A war survivor and refugee, Jay C. Kim became the
first Korean American elected to Congress. “In a
free enterprise system, hard work pays off,” the
often outspoken Congressman noted, summing up his
political philosophy. “I’ve always believed that. If you don’t
work hard, you’re going to fall behind.”1 After building
his own engineering business, Kim won a U.S. House
seat just two years after his initial entrée into politics. As a
new Congressman, he voiced skepticism over House Rules
and practices that solidified power among a small group
of senior Members. However, Kim’s own difficulties with
campaign finance violations effectively ended his career in
elected office.
Chang Joon Kim was born in Seoul, Korea, on March
27, 1939.2 His birth name meant “Golden Splendid Law,”
but he later legally changed his name to Jay.3 Kim’s father
was a restaurant manager before the Korean War, but, as
Jay Kim recalled, his well-educated family members were
marked as enemies by North Korean forces. The family’s
home was destroyed, and they walked 90 miles to safety.
Kim’s adopted brother was later executed by North Korean
communist officials.4
Jay Kim graduated from Po Sung High School, Seoul,
South Korea, in 1956 before finishing his education in
the United States. In 1961, fresh out of one year of service
in the South Korean Army, Jay Kim immigrated to the
United States at the age of 22.5 He married Jung Ok (June)
in 1962 ; the couple had met in Seoul. He earned a BS in
engineering from the University of Southern California in
1967. Two years later, he earned an MS in environmental
engineering from the same institution. Kim later earned a
PhD from Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea, in 1993.
Kim worked in restaurants and grocery stores when
he first arrived in the United States. Later, with a Small
Business Administration loan, he founded JAYKIM
Engineers, a firm that designed highways and water
reclamation plants. Primarily procuring government
contracts, JAYKIM Engineers was one of five minority-owned
firms hired to demolish buildings damaged during
the 1992 riots in Los Angeles and its suburbs.6
Kim entered electoral politics to “make government
run more like a business,” placing first in a nine-candidate
race for the Diamond Bar, California, city council in 1990.
One year later, he was elected mayor.7
In 1992 local Republican officials courted Kim to
run for the U.S. House in a newly created congressional
district. The new district sat at a crossroads between
Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Orange counties. It
encompassed most of the city of Ontario, an airport, an
industrial base, and several high-income neighborhoods.
The Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, a low-security prison
in Chino, and President Richard Nixon’s Presidential
Library were also located within its boundaries.
With only two years of political experience, Kim faced
veteran political opponents in the GOP primary : Pomona
assemblyman Charles Bader and lawyer James Lacy. Kim
campaigned on lower taxes and privatizing government
services. He opposed amnesty for undocumented
immigrants, but supported abortion rights, arguing the
government had no business getting involved in women’s
reproductive decisions. Kim won the primary with a
30-percent plurality—with 889 more votes than his closest
opponent.8 In his conservative district, Kim handily won
the general election with 60 percent against Democrat Bob
Baker, an intelligence analyst and Vietnam veteran.9
Alleged campaign ethics issues surfaced shortly after
Kim took office, ensuring that he would face primary
challenges throughout his House career. His campaigns,
including his run for city council, were plagued by
careless bookkeeping and disclosure irregularities.10 Less than a year after his election, the Los Angeles Times
reported that JAYKIM Engineering had spent $400,000
on his campaign, which constituted an illegal corporate
contribution. Federal officials investigated, and Kim
admitted that he should have paid the company from the
campaign coffers to rent office space. Still, no formal legal
or ethics charges were brought against him.11
Given this rocky start, Kim faced challengers in the
1994 Republican primary but captured a 41 percent
plurality in the four-person field. In the general election,
Kim easily won with 62 percent of the vote against
Pomona-based urban developer Ed Tessier.12 In the 1996
primary, Yorba Linda-based businessman Bob Kerns
had little financing but attacked Kim’s ongoing ethics
challenges. Kim won with 58 percent of the vote and,
in the general election, defeated Democrat Richard L.
