Cong Do Running for State Assembly

With so many Vietnamese-Americans running for office in San Jose this year and next year, it would not be complete without mentioning 2016.  With still 2 years away, Cong Do already announced his candidacy to replace State Assemblywoman Nora Campos for District 27.   He is so eager that his website is already up.  Of course, when you are not working and just staying home painting for fun, he has plenty of time to do whatever he wants. 

http://doforstateassembly.com/

A self-proclaimed anti-communist activist who has been trying to destabilize the Vietnamese government for years, he went back to Vietnam to promote his anti-communist activity and was jailed in June, 2006 on terrorist charges by the local law enforcement.  Three months later, he was freed when US Congresswoman Lofgren petitioned with the US Department to help her constituent. 

This will be an interest race since the infamous Madison Nguyen is also running.  The district has 33% Asian and 46% Hispanic.  It covers most of D7, D8 and D5.   Now whether the Vietnamese-American voters will vote for a Ly Tong clone or a former elected official who is not quite popular with her own ethnic base, we will have to wait for another 720 days.

Ash Kalra and Darcie Green are happy of course since at least they don't have to worry about the Vietnamese-American votes going mostly to Madison Nguyen. 

 

Tam Nguyen's Inaugural Ceremony

While Mayor-Elect Sam Liccardo and other newly elected city councilmembers will have their inaugural ceremony at the Fairmont Hotel, Tam Nguyen will have his at the city council chamber first and then joined the other in the evening.  He has invited his friend, State Senator Janet Nguyen, to officiate the swearing in.

He will also throw an open party for District 7 voters on January 18 at the Unified Center on Story Road to show his appreciation for their support during his campaign

Andrew Do vs. Lou Correa & Others for D1 Supervisorial Race

The race is officially on to fill the supervisor seat held by Janet Nguyen until she recently elected to State Senate.  The official election date is January 27, 2015 with  the mailing of absentee ballot starting December 26, 2014. 

The Orange County D1 has approximately 600,000 residents and covers part or most of Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Westminster, Midway City and Santa Ana.  The last time a special election was held, close to  48,000 votes were casted and Janet Nguyen won the election over Trung Nguyen by 3 votes.   There are about 51,000 registered Vietnamese-American voters in the district.

There are a total of 5 candidates, two Hispanic and 3 Vietnamese-American.  But the two main candidates with their respective party's endorsement and support are Lou Correa (D) and Andrew Do (R).

Lou Correa, 56,  is a termed-out state senator and was a D1 supervisor for 2 years (2006-2007).   Andrew Do, 51,  is a former Garden Grove city councilmember and former OC deputy district attorney.  He also serves as chief of staff for Janet Nguyen. 

Andrew Do has the endorsement of the OC Republican Party and many big names Republican included OC Supervisor Michelle Steel, State Senator Mimi Walters, and Congressman Ed Royce.  Of course, State Senator Janet Nguyen is supporting him strongly and her constituents within the Vietnamese-American community are likely to follow her suit.   He has a strong presence in the community with the many community programs that bring healthcare and social benefits.  

Even though Correa works very hard to win Vietnamese-American support but his unequivocal support of SCA-5 to repeal  the ban of colleges and universities in California to use racial preferences has angered many people in the community.   They see this legislature as threat to their children's education advancement since SCA-5 essential will limit the numbers of Asian students to be accepted to college.

This special election will be won by whoever can get their base to turn out.  Correa and his close support of President Obama and his amnesty policy for illegal aliens can be a plus to drive the Hispanic vote.  While Do with his Republican Party's endorsement will get the hard core party vote.

Andrew Do, with his strong Republican and natural Vietnamese-American base, has the most visibility with his party and in Little Saigon despite the fact that there are two other Vietnamese-American candidates.   According to conventional wisdom, candidate Chuyen van Nguyen, a relative unknown in the community, is there to dilute the vote on purpose.  Chuyen van Nguyen was a retired aide to former State Senator Joe Dunn (D).   Garden Grove Councilmember Chris Phan, meanwhile, has no record in the community during his 2 years in office except for his public ambition ever since he took council office to become the next supervisor .  He is being supported in the Vietnamese-American community by the remnant of Van Tran's supporters.  These are the same people that would not vote for Janet Nguyen or anybody who received her support.  Phan can play the role of the spoiler of course.

