David Wu (吳振偉), the first Taiwan-born member of the US Congress, is in a tight race for re-election.
“It’s a very serious situation,” he said on Wednesday.
Wu, a Democrat from the state of Oregon, has been in Congress for 12 years and won his last re-election bid with a substantial 71 percent of the vote, but in this anti-incumbent year with US President Barack Obama falling ever lower in the popularity polls, there are growing signs that the Republicans could recapture the House of Representatives and threaten even the once-safe seats of long-serving members such as Wu.
Born in Hsinchu in 1955, Wu’s family moved to the US in 1961 and he has a law degree from Yale.
A member of the Taiwan Caucus and supporter of pro-Taiwan legislation, Wu is only a few percentage points ahead of Republican opponent Rob Cornilles, a wealthy Oregon businessman who is married to a Chinese-American woman.
With the election just over three months away and with Republican momentum growing across the country, the Wu-Cornilles race is considered too close to call.
At a press lunch held at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters, Wu made no secret of his discomfort.
“If there was ever a time to help, this is it,” he said.
The right-wing New York Post recently reported that most of the relevant public polling indicated that Republicans were in a position “to compete” for the 40 seats they need to take the House and the big race to watch as an indication of what could happen, the newspaper said, was Wu’s re-election bid in Oregon’s First Congressional District.
“Cornilles has access to personal wealth and is considered by national Republicans to be a solid candidate who has thus far run a very professional, credible race,” the newspaper said.
As it heats up, the race could get both personal and dirty.
The Cornilles camp has already released a video of Wu driving a big black “gas-guzzling” SUV and contrasting it with his votes for tougher fuel-efficiency standards.
During the press lunch, Wu said that he was confident a resolution calling on the Obama administration to push for observer status for Taiwan at the International Civil Aviation Organization would pass this week and that it would have an impact on White House policies.
He also said that he had been disappointed with the outcome of a meeting held earlier this week with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to discuss the participation of Asian-American and Pacific Islander funds in Treasury Department programs.
Wu accused Geithner of displaying a “cavalier and insensitive attitude.”
“The days of an all-Ivy League financial leadership in lock-step, both in attitude and background, are over. America is the land of aspiration,” he said. “We are at our best when we encourage the aspirations of all, rather than the chosen few.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS