Vietnam Daily Newspaper Predicts Phu Le in the Run-Off

Vietnam Daily Newspaper in the last 3 weeks has been writing negative articles attacking Minh Duong's childhood, his supposedly pro-communist stand for he is not wearing the "Freedom Flag" symbol on his attire, his integrity since he refuses to pay a politcal consultant for service unrendered and how Minh Duong did not support the Little Saigon naming as well as  recall effort.  The articles are written mostly by Can Nguyen, the co-owner of the newspaper.  Can Nguyen and his wife, Quynh Thi, are the supporters of Dr. Phu Le, one of the five candidates vying for the city council seat of District 7 in San Jose.

http://www.vietnamdaily.com/?c=article&p=62946#disc

What made this week article even more interesting is the claim that VN Daily had done tracking poll the last two days.  By which method or how many people responded to the survey, the article did not detail.  But with authoratitive language, they announced that their poll has Madison Nguyen at 49.1%,  Dr. Phu Le at 25.2% and Minh Duong at 18.7%.  Their headline read - Phu Le Has A Very Great Chance of Being in the Run-Off.   

Can Nguyen is a relative newcomer to the community.   He only became active in the community during the Little Saigon controversy.  He often refers himself as Dr. Can Nguyen, Ph.D.  He, his wife and their three boys live in a multimillion dollars mansion in Los Gatos.  They own a large printing shop and one of the oldest and most profitable newspapers in the Vietnamese-American community.  

Can Nguyen and Quynh Thi are not the original owner of this profitable newspaper.  How they came about in the business is full of rumor within the Vietnamese-American media community.   One story is that the wife started out as a secretary for the original owner of the newspaper.   She had an affair with him and he ended up divorcing his wife.  Later on she allegedly dumped him for he was much older than her.  In distraught, he went to Washington DC and set himself on fire (self-immolation like Vietnamese monks in the 1960s in protesting the Vietnam War).   He died and the newspaper ended up in the hand of Quynh Thi.   The irony is that one of the most well known lawyers in San Jose happened to be in the same hotel with this poor man the night before he died and had to listen to his depressing story of betray and despair.

For almost 20 years, Quynh Thi and her newspaper stayed away from anything to do with the Vietnamese-American community in San Jose.  The newspaper rarely reported any news about community and their events and  politics.   But during the recall effort and the Little Saigon fight, the newspaper became a staunch supporter of  recall effort.   She became  a great friend of the community segment that opposed Madison Nguyen.  However the relationship was short-lived.   She and the community leadership had a big fall - out on their fight of who has the right to market NuSkin beauty product within the community and how the commission should be distributed.