Expect the race will be a close one and LSI cannot wait to see another nail-biter like 2007.


 

Vietnamese-American Candidates for San Jose City D4

Things are already heating up in the Vietnamese-American community as three  candidates of their own are gearing up for the special election next year to fill the vacated council seat in D4.   This is to replace Kansen Chu who now is the new assemblyman. 

So far,  Lan Diep, a  young lawyer from Houston who recently  moved to D4, has announced his intention to run to the community.

Johnny Lee, another young candidate, who  was a candidate for D7 in the last election, also made it known that he will run. 

And there is Manh Nguyen, an older man in his 60s, is thinking of  throw his hat in the ring. He is a producer of local Vietnamese radio show.  His English speaking skill is not what you would expect for a public figure but who cares when you are aiming for the Vietnamese-American vote only. 

The race really opens up with the decision by Daisy Chu (Kansen's wife) not to run for now.  She would be the clear favorite due to the name recognition.  The D4 has about 22% Vietnamese-American voters.   In comparison,  D7 has about 30% Vietnamese-American voters.   But due to the high turnout, the Viet vote in D7 is usually about 40% of the total vote. 

 

Chris Phan and His Ambition

Chris Phan, the current Garden Grove City councilmember, is aggressively campaigning for the vacant OC supervisor seat that was recently held by State Senator Janet Nguyen.   In his recent mailer asking for money, he declares that he is currently the front runner and that his opponents are running at the behest of special interests.

LSI senses that this will  be a rough and tumble campaign with Chris Phan spearheading the smearing.  Reporting here at the Liberal OC Blog:  http://www.theliberaloc.com/2014/11/06/correa-to-run-for-supervisor-to-replace-nguyen/

".......In the Voice of OC article Phan is quoted criticizing Correa for only serving two years of his first term as Supervisor.

“I have a lot of respect for the senator — he’s definitely done a great job,” Phan said. “At the same time, if you follow history, he was a supervisor before. I don’t think these seats should be a safe harbor waiting for another opportunity.”

Phan however should have thought about the irony of his comment before he made it. Having been only elected to his council seat two-years ago, the same question could be raised about Phan using his current position as a “safe harbor” and stepping stone for the higher office of Supervisor...."

In his two years in office,  the community has not seen him accomplish anything except letting people know that one day he will be replacing Janet Nguyen.   His power hungry for higher office is insatiable.  Earlier this year, four months before the primary election in June  for the 34th District State Senate, he  filed an intent statement to run for First District Supervisor seat.    So basically, a year into his city council, he made up his mind that he would be moving on and the city council seat (to him) is a "safe harbor" and stepping stones for bigger things.


The readers of this Blog are mostly voters  and  common citizens who tend to vote for candidates who truly believe that they would use the elected office to serve the people.    And like  typical voters, the readers  also tend to be afraid of ambitious politician like Phan whose only purpose so far in running for offices is so that he could have power.


Be afraid and even be more afraid of Chris Phan if he gets elected.   Overly ambitious man with power usually will lead to corruption and unwanted consequences.

 

Bao Nguyen Becomes the New Mayor of Garden Grove

It has been a successful year for Vietnamese-American candidates in California.  The two cities that made up Little Saigon in Orange County now have two Vietnamese-American mayors.  Bao Nguyen won his race by 15 votes to be the first Vietnamese-American mayor in Garden Grove, population 175,000.   Both Garden Grove  and Westminster (population 90,000) have council members that are also Vietnamese descend. 

Of course, Janet Nguyen becomes the first Vietnamese-American state senator in California.  She trounced her opponent by 20%.

In San Jose,  Tam Nguyen won the D7 councilmember race by 214 votes while 4 other Vietnamese-Americans won their school board trustee election.  Meanwhile, it was an expected reaction as the majority of the Vietnamese-American voters  in D7 and D4 rejoiced and celebrated when one of their own,  Madison Nguyen, lost her mayoral race early in the primary. 