Waldron with 59 percent of the vote.13
Throughout his career, Kim served on the Public
Works and Transportation (later Transportation and
Infrastructure) Committee. He sought a seat on this panel
with the goal of streamlining and trimming government
spending.14 Kim also served on the Small Business
Committee in the 103rd Congress (1993–1995).
As the first Korean American elected to Congress,
Kim traveled to South Korea following his election and
the Korean-American community in southern California
quickly embraced him as a surrogate representative.15 At
first, Kim didn’t embrace that role. When he arrived in
Washington, Republicans tried to place him on the Foreign
Affairs Committee—specifically the Asia subcommittee—an assignment he initially declined. Kim claimed he did
not have a special agenda nor did he wish to be labeled a
spokesperson on South Korea and for Korean Americans.
Yet, after his re-election and as part of the new GOP
majority in 1995, he accepted the assignment on the
renamed International Relations Committee. He served
on the panel for two terms.16
Representative Kim had an outsized presence for a
freshman lawmaker.17 He amassed one of the House’s
most conservative records and earned a reputation for
being outspoken. As a political newcomer, Kim recalled
being “shocked” to see Members gather in various caucus
groups on the House Floor; a colleague had to tell him
about party bloc seating tradition in the chamber wherein
Republicans sat to the left of the House rostrum.18
With an outsider’s perspective on Congress, Kim
embraced the role of being among the institution’s loudest
critics. One of his first speeches highlighted his cynicism
over the political process on Capitol Hill. “In the few
short months that I have been here I have learned that
this beltway is the land of the easy promise,” Kim said.
“It’s the place where special interests prevail, where truth is
tempered by political expediency, where honesty and values
take a back seat to business-as-usual politics.”19
Kim’s disillusionment solidified during his freshman
orientation, during which a senior Member steered him
toward more powerful committee assignments in order
to draw larger campaign contributions.20 Kim was among
several freshmen who sought to abolish select committees,
launching a salvo against the seniority system which gave
long-serving Members greater power. Kim also proposed
cutting committee sizes and budgets by 25 percent,
claiming that such cost-saving measures would improve
Congress’s reputation. “The war cry is, eliminate gridlock,”
he observed, starting “by eliminating the overwhelming
power of the seniority system.”21
One of Kim’s primary legislative interests was helping
private entrepreneurs with government contracts, the same
kind of work he did as an engineer.22 One of his earliest
legislative proposals was the Highway Construction Private
Investment Act that helped entrepreneurs get contracts to
repair and build roadways. “The private sector is always
looking for sound investments. The public sector is always
looking for more projects,” he noted. “This private-public
partnership I am proposing beneficially addresses both
needs. It’s a win-win concept.”23
Kim also sought federal reimbursement for road
maintenance to keep up with increased traffic from Mexico
after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
took effect in 1994, and to allow repair shops and
vehicle dealerships to access and operate onboard vehicle
diagnostics under the Clean Air Act. He successfully funneled aid for several local projects: $151 million for
sewer recycling in Orange County, $91 million for road
improvements and carpool connector lanes on major
highways passing through his district.24
Kim was a vocal opponent of President William J.
(Bill) Clinton’s health care plan, specifically opposing any
mandated contribution from employers for coverage, a
centerpiece of the plan. “Employer mandates are nothing
more than a tax on jobs,” he said. “They are nothing more
than a job-killing payroll tax, a tax that American workers
will pay in the form of reduced wages and lost jobs. In
other words, there is no such thing as a free lunch.”25
Kim offered an amendment to prohibit taxpayer
money on employer mandates. When he submitted his
amendment, Kim was dismayed to learn of the Rules
Committee’s lopsided roster that strongly favored the
majority party. When the leadership pulled the bill from
the floor before Kim was able to get a vote on it, he
concluded they were “scared to vote on my amendment,”
describing the episode as the “truth held hostage.”26
Immigration and foreign policy rose to the top of Kim’s
congressional agenda. “If you’re an immigrant in this
country, you can lose everything except an accent,” Kim
noted.27 Drawing from his experience, he supported aid
to legal immigrants, including a successful effort in 1996
to differentiate benefits given to legal and undocumented
immigrants. “It is an insult to legal immigrants to lump
them together with illegal aliens, who are lawbreakers,”
Kim argued.28 In the 103rd Congress, he sought to
amend a housing bill limiting undocumented immigrants
to seven days of assistance under emergency food and
shelter programs for the homeless, citing a desire to “put
Americans’ needs first.”29 His amendment was approved
220 to 176, and the bill passed the House.30
Kim was one of North Korea’s strongest critics. He
supported cutting off food aid to that nation until the
Pyongyang government entered talks with South Korea.
