Yvonne Yiu Calls on Board of Equalization Opponent to Own Up to Race Baiting After Mysterious Candidate Surfaces
MONTEREY PARK, CA — Yvonne Yiu, candidate for California Board of Equalization District 3, today accused opponent Mike Gipson of orchestrating a scheme to dilute the Asian American vote by engineering a second Chinese American candidate onto the ballot.
“Voters deserve to know who is really behind this candidacy and whether the petition that put her on the ballot was gathered lawfully,” said Yvonne Yiu. “The pattern of connections here – to a candidate in this very race, to a political operative under ethics scrutiny, and to potential signature irregularities – demands answers and a full investigation.”
Until the filing deadline, Yiu, a former Monterey Park City Councilmember, was the only Chinese American and Asian woman in the race. On the final day of filing, a man named Amir King pulled papers on behalf of a candidate named ZhiJing Liu, a USC student and part-time bank teller with no political experience.
Public records show Liu’s ballot qualification signatures were gathered by King and two others. King works for Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price and for the campaign of Jose Ugarte – Price’s deputy chief of staff, candidate to succeed him on the council, and subject of an active city ethics investigation. Ugarte also serves as a paid consultant for Gipson, having been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by Gipson’s current and prior campaigns.
Another of Liu’s signature gatherers are similarly tied to the Ugarte political operation. Samuel Elias donated to Ugarte’s city council campaign, and two members of his household each made thousands in contributions to that same campaign.
Canvassing of the signatures uncovered further irregularities. At least three signatories identified a different person as having collected their signature – not the gatherer listed on the petition.
