It's very interesting. In the television campaigns, I've seen ads for Phil Angelides that feature his three daughters, and on his website, there's pictures with him and his family. I hadn't heard anything about Steve Westley's family. On his website, the very last paragraph on his 'about' page mentions his wife Anita Yu and his two young children, but has no pictures. I wonder if that's because his children are younger and he wants to protect them, or that he doesn't want to potentially turn off some voters because they're Asian.
Actually, I didn't even know that his wife was a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong until I read this article about her visit at the Rafu Shimpo Online:
Wife of Gubernatorial Candidate Tours Little Tokyo
By MICHIKO TAMURA
Rafu Staff Writer
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Anita Yu Westly, wife of Steve Westly, visits Little Tokyo in campaign for JA vote.
In series of events entitled “Connecting with the Asian American Community,” Anita Yu Westly, wife of State Controller and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly, visited Little Tokyo Tuesday.
Westly, who is a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong, started the campaign earlier this month to help her husband in his race against State Treasurer Phil Angelides for the Democratic nomination for governor in the June 6 primary election.
Both candidates have been actively courting the Asian American vote. Angelides’ endorsements include Reps. Mike Honda and Doris Matsui and Korean American attorney Angela Oh; while Westly has been endorsed by Gardena Mayor Paul Tanaka, Assemblymembers Ted Lieu and Judy Chu among others.
“My husband’s been always a leader in Asian American issues probably because of me and our family,” Westly said. “We have two young children, and when he comes home at night, he’s looking at an Asian American family. So it will be something that will always be reminded of when he’s thinking of policy.”
Read the entire article...
The article also mentions that their foundation made a major grant in the capital campaign for the Little Tokyo Service Center's Far East Cafe building project.
