Choi Jun, center, mayor of Edison, New Jersey in the United States
By Michael Ha
Contributing Writer

In the United States, political trailblazer Choi Jun scored an important political victory this month. In a local election, Choi, mayor for the city of Edison, New Jersey, saw all four candidates he had endorsed for the city council get approval from voters. This now gives him the majority support he has sought in the council and boosts Choi's political base to carry out government initiatives.

It was just two years ago that Choi opened a new chapter for Korean-Americans when he was elected as mayor of Edison, an ethnically diverse city 30 minutes away from New York with a population of more than 100,000.

He became the first popularly elected mayor of Korean descent in the continental United States.

Currently half way through his four-year term he spoke with The Korea Times to discuss the recent election results in his city and reflected on his experience as a mayor.

``Now, most of the political obstacles thrown my way have been removed,'' he said. ``And now we can dedicate a significant amount of time for the government agenda such as fiscal discipline and reorganizing our government, better planning and development patterns, and education and allow people of all backgrounds to participate in the political process.''

During the first two years in office, Choi said, the people in the city ``gave me a mandate'' to reform government and institute positive changes in our political system. The first two years were a period of transition. It was a lot of hard work. It was a challenging period but also a period of hope and optimism because we were able to move forward on a lot of initiatives.''

The mayor is continuing to advance on several government initiatives. They include reorganizing and making the government more efficient, as well as modernizing and revitalizing the city's economy. He is also focusing on improving the public educational system. ``We are instituting a lot of steps with fiscal responsibilities. And we focused a lot on education in our first year. We also formed a mayor's task force on education,'' he said. ``Through this initiative, we developed a comprehensive 10-year plan for our largest educational problem, the school overcrowding.''

He also chairs the task force, made up of 24 New Jersey mayors, that focuses on improving the public education system in his state. Local media reports, citing government workers, say that the city head is usually the first one to arrive at work and the last one to leave at the city government.

He hadn't always planned on becoming a politician. When he was growing up in Edison,, he had his eyes set on becoming a fighter pilot and an astronaut. He studied aeronautical engineering at MIT but he changed his goals after deciding that politics offered a more direct and practical means of bringing improvements. Prior to being elected to office, Choi served in the New Jersey Department of Education and also formerly worked at the White House Budget Office and as a management consultant.

He decided to make a run for the mayor's office two years ago when the incumbent Democratic mayor, whose city has been subject to corruption investigations, announced that he was running for re-election. With no other candidates from the Democratic Party appearing to challenge the incumbent, Choi saw an opportunity and stepped up to the election.

His progressive, good-government, anti-cronyism message attracted municipal employees and he also won support from major unions by opposing the opening of Wal-Mart stores in the city. Giant Wal-Mart stores, while offering low prices for consumers, are criticized in the United States for their low-wage jobs and critics also argue that Wal-Mart stores hurt local businesses and the economy.

Choi currently governs over a sprawling and diverse city. Looking at the city's demographics, white non-Hispanics make up 55 percent of the population, while Asian-Indians constitute 17 percent. African-Americans make up seven percent while Hispanics and ethnic Chinese constitute more than six percent each. Ethnic Koreans make up less than two percent.

And Choi has also been helping more Asian-Americans get involved in the American political process. He is the founding chair of the Korean American League for Civic Action. The group, formed in 2000, provides leadership training and civic education for Korean and other Asian Americans and helps civic participation in Asian Pacific American communities. The group also monitors voting at poll sites and responds to voter complaints during elections.

Discriminatory action at election polls continues in the U.S., according to testimony by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national organization that aims to protect and promote the civil rights of Asian-Americans.

According to the U.S. Senate Web site, the fund's director Margaret Fung told Congress last year: ``Anti-Asian remarks by elected officials and poll workers, combined with voter harassment, improper identification checks, and the outright refusal to provide language assistance required by the Voting Rights Act, demonstrate that Asian-Americans still face hostility at the polls today.''

Choi's favorite quote comes from Mahatma Gandhi: ``You must be the change you wish to see in the world.'' He is proof that one can indeed help bring forth the change that one wants to see in the world. ``What I always believed, why I helped form the Korean American League for Civic Action as the first chair of this organization, is that we need greater voter and political education in our community, and that as a community, we need to, we have to, get more politically involved. We just have to,'' he said. ``We have no choice if we want a country that's going to support us and give us opportunities.''