Jonathan To
Age: 23
Hometown: Russellville, Ark.
Political party: Democrat
Dating status: Single

Jonathan To's striking looks and 6-foot-1 stature have gained him attention from women of all ages. One is his landlady whom he took out to dinner at Bonefish on Mother's Day.

"The first thing she said was, 'You're a really good-looking man,'" he said.

To took her out because her own children live far away and could not be there. She's had three strokes and uses a walker. "We left it ambiguous," he said of their dinner date.

On the subject of love: To seeks a "smart, intelligent" woman with a "good sense of humor" who inspires him and loves to dance. To danced in college, everything from hip hop to jazz and Latin.

He says he doesn't have a preference, such as blondes over brunettes. "I'm an equal opportunist," he said.

To spent much of his youth in the small southern town of Russellville, Ark., where he was, many times, the lone Asian in any given room full of Caucasians. "I was one of two Asian people in my high school class of 500," he said. "I did experience racism. People called me Kami."

To is Chinese. His mother is from Taiwan; his father, from Hong Kong. "I know a smidgen of Mandarin, but sadly, I am illiterate in the language," he said.

But, he says of the racism, Russellville was a strong community seeped in Christian faith.

"This allowed a lot of people to get over the color hump," he says. Despite his agnostic convictions, friends would often take him along to church.

This beauty comes to us from the office of Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), where he was an APAICS legislative fellow between October 2007 and June 2008. He now works at the New Jersey Democratic State Committee in the 7th Congressional District and hopes to return to Capitol Hill in November.

Born in San Francisco, To moved to Russellville when he was 9. They had moved between Arizona and Texas before settling in the Bible Belt.

All that travel was the result of his parents' jobs - his mother was an Army sergeant; his father, a nuclear engineer. To was an only child.

"I was always used to my life being in flux," he said.

To graduated from Washington University in St. Louis where he intended to be a biomedical engineer. "I realized I didn't want to work in a lab the rest of my life," he said, and switched his studies to political science.

- By Betsy Rothstein

 

Kristin Sutton
Age: 25
Hometown: Chesapeake, Va.
Political party: Republican
Dating status: In a relationship

The Kristin Sutton sitting in Rep. Tim Walberg's (R-Mich.) office is dressed in a black suit, black heels and a black and white blouse. Her hair is a sun-bleached sandy blonde, which accentuates her summer skin that possesses a bronze finish.

But there's another Sutton that the staff assistant is hiding. In the winter her hair turns brown as a bear and her complexion, well, as she puts it best: "You can actually see through me I'm so pale."

Though she prefers the tanned goddess look to the pale snowflake look, the duality could work out for the best. Her dream situation would be to create two of her, one she could leave at home to take care of the children she hopes to have one day and the other would be a dynamic political force to be reckoned with.

Just what kind of political force?

"I'd just like to be Condoleezza Rice," Sutton said. "She's so poised and intelligent."

But what do you do if you want to impress Sutton? 

Just let her catch you reading National Review by the pool or the beach. It's her absolute favorite thing to do, as compared to watching movies, which tend to not go over so well.

"I'd say over the past year I've probably fallen asleep in 75 percent of the movies I've watched," she said.

- By Jordy Yager