<Begin Segment 7>

TI: At this point, were you a fundraising chair or were you being drafted to...

HK: No, I was drafted. One month after the Gardena convention, our Governor, Cary Nishimoto, said to me, "Would you become a fundraising chair?" of the district, that is. So I said, "Okay." And it's kinda funny, because he kept on talking over the phone, and I had said, "Yes," to him. But he didn't expect me to say anything, because that was a tough job. So that was kind of funny, I guess, at that time.

TI: And what experience did you have with fundraising before this point?

HK: I had raised some money for like Warren Furutani one year. And then I know when Mineta was going to be honored down here... This is the Democrats from Los Angeles area, and I think this is true, that I raised about half of the money that the Democratic organization... I guess they call it the Democratic organization of southern California something, but I worked in Oxnard area and raised money. So this is the first time I got to meet Mineta, and in fact, I didn't meet him, it was over a phone line, I think, but his video, and so, and afterwards I met Mr. Mineta.

TI: So you had a track record of some successful fundraising efforts, people knew about that.

HK: Not big ones, but I did raise limited number of, amount.

TI: Right.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.