Judy Chu can trace the beginnings of her career as a San Gabriel Valley activist and political leader back to the early 1970s and her freshman year in college.
As the young math major, intent on a career in computer science, was crossing the UC Santa Barbara quad one day, someone thrust into her hand a flier about a new Asian American studies course. She decided to give it a try.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, July 17, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
Judy Chu profile: An article in Thursday's Section A about Judy Chu, newly elected to a San Gabriel Valley congressional seat, erroneously described Jose Calderon as an associate professor at Pitzer College. He is a tenured professor in sociology and Chicano studies.
"It was like a light went off in my head," Chu recalled. She learned about the history of Asian immigrants and their children, the discrimination and stereotypes they endured and their contributions to American life and culture.
One of the guest speakers was Pat Sumi, a third-generation Japanese American whose activism included registering blacks to vote in Mississippi and Georgia and organizing protests against the Vietnam War.
"It was the very first time it occurred to me that an Asian American woman could be a leader," said Chu, who began volunteering with various causes, transferred to UCLA and gave up computers for clinical psychology.
On Tuesday, adding to a 24-year political career launched on a local school board, Chu became the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress. She won a special election -- with nearly 62% of the vote -- to succeed longtime ally Hilda Solis, now U.S. Labor secretary, in the 32nd Congressional District.
She won this election in much the same way she posted earlier victories -- expanding on her Asian base (about 13% of voters in the congressional district) to win support among Latinos (who make up almost half of the registered voters in the district), organized labor (a major element in the largely working-class district) and women. Her years on the Garvey School Board and the Monterey Park City Council and representing a local Assembly district made her a trusted household name among San Gabriel Valley political leaders, many of whom crossed party and ethnic lines to support her.
One is Republican Betty Couch, who said she found common ground -- and friendship -- with the unabashedly liberal Chu when they served together on the Monterey Park City Council.
"She does her homework, she listens, and she really cares about people," said Couch, who said she wishes only that Chu were "a little more frugal" when it comes to government spending.
Couch recalled balking at Chu's proposal for city-sponsored child care -- until Chu won her over by adding a service charge based on a family's ability to pay. "She found a way to get me to support something I was philosophically opposed to," Couch said.
