resonance. Elite interviews demonstrate that the mobilization was elite-led. Surprisingly, we find no evidence that the presumed mechanism -- differential encouragement of absentee ballots -- actually mattered. This work provides evidence for the existence and processes of elite mobilization of a newly incorporated group.