Hawaii appointee
after job in the
White House
Carrie Hyun lays groundwork
By Pete Pichaske
to try and become White House
press secretary
Phillips News ServiceWASHINGTON -- She is not the highest-ranking or best-paid of the Clinton administration appointees from Hawaii.
But if Carrie Hyun has her way, she might someday be the best-known.
Hyun, 34, was recently named deputy chief of staff in charge of strategic communications at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
It was her second promotion in just 15 months in Washington, but it's not yet the job she's really after.
What Hyun wants is the very high-profile post, previously held by the likes of Pierre Salinger and Mike McCurry, of White House press secretary.
"It would be awfully neat to have an Asian-American woman speaking for the White House," she said. "It would do a lot for race relations."
Others agree.
And while they say it's a long shot, they don't discount her chances.
"It would be great if we could get an Asian-American spokesperson in the White House. There are so few over there to begin with," said Leigh-Ann Miyasato, program director for the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies here, one of several organizations that has pressured the Clinton administration to appoint more Asian Americans.
"And it's been very impressive what she's accomplished so far."
"She's very hard-working, very enthusiastic, very earnest, and one of the few Asian-Pacific Americans in government actively involved in communications," said David Kim, a deputy assistant U.S. trade representative and five-year veteran of the Washington scene.
"I'd say her chances of getting to the White House are fairly good. But whether she rises to the level of a Mike McCurry is really unclear right now. That depends on a lot of things."
Hyun has never been shy about chasing dreams. Born in San Francisco and raised in Hawaii, she attended Honolulu's Punahou School. Her mother and "about 30 cousins" still live in Hawaii.
After graduating from the University of California-Berkeley, Hyun worked in communications for GTE, including a stint in Hawaii, for nearly a decade.
She got the political bug a couple of years ago and did volunteer work for Bill Clinton's re-election campaign in California.
Shortly after Clinton's re-election, she was outraged by descriptions of the president's new Cabinet as "looking like America" -- despite the absence of Asian Americans.
"There was clearly nobody there that looks like me in that room," said Hyun. "I was very disappointed and hurt -- not just by the lack of an Asian American, but by the way it was communicated.
"I thought the only way I was going to really affect that content is to be around the table when those decisions are made. So I decided to go for an appointment."
She spent hours on the telephone and fax machine almost daily, lobbying for a job with the Clinton administration.
"It was very tough," she said. She came to Washington for the inauguration in January of last year and had 10 interviews in 10 days, including one in the White House with Ann Lewis, director of White House communications.
Finally, in September of last year, she got an offer: a post as director of media relations for Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.
It was not the White House job she coveted, but she took it. A year later, she accepted another as communications director for the U.S. Census Monitoring Board, which is overseeing the 2000 census. Earlier this month, she returned to Transportation to do communications planning and "crisis and policy management" for Slater.
"I look forward to having Carrie's skills and talents on my leadership team," said Slater in a statement. "She brings a special understanding of diversity and broad mainstream communications experience with her."
Asked about Hyun's potential for working as a White House spokeswoman, Slater said she had unlimited potential as a communications expert.
Hyun praised Slater as a "good, good man" and said it was particularly meaningful for her, as a Korean American, to be working with an African American. But she did nothing to hide her White House ambitions.
"I don't have to be out front as spokeswoman, but I want to be around the table when they make the decisions," she said.
If that happens, she conceded, it would likely be after the 2000 election, and only if Vice President Al Gore was elected president.
While Clinton has been criticized for not naming Asian Americans to Cabinet positions, his administration has a generous sprinkling of Asian Americans in high-level posts, including several from Hawaii.
The Hawaii residents include Donna Tanoue, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.; Jeannette Takamura, assistant secretary for aging in the Department of Health and Human Services; and Delmond Won, a commissioner with the Federal Maritime Commission.
