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NRIs part of Bush-Cheney campaign committee
Several leading Indian Americans are part of a special committee announced by the Bush-Cheney campaign to re-elect Bush in the forthcoming presidential polls.
Several leading Indian Americans are part of a special committee announced by the Bush-Cheney campaign to re-elect President George Bush in the forthcoming November 2 presidential polls.
The newly constituted 75-member Asian Pacific American National Steering Committee (APANSC) is headed by Labour Secretary Elaine Chao.
The Indian Americans include the Republican Party's Zach Zachariah, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a cardiologist and a leading fundraiser; Raghavendra Vijayanagar, also 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; and Pakistani American Ahmed Kabani, a Miami-based hotel and tourism industry businessman.
A majority of members of the APANSC are of Chinese American descent as well as East Asian Americans.
Zachariah, director of cardiology at Holy Cross Hospital, is in the highly regarded "Ranger" category of fundraisers for the Republican Party, and formerly served on President Bush's White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission.
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 Honour.
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.
Kabana owns Miami Centre 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 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. The campaigns 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 on election day.
