Minh Duong vs. Madison Nguyen

Last week, there was a candidate forum for the upcoming election held at the Santa Clara County Building.  The forum was designed for county supervisor and  city council candidates to discuss local issues affecting the voters.  It also allowed the voters to ask direct questions to the candidates on issues affecting their neighborhoods.  One of the organizers was Vic Aljouni, the well known political consultant of Mayor Reed.  The moderator was Scott Herhold, a well respected columnist of the Mercury News.

Minh Duong was invited as well as the incumbent City Councilmember Madison Nguyen.  At the forum, only Minh Duong showed up to represent candidates in D7. 


When came D7 candidate turn, Minh Duong introduced himself and then  Scott Herhold began: " Thank you. Let’s have some questions from the audience here. Minh does not have an opponent here, so we’re letting him off a little bit easy."


Minh Duong politely responsed: " Actually, I was looking forward to…debating with my opponent. I have challenged my opponent to three debates. One in the General, one in the Latino community and one in the Vietnamese community…and I…I have to say this…even whether it be in the parking lot or a coffee shop…I am willing to…you know…show respect to our residents and our voters to let them know what we…what we stand for and our differences…and it is time…you know, and who is the better person this time around to serve on the City Council for District 7. So, again, I would like to spread that challenge again to my opponent."

Part of the forum discussion can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2K-9xhIFbg


Minh Duong then proceeded to distinguish himself as hard working small businessman who has real life experience of the economic hardship of the people and not a career politician (He himself as a businessman struggling just like everybody else in this economic depression).   He mentioned that Madison Nguyen received her support from Labor and a lot of her funding are from out-of state special interest groups who have no interest in the lives of the D7 citizens.  

He mentioned that we need a change in our District 7 leadership.  For the last 5 years, the leadership in office is only interested in serving special interest groups at the taxpayers' expense. While taxpayers are being taxed more than ever to pay for unsustainable benefits and wages, residents are experiencing tremendous cut back on city services. Nevertheless, the current leadership continues to allow out-of-state and local special interest groups to control city politics and waste millions of taxpayer money for their own personal agenda. 

Minh Duong is running for he believes that thing cannot be business as usual, there is a public outcry in D7 (eventhough ignore by the main stream press), and the only way to change is to replace Madison Nguyen.

Van Tran vs. Loretta Sanchez

As the election heating up,  Van Tran is taking the race issue to Loretta Sanchez.   His right hand person Lan Nguyen is on radio calling Vietnamese to demonstrate against Sanchez this Saturday (October 2) while demanding that Sanchez should apologize to Van Tran personally.  The sin is for suggesting that Van Tran is anti-immigration and that she is does not want to have the seat to be " taken away by Vietnamese and Republican".    What Loretta Sanchez meant to say was "not to have the seat taken away by Vietnamese and Republican supporters of Van Tran" as she issued an apology to the community. 

Meanwhile,  Van Tran is recycling his well used slogan " Vietnamese should only vote for Vietnamese candidates" in the his 24-hour radio show network.    Van needs to get his Vietnamese base to vote for him.  A lot of them are wary of him since they despise his ambition to be the "Godfather of the Vietnamese-American politics".  And his red-baiting tactics against County Supervisor Chair Janet Nguyen gives him the notoriety of a sleazy politician.    Sanchez meanwhile has done an excellent job in nurturing the Vietnamese votes with her anti-communist stand.   Two of her official staff are Vietnamese-Americans.

It is ironic that two candidates with immigrant background is fighting over who is browner than the other in order to get the votes of the ethnic groups.