80-20 aims to deliver a block vote of Asian Americans (80% to 20%) to one candidate who can best advance issues Asian Americans care most about. Specifically, 80-20 has been pushing for presidential candidates to explicitly pledge enforcement of laws for equal opportunity employment.
During the primary, all democratic candidates made the pledge while none of the republican candidates did. 80-20 endorsed Clinton in California (sort of as a show of force) but stayed neutral for the rest of the primary. Clinton got over 70% of Asian American votes in California (compare this to another voting bloc, 60% of Hispanic votes that went to Clinton).
80-20 is a nonpartisan PAC whose members consist of democrats, republicans, and independents. Its convention at Foster City, CA this year was attended by equal number of delegates from both major parties (1/3 democrats, 1/3 republicans, and 1/3 independents). At the end the convention voted to endorse Obama for president. As reported by the Huffington Post,
The Obama campaign sent surrogate Ted Lieu, a California assemblyman, to speak at the convention. The campaign also sent a video message from Obama's sister, who is half-Asian. The McCain campaign sent no representative. At the end of the day, all the delegates unified in support, based on what they described as unequivocal commitment from the Obama campaign to better the rights of Asian Americans.
Victor Lee said he would tell Republican friends beyond the Asian community to vote for Obama, because he said he'd like to spread the word and get the candidate in office who can deliver on the promise of giving Asian Americans the opportunities they deserve.
Lee was not the only Republican delegate feeling disappointed in McCain. Charles Zhang, a Republican from Michigan, said of their endorsement, "I know we'll probably pay more taxes. But the most important thing for Asian Americans is equal opportunity and justice...I hope during the next election, the Republican will do more for the Asian American community."
The email to its members announcing this endorsement says,
Why Obama? For two reasons.
First, Sen. Obama committed unequivocally to give Asian American
equal opportunity, while Sen. McCain did not. See Sen. Obama's signed
commitment to us below: http://www.80-20.us/...
Second, Sen. Obama's party did more deeds for Asian Americans in the
last 4 years. On Oct. 25, 2006, the Chair of The Democratic National
Comm., Gov. Howard Dean, wrote to the President of 80-20, promising to
work with 80-20 to encourage the Congress to hold a public hearing
on the glass ceiling over Asian Americans in workplaces. After the
Democrats gained control of the House and the Senate, the legislation
sponsored by Congressman David Wu (D), was finally passed by
Congress, giving underserved Asian American students the same
educational assistance long available to other minority groups -- a
historic first. Democrats sponsored immigration bills favoring family
reunion, and legislations with stiff penalty for hate crimes. All of the
above areas are important to the Asian American community.
No mention of McCain's "gook" comment which is widely known in the As-Am community.
Perhaps as a compromise to the republican members, the endorsement did contain one caveat: If McCain chooses Bobby Jindal as VP (who is Asian), then 80-20 will reconvene its convention and reconsider its endorsement. But no promise was made that the endorsement would automatically go to an Asian candidate.