As more and more Vietnamese-Americans are actively participate in political offices,  it would not be surprised that 8 years from now, there are more Vietnamese-Americans elected to city and state government in California





 

Tam Nguyen, A Ponytail "Politivist" and A Catbird Seat

Next year, San Jose City Hall will definitely have a colorful cast of newly elected councilmembers both from ethnic background and profession.  We have a smiling corporate man from Apple, a young Hispanic policeman and then there is the Asian lawyer Tam Nguyen. 

Tam Nguyen  is a familiar face in the Vietnamese-American community with his guitar and musical performances.   He is a member of a well known musical group based in Orange County that performs throughout the US.  He is passionate about music and poetry.   He even composed his own theme song for his recent city council campaign.   And  he dons a ponytail and rides a Harley-Davidson.  How many candidates can have this much fun running?

But he is an analytical person by training.   He started out as a computer engineer for Tandem Computer, received his MBA and then decided to get a law degree because there were only 4 Vietnamese-American lawyers for the whole community of 60,000 or so people.   For almost 20 years, his law practice is built around community activism and helping the voiceless.  Along the way, he co-founded a newspaper and is a co-owner of a restaurant.  But it is his love for music and for the arts that the community sees him as a person.    And as he grows older, his pony tail is noticeable getting longer.   Whether this is a statement of being a confident self-made man who is quite content with his life and work, only he can tell. 

He is not the first ponytail lawyer to appear in  court to defend his clients but he is definitely the only lawyer right now with a ponytail appearing in court as a city councilmember-elect.   A year and a half ago, the idea of running for city council in D7 never crossed his mind.  He showed no interest at all.  But when he was convinced by community leaders that it was for the best of the community (both Vietnamese-American and at large) and he can make an impact, he was ready to go.  

He raised money anywhere he could find a friend.  And he has a lot of them.  People in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Orange County hosted many fund raisers for him. He organized a 40-people team to canvas the precincts for him.  His theme as a "politivist" resonated with the voters from middle class to low income.   He introduced himself as " my name is Tam which means heart"  to voters that he met. 

In 2015, how he will use his swing vote to move San Jose forward and help his constituents, only time can tell.  But he is smart a "politivist", a word that he coined to show his commitment through city government to the common man's cause.  One can sense that he will do the right thing with his big heart.  

Both current mayor and mayor-elect know this and they were already courting him over a private lunch less than a week after the election.   He is a maverick leader  as they come and he wears his heart on his sleeve. 

As a self-made man, he has many stories that he loves to share  but his favorite is from the story told by Bishop Desmond Tutu:

"...An anthropologist studying the habits and customs of an African tribe found himself surrounded by children most days. So he decided to play a little game with them.  He put candies in a decorated basket at the foot of a tree. Then he called the children and suggested they play the game. When the anthropologist said “now”, the children had to run to the tree and the first one to get there could have all the candy to him/herself.  So the children all lined up waiting for the signal. When the anthropologist said “now”, all of the children took each other by the hand ran together towards the tree. 

They all arrived at the same time divided up the candy, sat down and began to happily munch away.   The anthropologist went over to them and asked why they had all run together when any one of them could have had the candy all to themselves. The children responded: “Ubuntu. How could any one of us be happy if all the others were sad?”  

Ubuntu is a philosophy of African tribes that can be summed up as “I am what I am because of who we all are.”

 

Madison Nguyen Determines to Run for CA Assembly D27

As the dust just settled in this cycle of election, San Jose City Councilmember Madison Nguyen already is planning ahead for 2016.  She is being termed out this year after 8 controversial years at city hall.   She already tells anyone who is listening that she intends to file for statement of intent to run for the 27th California Assembly District very soon.   This is the office that is currently held by  her one time friend and now arch nemesis,  Assemblymember  Nora Campos.

