- Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with State Assemblywoman Ellen Park from the 37th Legislative District.

She's coming to us from Englewood, New Jersey, her district's in Bergen County.

Assemblywoman, great to have you with us.

- Thank you for having me.

- There are so many things I wanna talk to you about, but I just wanna also acknowledge this, you were the first Korean American woman to serve in the state legislature, correct?

- That is correct.

It's been a great honor and pleasure for the last two years, and hopefully, the next two as well.

- Why has it taken so long for that to happen?

- You know, it's really hard to say because, you know, I think there was just a lack of candidates perhaps, and maybe also lack of support, but you know, it's great that this has happened and I hope that we can have more of us coming forward.

- So, 11% of the population, Asian American population in New Jersey is 11%, but a much smaller percent, percentage of representation in the legislature.

Talk to us from your perspective, Assemblywoman, about how you view, and it's not monolithic, but how the Asian American community perceives and engages or does not engage in the political process, please.

- I think, you know, because still most of us are still, you know, first generation now.

I'm what we call 1.5 generation.

I was, came here a very early age, I wasn't born here.

My kids obviously are the next generation, but we're immigrants so we're here to have a good education, have a great place to live, but it's, you know, politics is not our focus.

But more and more of us now, we're really pushing what it means to have representation.

And so, that is definitely one of my goals and missions to get more of us out to vote.

- Assemblywoman, you were on this, I don't know whether to call it a trade mission.

I know that the folks at Choose New Jersey helped to finance this.

It was a trip with Governor Murphy and a whole range of other state leaders into East Asia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, a nine-day trip back in October.

What was and is the significance of that trip, please?

- It's, you know, we do a lot of trade with those three countries in New Jersey.

I believe those three countries, those three Asian countries are top 10 supplier of goods and they have a lot of trade between New Jersey and those countries.

So, we wanna keep the relationship, we wanna do more, we wanna have a bridge between the countries as far as economics as well as, you know we had the nine universities from New Jersey also attend, so for higher education as well, we wanna keep that bridge, we wanna have that relationship.

So it was really important.

- Talk to us about this.

I believe that every elected official who's come on, I've asked in one way or another, this question as the graphic comes up, 2024, Decision 2024 and '25, there's a governor's race in '25, Democracy in Danger.

To what degree do you believe?

And some folks have written online saying, "Steve, stop calling it a democracy.

We're a republic."

I get it, I understand what the constitution says, but when I say democracy in danger, people know what that means.

To what degree do you believe our representative democracy is in danger as we move into 2024?

- I mean, this country has been so divided in the last four years.

So, and with what happened with January 6th, honestly, I'm pretty shocked.

I've been in this country now for 45 years and I try to keep up with what's going on in the world and it just really, I'm just flabbergasted because you know what's happening all across the world as well, in South America, what's happening with Ukraine.

I feel that it's gonna happen here in the U.S. as well.

And it's just really concerning and disturbing to be honest.

- So put this in perspective for us.

You're in the state legislature, in the assembly.

Back in the mid-1980s for, in baseball it's called a cup of coffee, which means a very short period of time.

I was in the state legislature for, you may have read the history books, it was one term (laughs) and out quick.

But there's a reason I'm asking this question and putting it in context.

Put in context for people what it's like to be in a State Assembly, a State Senate chamber, United States Congress, House of Representatives chamber, and have people trying to break in to stop the legal constitutional process with violence and target people they don't like.

Please.

- It's again, the violence.

And again, New Jersey has one of the best controls when it comes to gun control, and the fact that our country is the only country in the world that has mass shootings every day almost, and the fact that violence is tolerated in this country is really concerning and disturbing.

But as a parent, I'm very concerned for my children every day that they go to school, 'cause you just never know.

And we really need to take better precautions, measures as far as gun control and the state of violence in this country.

- Are you afraid for yourself?

- Sometimes.

I know we just passed legislation that judges' informations don't float out there, but we definitely need to have the elected officials' information also not floating out there.

That's something that we were trying to work on as well.

- Governor Murphy has called you a rising star in the political scene, and that's nice and it's nice to have it said about you, but as the first Korean American woman to be in the state legislature, lemme ask you this.

Top two priorities for you.

You've talked about gun control.

Beyond that, two top priorities for you that would be important, not just to the Korean American community, but for everyone you represent, please.

- Obviously, gun control is one.

I believe in equal rights for everyone.

I mean, that's one of the reasons why my parents came to this country is that as an immigrant you have basic rights as anyone who's been here for the last three generations.

And so, you know, LGBTQ community, any minorities, we should have the exact same rights as anyone else.

So, that's a second priority.

As well as, you know, I feel that education is the only way out of poverty.

That's culturally what we push in the Asian community is that if you are educated or you work hard at school, that you will never have to starve.

So, I think that we need to bring that into also consideration and light.

- Before I let you go, real quick on childcare, childcare, affordable, accessible, quality childcare and it's a connection to the economy, a priority for you as well?

- Absolutely.

There's a lot of single mothers in the U.S. and we need to help them get ahead, give them childcare subsidies, get them better educated so they can move up in the corporate world and have stability in their lives.

- State Assemblywoman Ellen Park from the 37th Legislative District up in northern Bergen County, the first Korean American woman to serve in the state legislature.

Assemblywoman, thank you so much for joining us.

We wish you all the best.

- Yeah, thank you for having me.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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