Posted on 10/13/2012 3:07:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
WASHINGTON – Away from the public glare, prominent Indian-Americans supporting Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney are believed to have raised between USD 15-20 million for his presidential campaign. While Romney campaign has not released any fundraising statistics from ethnic coalitions nor has it made public the list of its bundlers or exclusive Stars and Stripes members, the list of big donors include over 200 prominent Indian Americans.
The ‘Indian-American Coalition’ was established in November 2011 by the Romney Campaign National Finance Committee Chairman Spencer Zwick to recognise not only the individual donor, but also the larger community under a group identity. There have been other ethnic coalitions in the Romney campaign’s Finance Committee such as Jewish American coalition, Women’s coalition, Veteran’s Coalition, etc.
By conservative estimates Indian-Americans supporters of Romney believed to have collectively helped raise between USD 15-20 million for his campaign, according to those familiar with the fundraising efforts. “An Indian American coalition in a Presidential Campaign’s National Finance Committee is new and historic. Such a decision of the Romney Campaign has produced the desired results,” Indian American supporters of 65-year-old former governor of Massachusetts say.
Some of the prominent Indian-American bundlers/Star and Stripes members include Sampat Shivangi from Mississippi, Sudhakar Shenoy and Shreedhar Pottarazu from Virginia, Zach Zachariah, Akshay Desai and R Vijaynagar from Florida, Bharat Barai from Indiana, Rupesh Sreevastava and Raj Vatticutti from Michigan. “Everyone has contributed funds, bundled money or held an event that has raised a minimum USD one million,” Sue Ghosh Stricklett, Stars & Stripes Member, Romney Finance Committee, told PTI during a conference call with top Indian-American donors.
“They are unanimously supporting Mitt Romney for President because they believe that the country is on the wrong track and that their children’s economic future is at stake. They are also appalled by the incendiary anti-India rhetoric coming out of the Obama campaign with numerous ads attacking India for loss of American jobs due to outsourcing,” Ghosh said.
One of the influential Republicans from Utah, Patel joined the Romney Campaign after John Huntsman, the former State Governor and US Ambassador to China, helped raise more than a USD 1 million during the campaign. “Republicans are much closer to India than the Democratic party. Romney would be much better president towards India,” said Sampat Shivangi, who was one of the three Indian American delegate to the Republican National Convention and a major fund raiser in Mississippi.
“In 2008, Indiana went to Obama, but it is not going to happen in 2012,” said Raju Chintala; a big time Republican from Indiana and a bundler. “I can vouch for the fact that Mitt Romney is very appreciative of the immense contributions of Indian-Americans to American society. I can also assert that Governor Romney views India as a strategic partner of the United States and that he believes a close working relationship between the two countries is critical to peace and prosperity in Asia,” Ghosh said.
An active member of the Indian-American Coalition, Ghosh, said that the intention of the Romney campaign is to get the coalition going and then use the coalition into “dollar tracking” that can translate into an effective policy making during the Romney Administration so that this community has a voice. “The voice of this group would count in a big way, because they have something more to say than any other American business. This is our objective,” she said.
Indians have caught on that all this favoritism for minorities doesn’t include Asians.
Does their support mean they think that Romney will be better for the US, or will send more business to India?
Since everyone mentioned lives in the USA and is presumably an American citizen, your question answers itself, does it not?
It never did. Some colleges even have a secret quota limiting their numbers or many would be 100% Asian.
I know a whitebread American type who did an MS in physics at Cornell. His faculty adviser told him they could fill every slot with Indians who had 800 GREs.
Hey but what bout me. J/k.
Good to see fellow brown people down there getting off the ‘rat plantation.
God bless ‘em. I’ve worked quite happily with several (legal) Indian immigrants.
I love Indian food!
I think its interesting to contrast Indians and Pakistanis.
In many case ethnically the same people, but Pakistan is an economic basket case that can’t even keep a basket going, while India is booming.
Why?
I think we all know!
Indians are not very fond of muzzys
most local people from India here are small business owners, doctors and engineers; whether Hindu or Christian they also have strong Conservative family values;
does not surprise me than many would be for the GOP
and don’t flame me, and like it or not, but it also helps - with that community - that Romney, no matter what are his positions on abortion, is seen as NOT a “fundamentalist” Christian - that’s just the way it is
again, don’t flame me; it’s not my opinion that that position is “right” for the Indo-American community to take; it’s just an observation
This is an excellent development!
I think that they are likely to have large extended families still living in India that they would like to see do better. I will check on this as I run into Indians in my travels.
You mean like every other immigrant group since the Puritans, Irish, Poles, Jews, Germans, Koreans, Swedes, etc..
Trade is not a zero sum game. A lot of American companies are opening up in India and at the same time India is fast becoming a large customer of America weapons and a close ally. A good business mind will leverage more trade and business to benefit both countries. And that’s where Romney will make a huge difference. To drum up all the silly rhetoric about outsourcing at the very mention of India all the time is just typical Democrat mindset, totally out of touch with how the world actually works.
I saw an interesting “Charticle” in the conservative paper The Washington Examiner, 9/6/12, that blew my mind. It was a graph of U.S. Oil and Gas Jobs, Jan. 1989 to July 2012.
It showed around 190,000 jobs from Jan. 1989 to mid 1991, then a steady decline down to 1999 (125,000)when the decline became more shallow and finally hit bottom in 2004 (120,000). In other words it took Bush about 4 years to start turning things around. Then they started back up but took a small dip in 2005 (Katrina?). I know that about 500 wells shut down and hand to be inspected before starting up again. By late 1999 they had risen to 165,000, then took about a 10,000 job dip (155,000), but at 2010 had started a strong rise again to today’s high of 195,000. What I don’t understand is why they fell so steadily under Clinton, why it took so long for Bush to turn it around, and why jobs are doing so well under Obama.
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