She will be joining a number of potential candidates.  Conventional wisdom predicts  that San Jose City Councilmember Ash Kalra and Darcy Green are the other two contenders.  Darcy Green is a former aide to Manny Diaz and Joe Coto.  She is currently a Relations Manager for Kaiser Permanente.   A potential wild card is Xavier Campos.   A former city councilmember who recently lost his race as an incumbent due to allegations of unethical conduct,  Campos might not be running.   But as a younger brother of Nora Campos, he has instant name recognition for a district of 465,000 people.  The district composes of 33% Asian, 46% Latino and 16% White.   It has 180,000 registered voters.

Of the four people planning to run, Darcy Green is the most intrigue and will bring a fresh face to politics.   Whether she can run an effective campaign or not is unknown.  
 

Dave Cortese Concedes and Maya Esparza Waits

With Dave Cortese conceded earlier this evening, the provisional ballot counting is now becoming less of a story.  The only intrigue is whether Tam Nguyen will have enough votes to keep the surging Maya Esparza from winning the San Jose D7 city council seat.  We will find out by the end of the week.  It is not impossible to overcome  the 258 vote difference (as of this evening) but there might not be enough votes left to save her.   Maya's campaign staff was a no show at this morning at the ROV while Tam's campaign manager and 4 of his supporters stopped by to check on the process.



 

Only 14,000 Provisional Ballots Left in Santa Clara County

Now that all the ballots are tallied except for the provisional ballots, Santa Clara County ROV's office  suddenly became quite crowded this morning with at least 20 people from Sam Liccardo's campaign and a half a dozen from Dave Cortese's campaign.   They were all there ready for the counting of the provisional ballots which should finish by the end of the week.

The two still contested races are the San Jose mayoral race and San Jose D7.   Tam Nguyen is ahead of Maya Esparza by 267 votes while Sam Liccardo has a 3,668 votes lead on Dave Cortese.   If the lead is less than 1% for either candidate, there is a possibility of a recount.  The provisional ballots for D7 will not be tallied until Wednesday.

SAM LICCARDO		87,950	51.06%
DAVE CORTESE		84,282	48.94%

TAM NGUYEN		6,581	51.04%
MAYA ESPARZA		6,313	48.96%

San Jose D7 Election Update

Who would have thought that San Jose D7 race between the lawyer Tam Nguyen and Maya Esparza would not be decided by now.   Four days since Nov. 4 and there is no clear winner yet.

The early result showed Tam Nguyen ahead Maya Esparza by 18%.  However, as we are finding out that there are still thousands of votes still being counted due to computer problem at the Registrar of Voters, the lead has been shrinking every day since election night.

There are probably still 1,500 to 2,000 votes left for D7.  Nguyen is now ahead by 365 votes.  Is there enough votes left for Maya to catch up?   It will be nail biting and who ever wins, it might be  less than a hundred votes separating them.  Recount anyone?

TAM NGUYEN		5,412	51.74%
MAYA ESPARZA		5,047	48.26%

Garden Grove Mayoral Race Is Not Over Yet

With there are hundreds more provisional ballots to be counted, the mayoral race for Garden Grove City is still up in the air. 

Bao Nguyen is trying to unseat an incumbent mayor, Bruce Broadwater, who is controversial to a point that the firefighter's union is coming out against him.  And not because he is cutting their pension or benefits. 

Bao Nguyen was just randomly throwing his hat in the ring and he happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Bao Nguyen is gaining votes after Nov. 5 as more VBM ballots are counted.  He is trailing only by 256 votes after being down by more than 350 votes.   There are now only 1% point separate them.   This election is from over since there will be a recount in the horizon.

BRUCE ALLAN BROADWATER	9,907	43.0%
BAO NGUYEN	9,651	41.9%

Dave Cortese Lost the Mayoral Race

With additional 15,000 ballots, Dave Cortese finds himself further behind.  He is trailing by almost 2,500 votes.  It is safe to predict that Sam Liccardo is the next mayor of San Jose. 

It will be a contentious next 4 years in city hall with the budget and labor issues and Liccardo already knows who to approach.  He called Tam Nguyen last night and personally congratulated him for his D7 victory.

