We’ve all heard Howard Dean’s famous quip about the only way Republicans can get a group of minorities into a room is to invite the hotel’s wait staff.  Nothing could be further from the truth…just take a look at the Santa Clara County GOP City Team leaders!   Among our grassroots team you’ll find men and women, young and old, and immigrants from India, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
 
Among GOP city teams, Milpitas takes diversity to a new level!
 
The Milpitas City Team, lead by Ed Riffle, is a small but determined group of individuals who are organizing with two major objectives:
1.)     Increase Republican registration in our city.
2.)     Get more Republicans elected at the local level. 
 
Milpitas is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world and the active Republicans in town are a reflection of that.  Two of the more active individuals are Gwan Alisantosa who has Indonesian roots and Robert Yen who has Chinese (Taiwanese) roots.  According to Ed Riffle, “Our Milpitas Republican organization doesn’t have to reach out to achieve diversity… it is already pretty diverse.  As it turns out, lower taxes and more individual freedom have pretty broad appeal.  All of our recruitment efforts will be designed to reach out to the broader community and will naturally result in a diverse membership due to the ethnic makeup of the city.”
 
Milpitas Republicans plan to simply get the message out by passing out printed materials provided by the state party both when doing voter registration and when walking neighborhoods on behalf of candidates.  Many Milpitans are registered Democrat only because that is what they were encouraged to do when they earned US citizenship.  Others are “declines to state” because they have been intimidated out of their preferred Republican registration because of union membership. Nonetheless, the Milpitas Republicans are dedicated to turning that around.
 
Gwan Alisantosa, has a real heart to reach out to immigrants like himself who fled from countries where the government oppressed the people and belonging to the wrong political party meant that your life was difficult…or, you were put to death.  It is easy to see why many of these naturalized citizens are afraid to have anything to do with the government.  Gwan hopes to educate them on the core values of the Republican Party because he believes that these immigrants hold the same values of self reliance and hard work.
 
Milpitas is majority Asian as far as race is concerned.  Within that designation are many ethnicities including Chinese, Vietnamese (heavily Republican), Indian and Pakistani, Filipino (the largest single group), Thai… and a whole host of others.
 
Historically, Milpitas was founded as a city (1954) based on integration of all races and ethnicities because of being home to the (opened in 1954) Ford Motor Company plant.  It was one of the first cities in the country to offer new housing tracts (Sunnyhills and The Pines) that were not segregated.  Its city council appointed the first mayor of African descent in California.  The history of Milpitas is one of racial and ethnic harmony because no one group has dominated it since its beginnings as a railway transfer station in the 1800’s.  Early Milpitans were Irish, Portuguese, Mexican, German, English, Spanish and many other ethnicities.  The diversity of Milpitas has never really changed… just the nature of the mix.
 
Gwan Alisantosa may run for the local school board.  Others in the group may run for other local non-partisan offices including council and mayor. One member, Laura Riffle, is running for California Senate in District 10.  The group is meeting on the first Saturday of the month at Ola’s Coffee House on Main Street, a small minority-owned independent business.  If you live in Milpitas, contact Ed Rifle (mail to: Milpitas@svgop.com), and join the group at Ola’s Coffee Shop on the first Saturday of each month.