Kim was horrified when the Clinton administration
threatened to veto a Foreign Relations Committee bill
because it did not provide enough aid to North Korea
in 1996—this shortly after a North Korean submarine
foundered in South Korean waters and was discovered
with “armed commandos” aboard.31 Kim offered a
resolution to condemn North Korean action. “The Clinton
administration American taxpayer-funded aid to North
Korea has grown faster than to any other country in
Asia,” Kim explained on the House Floor. “Is this what
Americans are subsidizing? Commando raids and military
attacks on our own troops and our allies?”32
Revelations of further campaign finance violations
dogged Kim during his final term in the House. In 1995
and 1996, the Los Angeles Times and Orange County
Register broke the initial story that five Korean companies
made illegal contributions to his campaign. The companies
pled guilty (and paid fines amounting to $1.6 million)
after compensating their employees special bonuses with
the expectation that these employees would donate the
amount to Kim’s campaign.33 Kim claimed no knowledge
of the scheme.34
Kim’s claims of innocence came under fire, however,
when revelations were published that the plan was allegedly
hatched at a club meeting for Korean businessmen in July
1992 during which he was a featured speaker. Moreover,
two former campaign treasurers testified that Kim’s wife,
June, had kept track of off-the-book, illegal donations.
Seokuk Ma, his campaign treasurer in 1994, was convicted
of concealing illegal contributions in April 1997. Ma told
authorities that, due to Korean cultural norms, he could
not question his superiors, and he did not challenge June
Kim when she asked him to sign blank election report
forms. “My culture is very different,” he testified, “I
respect Congressman Kim very much. If they ask me to do
something like that, I cannot refuse.”35
On August 11, 1997, both Jay and June Kim pleaded
guilty to misdemeanor violations of federal election law,
including three counts of accepting illegal campaign
contributions totaling more than $230,000.36 Kim was
sentenced to one-year probation (during two months
of which he was required to wear an electronic ankle
monitor), 200 hours of community service, and a $5,000
fine. He kept his congressional seat but was only permitted
to travel between his Washington-area home in Fairfax County and the Capitol, attending sessions wearing his
ankle monitor and holding meetings with constituents via
satellite communication.37 Though he had initially pledged
to observe a three-term limit, Kim ran for re-election in
1998. He finished third in an eight-way open primary,
losing to the eventual winner, Republican Gary Miller, and
his closest Democratic opponent, Eileen Ansari. Kim was
the only House incumbent to lose in a primary election
that year.38
Afterward, Kim and his wife divorced, and he taught
political science courses at a South Korean university
for the next year.39 In 1999 he returned to his home in
Washington’s Virginia suburbs and also took up residence
in San Bernardino County so as to be eligible to run
in the 2000 election for a U.S. House seat in a district
neighboring his old one.40 The new district—centered on
the city of San Bernardino, or the heart of the “Inland
Empire,” and the fast-growing, eastern Los Angeles
suburbs—was one-third Hispanic, with a majority of
registered Democrats.41 The long-shot campaign drew
detractors from Kim’s own party.42 Kim garnered just 8
percent of the vote, losing the open primary to Rancho
Cucamonga businessman Elia Pirozzi and the eventual
winner, Joe Baca.43 He went on to chair the Washington
Korean-American Forum, a think tank focused on
improving U.S. relations with South Korea. Kim remarried
a colleague, Jennifer Ahn.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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