From left Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Dr. Akshay Desai and Dr. Ami Shah at an event organized by the Pan Asian American Leadership Caucus (PAALC) at Piaget Boutique on Fifth Avenue in New York on Sept 1. (Photo: Mohammed Jaffer/SnapsIndia).

Bush-Cheney ’04, the campaign to re-elect President George W. Bush come Nov. 2, announced on Aug. 30 the members it has selected to spearhead the newly formed Asian Pacific American National Steering Committee (APANSC). Among them are several leading Indian-American fund-raisers for the party.

Headed by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, the new Committee’s 75 members include the Republican Party’s leading Indian-American fund-raiser Dr. Zach Zachariah, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Dr. Raghavendra Vijayanagar, a heart surgeon in Tampa, Florida, and founder and chairman of the Indian American Republican Council; Joseph Melookaran, a chartered accountant and businessman from Overland Park, Kansas; as well as Pakistani American Ahmed Kabani, a Miami-based hotel and tourism industry businessman.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ahmed Kabani, a delegate from Florida, and Labor Secretary Chao at the PAALC on Sept. 1.

A majority of the members of the APANSC are of Chinese-American descent as well as other East Asian Americans. Dr. Zachariah, director of cardiology at Holy Cross Hospital, is in the highly regarded “Ranger” category of fund-raisers for the party, and formerly served on President Bush’s White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission. Dr. Vijayanagar, a member of the Florida Board of Medicine, is a member of the Asian Pacific Islander Commission and has received numerous awards, including the 2004 Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Melookaran is president of JMA Chartered, and chairman of the Kansas City Asian American Chamber of Commerce as well as a member of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

Kabani owns Miami Center Travel Inc., and was recently appointed to the Miami Dade Community Relations Board. He is also president of the Pakistan American Chamber of Commerce in Florida and is the Co-Chair of the Bush-Cheney ’04 Florida Asian Pacific Americans. Most analysts as well as the two opposing campaigns for the presidency believe it will be a close race in November and are moving aggressively to get out the vote in a country where the voting public has generally been going less and less to the polls come election day.

Labor Secretary Chao at an event organized by the Asian Pacific Americans for Bush on Aug. 30. (Photos: Ela Dutt)

During an earlier call-in briefing, Mina Nguyen, Bush-Cheney ’04 Regional Coalition’s director, in response to a question from News India-Times, said the Republican Party was doing with Indian Americans what it is doing to outreach other minorities. “We recruit people at the grassroots,” as regional chairs or state chairs to reach out to their communities, she said.

“We are particularly proud of this (Indian-American) community in terms of fund-raising for the President... It shows their support even in times that have been very challenging. We are recruiting chairs and vice chairs at state and regional levels –– Chinese Americans, Indian Americans.” The president’s re-election campaign says it has recruited close to 10,000 Asian Pacific American Bush volunteers and has over 60 county, state and regional chairs across the country.