It is not too early to think 2015 and perhaps 2016, so LSI will venture into the crystal ball -

Dave Cortese will be content to serve out 6 more years as county supervisor unless Mike Honda decide to retire. 

Daisy Chu will be running for city council to replace her husband.

Jim Zito is planning for his 2016 city council bid for D8.

 

Ro Khanna Cannot Let Go

It was one of the most expensive US congressional races  between 2 Democratic candidates.   The young gun Ro Khanna outspent and outraised the incumbent Mike Honda by millions.  And with the help of big corporate money, he was hoping to unseat a lovable but old congressman.   LSI received a total 15 negative mailers from him during the general election alone. 

In the end,  Ro Khanna even lost in his own home town, Fremont, by 2%.   He trailed by 5% in Santa Clara County.  Basically, this race for the CA-17th is over since the trend is against him as more votes are counted.  

However, he has not conceded since he claimed that there are about 40,000 ballots left and most are VBM.

He is young and still have quite a political career ahead of him but he will need to learn how to lose gracefully.  Remember there is always 2016, by then Mike Honda would be 73 years old and he might just decide to retire. 

 

How Many Votes Left to Save Dave Cortese?

From: bushey, shannon
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2014 3:26 PM
To: ROV - BOS
Cc: Moreles, Matt
Subject: Election Count/Process Update

 

Honorable Members of the Board of Supervisors,

 

I want to take this opportunity to provide you with a status update regarding the counting of votes from yesterday’s election and to let you know what you may expect for the coming days.

 

We estimate that approximately 120,000-150,000 Vote By Mail (VBM) ballots were dropped off at polling places yesterday and arrived at the ROV Office last night.  In addition, about 14,000 Provisional ballots were received at the polls.

 

Once the VBM ballots have been processed through our ballot sorting machine, we will have an accurate count of the number of ballots remaining to be tallied.  The goal is to complete the count of VBM ballots by this weekend.

 

Once the VBM ballots have been counted, we will begin validating and counting the Provisional ballots.  We anticipate that the validation and counting of the Provisional ballots should be completed by the end of next week.

 

Our website (http://www.sccvote.org) will be updated by 5:00 p.m. each day to reflect the latest counts.

 

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

 

Take care.

Shannon

 

 

Shannon Bushey

Registrar of Voters

County of Santa Clara

1555 Berger Drive, Bldg. 2

San Jose, CA 95112

(408) 282-3005

shannon.bushey@rov.sccgov.org

Low Turnout Dooms Dave Cortese's Mayoral Hope

With an extremely low turnout of only 109,100 ballots casted,  Dave Cortese is losing the San Jose mayoral race to Sam Liccardo by 2%.   The most updated number shows that turn out in the general election is lower than in the June primary where there were 130,100 ballots.    Labor Unions still think that  their own Hispanic base and their last minute effort can turn the tide.  However, the trend is against Cortese all night long.  He is about 2,000 votes behind.

According to the Santa Clara County Registrar Office, there are still about 60,000 to 70,000 votes attributed to the mayoral race that have not been tallied.  Cortese is winning the Vietnamese-American heavily dominated districts - D7 and D4.    But he surprisingly is  losing in his own D8.


The Vietnamese-American community voted overwhelmingly for Tam Nguyen, an activist lawyer who was part of the recall Madison Nguyen effort, to represent them in San Jose D7.    Tam Nguyen is winning  by 9% with only 8,800 votes casted.   In the primary, there were over 10,500 people voted.  Even though there are still about 3,200 votes left to be counted, the trend is against his opponent all night long and for her to overcome a 9% deficit is not easy.

With Vietnamese-American voters compose of 35% of the electorate, if Tam Nguyen wins, the D7 will be controlled by Asian-American candidate for years to come.    There were 9 other Vietnamese-American candidates ran for various school board trustee seats.   Five won with large majority of the votes.

