In Fort Lee and Palisades Park, Asian voters worry about hate crime, affirmative action

Crime and affirmative action motivated Asian immigrant voters to head to the polls in Palisades Park and Fort Lee on Tuesday.

As residents of bedroom communities for New York City, Asian voters on Tuesday said they were affected by anti-Asian hate crimes and that they believe public safety must be a top priority for government at the local, state and federal levels.

More than 1 million New Jersey residents identified as Asian, a 44% increase from the 725,726 who identified as Asian in the 2010 census. The Asian population grew 31% in Bergen County over the course of a decade.

According to the 2022 Asian American Voter Survey by APIA Vote, more than two-thirds of registered Asian Americans surveyed said they plan to vote, but only about half have been contacted by either of the major parties. Of those surveyed, 52% of Asian Americans said they had not been contacted at all by the Democratic Party in the past year, and 60% of Asian Americans said they had not been contacted at all by the Republican Party in the past year.

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What voters said

Xiumin Hu of Fort Lee is registered as an unaffiliated voter, but chose to vote for Republican candidates this election. Hu, who immigrated from China 17 years ago, supports LGBTQ and abortion rights, but is against affirmative action and deals with crime as a nurse in New York City, she said Tuesday afternoon at Aquarius Seafood Restaurant in Fort Lee.

Yujie Dong of Fort Lee is also an unaffiliated voter and split her ticket. She said economy is the top issue she cares about. As an Asian woman, she is also concerned about crime as many of her friends who work in New York City are harassed.

“Something has to be done,” Dong said in Mandarin. Dong is an immigrant from China who immigrated to Queens 13 years ago, and said she supports LGBTQ and abortion rights, but they are not her top priorities. She is against affirmative action and believes in a colorblind society.

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Dong said the candidates do a bad job of outreach. She doesn’t feel that she knows the local candidates and that the county executive and commissioner positions are interchangeable.

“They take it for granted," she said of candidates. "It’s a Democratic county."

Koreans square off for mayor in Palisades Park

Palisades Park, known as Koreatown, is making history as two Korean Americans face off in the general election for mayor. The borough of 21,000 is home to one of the largest Korean American populations in the country. More than 60% of people here identify as Asian. The commercial strip features Korean restaurants, karaoke houses and K-pop fashion boutiques.

Chong Paul Kim is the Democratic nominee after defeating incumbent Mayor Chris Chung in a Democratic primary. Stephanie Jang is the Republican nominee. Both currently serve on the Borough Council.

Jang said she is running because she is tired of corruption in the town and one-party rule. She promised to root out corruption if elected.

Kim said he is concerned about infrastructure and business in Palisades Park and if elected would work to improve the borough.

Juan Rameric, 55, is supporting Jang.

"I want an end to the corruption,” he said.

Yong Jin Ahn, 81, is supporting Kim.

“He’s a good man. He treats everyone kindly," he said.

Both Kim and Jang promised to clean up the borough, pointing to a state comptroller's report last year noting that Palisades Park wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars by ignoring laws that restrict sick-time payouts, approving contracts that allowed borough officials to pad six-figure salaries and disregarding rules to protect public funds.

Crowds were brisk on Election Day as the candidates campaigned outside Lindbergh Elementary School in the morning. It was busy at the Palisades Park Library polling site as well.

"This is busier than a presidential year," an election monitor observed out loud at one point on Tuesday.

Mary Chao is a columnist focused on Asian communities for NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Group.

Email: mchao@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Asian voters worry about crime, affirmative action