Saturday, February 28, 2009

Latest Numbers on Absentee Ballots

For those who are keeping track of the recall election -



8851 absentee ballots so far were received by the Santa Clara County Registrar Office. The people from both Nguyen's camp and the Recall Team indicated that a little bit more than 50% are from Vietnamese American voters and the rest are split between Hispanics, Whites and other Asians. Vietnamese Americans compose about 28% of the population in District 7.



Nguyen's camp is worried because the Vietnamese-American voters will tend not to favor her. Their large turn-out as expected is not what she wanted.



Some of the Hispanic voters who already voted are motivated against her since there is no reason for them to keep her in office for what she had done against them on the GI Forum and not done for them on crime issues. But the more fundamental motive is why would they want Nguyen to be in office when they can have a Hispanic to replace her?



The White voters are motivated against the community, and if you believe the hundred of hatred comments written on the Mercury News, mostly because of racism driven by media and elected officials. Elected officials like Larry Stone are calling the community "bullies and thugs". Sam Liccardo is telling people publicly how disrespectful the community is at him. Strange comment for somebody who is trying so hard to play both sides of the fence. The Merc also has called out the community as extremist and bully. It is strange behavior for public officials and media to incite hatred in a population made up of 1/3 Whites, 1/3 Asians and 1/3 Hispanics. Why would an Asian community has the right to exercise their political rights? Who do they think they are is the message.

Nguyen so far has outspent her opponent almost 3 to 1. She has the most influential public officials supporting her - Mayor Chuck Reed and South Bay Labor Union's Cindy Chavez. Unions are putting in massive money and ten of thousands of volunteer hours to ensure her victory.

She also has most of the media behind her - Mercury News and powerful weathly Vietnamese-Americans who owns influential media like Que Huong Radio and Vien Thao Media.

But at the end of the day, people will judge her on her ethics which has to be the highest for elected officials. Mayor Reed and the Labor Union's leadership (through their San Jose Revealed blog) already predicted confidently that she will win.

There are about 2,000 votes left in this race. Half of it will be Vietnamese-Americans if the trends hold true. Nguyen with all her advantages as an elected official with powerful allies and unlimited resources is in trouble despite conventional wisdom that she would crush the recall movement. Labor's own external poll shows a 20% spread two weeks ago.

David and Goliath is a favorite story of American's political history. Could a group of mostly healthcare professionals, engineers and computer scientists relying solely on grassroot movement to topple a political system of back door dealing that favor the rich, wealthy and the powerful?

The answer is already written by Nguyen's erratic behavior this week by having her strongest ally- the powerful Vien Thao media publicly threatened the Vietnamese-American voters by playing the last two days a prerecored tape of their talk show of a caller identified herself as Santa Clara County official. Nga Nguyen in a hostile tone told the voters that if they voted against Nguyen, they would lose their social assistance benefits.

Footnote: Around 1:00 PM today, a San Jose fire truck with a no recall sign sped by the Recall Team headquarters and started honking their horn loudly. One of the firemen sitting on the passenger side stuck his head out yelling obscenity and gave the finger. It is illegal for public servant (i.e., firemen and policemen) to be a part of a political campaign. Another example of the abuse of power by Nguyen and Reed.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Voter Disfranchisement Attempt By Nguyen's Campaign

Yesterday, in a prerecorded talk show on AM 1500 conducted by the pro - Madison Nguyen camp (Vien Thao Media), the talk show host had a woman calling in and identifying herself as a social case worker of the Santa Clara County Social Service. The woman declared that whoever voted in this election against Madison Nguyen (or for the recall) will have social assistance terminated. She identified herself as Nga Nguyen. She called in again to the show 10 minutes after her first call and reiterated the fact the same threat.

The prerecorded talk show was being replayed this afternoon on AM 1500. The Recall Team's has their lawyer sent in a letter to the DA's office and county supervisors demanding an investigation on voter disfranchisment by Madison Nguyen. The lawyer also sent the letter to the station manager demanding a cease and desist.

The Recall Team plan to have press conference in front of City Hall tomorrow (Thursday, Feb 26).

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Nguyen's $10,000 for Make-Up and Electronic Buying Spree

In 2006, running unopposed (she was the only one on the ballot), Nguyen decided to spend her campaign money on the following items as reported on her 460:

$2,500 - personal make-up

$4,125 - Circuit City

$3,835 - Fry's Electronic

$1,087 - Target Store

When asked for the detail of such exorbant expenditure for a campaign that was unopposed, her treasurer, Son Nguyen (the controversial owner of bankrupt Nha Magazine) said he did not remember and did not keep the receipts.

LSI hopes that he still has the receipts because by law, they have to be kept at least for 5 years.

It is against the law according to FPPC regulation:

" Improper expenditure of campaign contributions such as, but not limited to, using campaign funds for personal use instead of for a legitimate political, legislative, or governmental purposes"

Why Hispanics Cannot Stand Madison Nguyen


As everybody in the Hispanic community knows in 2006, Nguyen tried to purposedly bankrupt American GI Forum by refusing to grant them a rezoning in order to attain a licence for weekend event usage at their facility on Story Road. The rezoning was negotiated before Nguyen took office by other city councilmembers trying to save the financially strap AGIF. Without the rezoning, AGIF would not be able to generate the necessary revenue to keep their facility as well as their own operation. Abel Cota, the then head of AGIF put it:"She tried to put us out business because we happened to support Linda Nguyen in the last election".

AGIF was established more than half a century ago to support Hispanic veterans. The organization was so angry at Nguyen's vendetta that they put up a huge banner in front of their facility on Story Road (see picture).

Luckily for AGIF, a Vietnamese-American woman decided to purchase their facility above the asking price and leased it back to AGIF for their function. But what disturbing was the fact that Nguyen called her demanding to know why she wanted to purchase the building. The woman, Loannie Lam, was upset at the unsolicitied phone call. She said:" Nguyen called and told me why I should not invest in this building for it was overprice (?) She suggested that I should invest in Vietnam Town instead."
Apparently, a woman's scorn is something not to deal with lightly, especially if she is in the position of power.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Update on Madison Nguyen's Election


The absentee number as being pulled from the Santa Clara County Registrar office shows:


7,320 ballots received since Friday. A very large majority came from Vietnamese-Americans and the rest are from the mixture of Whites, Hispanics and others.


There are over 10,000 Vietnamese-American voters. In the last election, 75% Vietnamese-American voted absentee with 65% turn-out.


LSI will pull two sets of numbers this week to keep the public update.


Rumor has it that an official poll conducted by Labor showed a 20% separation between the two camps. LSI doubt it if there is such huge spread. It will be close race with about 10,000 - 10,500 votes total.


Whatever the case may be, the recall team is working very hard since they are behind in the eight ball in regards to money, manpower and mainstream media. It is David and Goliath. With such huge advantage, the conventional wisdom is Nguyen will win. Labor has mobilized their massive force from all over the Bay Area for the last 4 weeks to overwhelm the community of District 7






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