A Political Statement in Orange County

For the last two years, the on-going battle between Republican State Assemblyman Van Tran and Republican Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen has been viscious. With Van Tran throwing everything but the kitchen sink to derail Janet Nguyen's election bid for county supervisor not once but twice in 1 year, the Vietnamese-American community begins to realize that not every Vietnamese-American can be qualified for office.

With Van Tran building his political influence by throwing financial as well as his office supports for unqualified candidates to every imaginable seats and hoping that one of them would win, the 2008 election shows that the community at large in general is taking notice. The OC Register calls Van Tran's underlings as "The Trannie" and Van Tran as the "Godfather"

For those who are not familiar with Orange County, this is the home of the largest Vietnamese-American community in the US. With about 450,000 Vietnamese-Americans, OC has the highest number of Vietnamese-American elected officials - 1 state assemblyman, 1 county supervisor, 4 city councilmembers (including a mayor) and half dozen others in smaller elected offices.

Of course, Van Tran is a strong supporter of Madison Nguyen while Janet Nguyen has no lost love for Madison Nguyen for she supported the two Trannies - Mr. Photoshop Trung Nguyen and Dina Nguyen - who ran against Janet in 2007 and 2008.

Why would somebody from San Jose venture into politics of Orange County (even though at the behest of Van Tran)? Well, it is because Janet Nguyen publicly supported the Little Saigon.

Following is the latest assessment of the 2008 election for "The Trannies":

Van Tran - In 2006 and 2000 general election, he won by at least 20% - 30% against his Democratic opponents. However, in this election he is barely at 6%. In all three elections, none of his opponents put any efforts or had the resources to campaign against Tran. Basically, they just put their names out for show. However, this election is different because the VN voters made it clear to vote against Tran to send a message of "No Confidence".

Joseph Dovinh (the divisive Viet Star editor who constantly uses his newspaper to attack Janet Nguyen as a "commie") - Lost both the Midway Sanitary District and Coastline Community College elections where he was the only Vientamese-American candidate.

Alex Lam - Lost in the City of Stanton council election. He came in a distant 3rd. Van Tran's district director, Dave Everette, was the campaign manager for Alex Lam and the appointed councilmember, Dave Cardenas. Ironically, both lost.

Trung Nguyen (This is his 2nd election in less than 1.5 years) - Lost in the supervisorial election and a sitting school board member ended up in 5th place on the Garden Grove council election. Van's district director, Dave Everette, also was the campaign manager for Trung.

Linh Ho - According to swirling rumors in OC, she was the Democrat token of Van to make sure Andrew Do would lose in the Garden Grove city council race. That is the theory at least. There is no direct proof to it. She is similar to Hoa Van Tran, a token Democrat acting as a spolier?

Frank Tran and Linh Nguyen in the Westminster School district - Both lost in the Westminster school board race.

Diep Mien Truong (Van's district assistant) - No final result yet since there are still at least 7,000 ballots not fully counted in Wesminster. But he is about 1250 votes behind in the Westminster city council race.


Footnote: The only candidate running in this election affiliated with Janet Nguyen is Andrew Do, her chief of staff and a seasoned lawyer. He is 361 votes behind with thousands of ballots still not counted for the Garden Grove city council seat.