Chirinjeev Kathuria, Republican, running for U.S. Senate, from Illinois, Primaries, March 16.	Bobby Jindal, Republican, running for Congress, Louisiana, 1st District, Primaries, Sept. 18.	Rohit Khanna, Democrat, running for Congress, California, 12th District, Primaries, March 2.
Peter Mathews, Democrat, 5th run for Congress, California, 37th District, Primaries, March 2.	Ayesha Nariman, Democrat, 2nd run for Congress, California, 26 District, Primaries, Sept. 14.	Timothy Phillips, Republican, running for Congress, Oregon, 1st District, Primaries, May 18.

Q: As Indian-American candidates, have you had support from the Indian-American community?

ROHIT KHANNA: I think that the leadership of the Indian-American community ---- the Rajat Guptas, the Suhas Joshis, the Vinod Khoslas ---- have been extraordinarily supportive. My frustration has been that even with getting the support of some of these very high profile community leaders there has not been a broad-based recognition of the importance of political activism. Now, I am going to continue to fight for that.
CHIRINJEEV KATHURIA: In an 8-way race with 7 white males running ---- this could be the only time in U.S. history that if the South Asians were to come together, they could influence the outcome of a Senate race. I only need between 100,000 and 150,000 votes and there are about 60,000 South Asians (in Illinois). In terms of funding I put in a third of my own personal money. These are very expensive races. In spite of being the richest ethnic community it hasn’t been the easiest of things. I have my opponents spending $40 million, I’ve contributed now just a little bit less than a million dollars. I’m only asking the Indian community to give $50 or $100. If a 1,000 Indians or 2,000 Indians would give a $100 or $50 we could each raise a million dollars. One of the major papers wrote an article about my not being able to raise much from the Indian community. Running for political office needs courage to go out there and put your neck on the block. It’s tough. It tears up your personal life, it tears up your business life.

Q: If I heard Rohit correctly, Rohit feels that the money came in because of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who he knows personally.
KHANNA: If I had raised $600,000 for this election I would have won hands down. I’ve raised about $300,000. I’ve incurred an extraordinary debt with this campaign. I’m not going to run again if I’m faced with the same problem of not having the support. It takes an awful lot to do it and I think to encourage people to do it we need to figure out some way of forming a better structure for fundraising.

Q: Both of you are on the same page on the money issue, which is very interesting. To Chirinjeev the voter base makes a difference because of the factors that he just explained. In your district does the Indian-American vote matter?

KHANNA : The Indian American vote could be somewhat helpful, but it’s not going to be decisive. It’s less than 1 percent of the vote.

Q: Some Indian Americans are troubled with the thought of supporting a candidate just because he/she is an Indian American. They say it is the issues that matter. If you were not a candidate, how would you vote?
KHANNA : We don’t have representation in Congress, we don’t have representation in the Senate, we don’t have representation in the State Legislatures and so we need to put these differences aside and unite as an Indian-American community to gain representation and then debate about the differences.
KATHURIA : Indians don’t realize that there is going to be a backlash on outsourcing against the Indian community. And the fact is there is no better person to represent the Indian community other than an Indian American. The Republican Party desperately needs to outreach to minorities while the Democratic Party has traditionally been supportive of (immigrants including) Indians. If the community does not get behind our candidates we’re going to think twice about running.
Q: The Jewish model of political activism has been successful. They support candidates on issues and not on ethnicity.

KHANNA : I can speak from my experience in this race. The person who I am running against (Representative Tom Lantos) has drawn support from the Jewish community and raised a million some dollars from both Republicans and Democrats. I think the Jewish community has been extraordinarily successful at fundraising. I don’t think that we should go out and necessarily support every person who is Indian American who puts his/her name on the ballot. But I think if the person has support outside the Indian-American community or a real chance of winning then the community should support the candidate. There are so many systemic disadvantages being an Indian-American candidate when you don’t have a grandfather who is a State Senator or Congressman, you don’t have a demographic base, there is an ethnic factor which is unpredictable ---- the only way to neutralize that is with strong support from within the community.
KATHURIA : I spent five years of my life after business school going back to India helping start the economic growth engine. I knew I was going to have to fight Republican politics but to have to fight Indian politics ... I think unfortunately there are some jealousies in our community. I think I see it less among the younger people but more among the older people. I think we need to put aside differences because besides us these kids who are in college and who want to get up and get involved in politics they need to see that there is a (viable) option.

Q: How does one look for electability in a candidate?
KHANNA : I think that what one should look for is the vision and the commitment for public service, the perseverance to make it in politics and a reasonable chance of winning. But it’s the person ultimately that matters the most. And then I think a good yardstick is the support the person has from outside the Indian-American community. The reality is that any candidate starting out is an underdog. He’s an unknown. In the first few races, he is not going to be favored to win.
KATHURIA : We’ve got the former chairman of all the Republican counties chairing our campaign. The third largest voting block, the Independent voters, endorsed us. So, if a group of 900,000 voters can come out and endorse us, why can’t the Indian community come out and get together and endorse us? That’s what I think is the key. So the question to ask is, is this person strong enough that if he doesn’t win this time, does he have the ability to keep on going and running? An Indian is never going to be a frontrunner. Some of the candidates like us, the newcomers, might eventually become frontrunners but someone has got to take that road.

Q: Political contributions are often given for photo-ops ---- particularly my generation. A photo with a young candidate who is not known may not be as attractive.
KHANNA : Indian-American community has spent millions of dollars funding everyone from Al Gore to Clinton, these are people that I admire. The reality is that we still don’t have representation. It’s just a question of whether those photo-ops are really worth that much or if its better to have people whose cell phone numbers you have and you can just pick up the phone and call.
KATHURIA : Rohit hit it on the mark. People are losing their jobs and they blame it on India. There is no better person to represent the community other than an Indian American.
(Transcribed by Sarvottam Rao)