The biggest victory for the community of course is newly elected State Senator Janet Nguyen.  She will be the first highest elected Vietnamese-American in state legislature.  She won the 34th state senate seat.  A district that has been a Democratic seat.   This was the most closely watched race in the state with the local Democratic Party poured in over $3 million.   Nguyen raised $3.4 million while her opponent, Jose Solorio took in $2.6 million of direct contribution.   In the end,  Nguyen won in a landslide despite extreme dirty tactics by Labor Unions, trouncing Solorio 60% to 40%.   

 

Election Results for Santa Clara County and Orange County, Part II

With over  65% of the votes counted, here are some of the other races that have Vietnamese-American candidates.   A total of 10 candidates in Santa Clara County and 19 in Orange County.

City of Garden Grove Mayor

Bruce Broadwater  8,795   43.2%
Bao Nguyen            8,430  41.4%


City of Garden Grove City Council  (top 2 only)

Phat Bui        8,660    23.5%
Kris Beard    8,555    23.2%


City of Westminster City Council  (top 2 only)

Tyler Diep          7,309    34.4%
Margie Rice        6,376    30%
Charlie Nguyen  4,734     22.3%


City of Westminster Mayor

Tri Ta                   85%
Andy Nguyen       15%


In Santa Clara County,  Thanh Tran and Khanh Tran won the trustee seat for  the Franklin McKinley Unified School District and Alum Rock Unified School District respectively.  Huong Nguyen and Scott Hung Pham also won the trustee seat for San Jose Evergreen Community College District.

Richard Nguyen, Sam Ho and Anthony Phan lost their respective school board trustee bids.



 

Election Results in Santa Clara County and Orange County Part I

With the extreme low turn-out, the Vietnamese-American candidates are doing as expected.  Here are the early results for the major races with about 50% of the votes counted




State Senator D34

Janet Nguyen   52,187  61.7%
Jose Soloorio   32,366  38.3%

San Jose City Council D7

TAMNGUYEN		4,094	57.9%
MAYA ESPARZA		2,974	42.1%

Another Ethic Complaint from Sam Liccardo's Campaign

Earlier this September,   a group of Vietnamese-American activists organized a Rock the Vote event to get out the votes in the Vietnamese American community in San Jose.   The event was held on a beautiful Sunday at Grand Century Mall and widely advertised within the community.    A number of candidates showed up for the event including the leading mayoral candidate Dave Cortese.   

Couple weeks later, Sam Liccardo's supporters filed a complaint to the Ethic Commission.  The complaint alleged that  the organizers are Dave Cortese's supporters and they were putting together the event on behalf of Dave and nothing more.   And yet neither Cortese nor the organizers filed any monetary donation statement. 

This is somewhat of a stretch of course since Rock the Vote event is a common thing within the Vietnamese-American community to help voters aware of the issues as well as candidates. 

The Ethic Commission nevertheless sprung into action and immediately hired the law firm of Hansen Bridgett LLP to pursue the case.   They have investigated about a dozen people including Dave Cortese.  

The inquiry was nothing more than another political ploy that is too little too late for Sam Liccardo.  However, this kind of political gamesmanship irked Cortese.   He told the lawyer from Hansen Bridgett ,  "...  I don't see a problem of me practicing my constitutional right in attending civic event or political event for that matter....."     The lawyer defended his action, "I am just doing my job as being asked..."

A fishing expedition that will  cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars just because in the name of politics and a mayoral job

Are There San Jose Voters Out There?

This must be the most "boring mayoral race" and uneventful city wide election season for San Jose voters.   The  "boring mayoral race" is what Dave Cortese described in a recent lunch with his supporters as he commented on what appeared to be a low turn-out by voters this November 4. 

The returned absentee ballots so far indicated a lack of enthusiasm by the voters.   For District 7,  ~ 5,900 absentee ballots have returned and about 50% are from Vietnamese-American voters.    For the mayoral race, ~ 61,200 people have sent in their ballots so far with only 4 more days to go.   Absentee ballots usually make up about 70 - 75% of the total votes. 

In the bigger picture, a less people going to the poll, the more it is favorable to the underdogs.  In this case, Sam Liccardo.   However, for the D7 race, a low turn-out means that Tam Nguyen has a higher chance of getting the majority.  The Vietnamese-American turn-out is quite predictable in D7 with a dependable voting bloc of  6,000 - 6,500  votes.

Kieu Hoang Winery

http://www.kieuhoangwinery.com/index.cfm?


The first Vietnamese-American billionaire decided to be in the wine business.   Over the summer, he  purchased Michael Mondavi Family Estate Winery southwest of Napa and plans to grow a new high-end wine brand for Asian and  U.S. markets.   The deal included  the winery and more than 20 acres of surrounding vineyards and plantable land  in the Napa County side of Los Carneros winegrowing region for about $12 million.  The winery can produce up to 100,000 cases per year.

Kieu Hoang, 69, started RAAS —  “Rare Antibody Antigen Supply” — in 1980 as a supplier of blood plasma. The company built a large facility center in Shanghai, China and now offers a line of blood- and health-related products under their own brand KHKMY.   The company went public in China and he is listed in Forbes Magazine with a net worth of over $2 billion.

 

 

 

Sam Liccardo Cannot Win Over the Vietnamese-American Voters

LSI commissioned a poll recently in the Vietnamese-American community in San Jose to see the sentiment of the community between two well qualified candidates for San Jose City mayor -  Sam Liccardo and Dave Cortese.  

The results of the survey of 325 likely voters show -   Dave Cortese has 57%,  Sam Liccardo has 34% and 9% undecided.   When asked which candidate is more favorable, 65% of the voters feel more favorable toward Cortese vs. 35% toward Liccardo.  The margin of error is 4%.

The Vietnamese-Americans living in San Jose is only 10% of the total citywide population.   However, with to their high turn-out in every election, they will likely compose about 13% to 15% of the total votes. 



 

Free Flu Vaccine Day in Orange County

Maya Esparza On Top in the San Jose D7 Race

You know the city council race for San Jose District 7 is heating up when dirty tricks of sign stealing and defacing are being carrying out.   In this case,  the candidate Maya Esparza and her campaign decided to be creative and show who is really on top of the race.   

 

 

Second Poll Shows Dave Cortese Leading By Wide Margin

With less than 2 weeks before the election, there are two polls  showing that Dave Cortese is leading the San Jose City mayoral race by a wide margin. While one poll contradicts and claims that the race is tied.

A poll conducted by The San Jose State University's Survey and Policy Research Institute at the request of the Mercury News (who is supporting Sam Liccardo) indicated that Cortese  is leading by 8%.   Another recent poll done by the EMC Research for South Bay Labor Council shows Cortese is ahead by 11%.  

Sam Liccardo mean while commissioned his own poll but refused to let the public see the detail.  He claimed that the JMM Research indicated he and Cortese suddenly are tied.

Liccardo is struggling to appeal to the majority of the voters.  He is becoming a one dimensional candidate as he is relying more and more on the Republican base for his support.   His albatross in the Vietnamese-American community is Councilmember Madison Nguyen.   Liccardo is so desperate for the Vietnamese-American votes that he asked for Nguyen's endorsement against the advise of his Vietnamese-American supporters. 


Liccardo knows his campaign is floundering and the latest episode of filing unsubstantiated ethical claim against Cortese is a sign of desperation.

LSI likes Liccardo and thinks that he would make a wonderful mayor.  However, unlike Cortese who spends a considerable amount of time  building his base for the last 8 years by showing up to events, actively reaching out  to many different communities  and actually providing concrete  actions that people could appreciate,  Liccardo chooses to rely on the  endorsement game and the powerful money of the wealthy families and corporations to buy the election.

Unfortunately, Liccardo will likely fall short because he does not have the women's votes and he is having difficulty appealing to the Hispanic and the Asian communities.

LSI predicts a 6% difference between Liccardo and Cortese on election day.







 

Why Dave Cortese Will Be the Next Mayor of San Jose

With the election 3 weeks away and the absentee ballots already sent out,  the mayoral race for the 10th largest city in the US is heating up just like the stifling hot weather that has gripped the city for the last 3 months.

Dave Cortese and Sam Liccardo are well qualified to lead the city.   Personally,  LSI likes Sam Liccardo.  He is personable and comes across as an easy going person.  Dave is intense and introvert.  But  Dave Cortese is a doer.  He has shown again and again that he could steer government resources to do good things for the community with practical purpose and value.   

But election is all about numbers.  They simply don't add up for Liccardo.   In a city where 2/3 of the population are none white,  Cortese has worked very hard in the last 8 years to build his name and a coalition of Hispanics, Vietnamese-Americans, Chinese-Americans and Indo-Americans.  Liccardo is still an outsider looking in.   He tries very hard but he has never really connected with the right people in their respective communities to help welcome him.

In an election where 55%  to 60% of the votes will be from the none white electorate, Liccardo will have a hard time making up the difference even if he wins the white votes.   And then there is the women vote.  It is no secret that Liccardo is trailing Cortese in this important group of voters.  Liccardo is behind 5 out the 10 districts - D8, D4, D7, D5, and D9.  District 6 will be a battle ground but it is leaning toward Cortese.

Liccardo knows he is trailing from his own internal poll and his latest move of filing an ethical complaint against Cortese shows that he is desperate.

What is the prediction - LSI will venture to say Cortese by 6 points.




 

VOICE OF OC UNETHICAL REPORTING

                         ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PRESS RELEASE
                                           TONY RACKAUCKAS, District Attorney

WARNING: UNETHICAL AND INACCURATE REPORTING BY THE ‘VOICE OF OC’ 

“The Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) has endured years of unethical and inaccurate web “reporting” by various staff members of the Voice of OC.    The latest occurred this afternoon during my conversation with Adam Elmahrek, who is on staff with the Voice of OC.   

Any reporter might make a mistake, but it’s unethical to not correct their mistake when it is obvious they made one and it creates mistaken fact.   

Any publication that quotes any future stories from the Voice of OC should proceed with extreme caution and verify its accuracy. 

If anyone would like the details of the Voice of OC’s pattern of misconduct and unethical behavior, they should contact me directly. 

Meanwhile, the OCDA is contemplating all remedies available on future contacts with the Voice of OC.    Until this issue is resolved, all calls from the Voice of OC to OCDA staff should be directed to me.” 

Susan Kang Schroeder 

Chief of Staff 


 

Sam Liccardo Visiting Buddhist Temples

City councilmember Sam Liccardo has been busy visiting Vietnamese Buddhist temples in San Jose in recent weeks.   It is an unusual sighting for sure since Buddhist temple is not a place for politician to visit unless they are there for spiritual purposes.   

He is desperately looking to make head wave with the Vietnamese-American voters as he is currently being politely turned away by community leaders.   With Nguyen's endorsement, this will make his reception into the community to be more difficulty.  His Vietnamese-American supporters  adamantly opposed his decision to accept Nguyen's endorsement for they felt that this would drive more Viet voters to vote against him.  

What Nguyen brings to the table is her connection to the Chinese -Vietnamese businessmen and their deep pocket. 

The question now is can Dave Cortese hold on to the 6 districts that he won in the primary knowing that he will be outspent by Sam?


 

Viet Xuan Luong, First Vietnamese-American Army General

Yesterday, at Fort Hood, TX, home of the US Army 1rst Calvary Division, Colonel Viet Xuan Luong was promoted to brigadier general and became the first Vietnamese-American general/flag officer.  

He and his 7 sisters came to the US in 1975 after being airlifted from Saigon.  His father was a major in the ARVN.   He was raised in California (LA and Mountain View) and joined the army after receiving his BS from USC almost 2 decades ago.   He served in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The first Vietnamese-American commissioned to West Point was Hung Vu in 1981.  He left the service with the rank of captain after fulfilling his 5 years commission.   In 1999,  Josephine Nguyen graduated second in her Naval Academy class.  She and her classmate (Mary Godfrey) had the distinction of  becoming the first pair of women who graduated as the top two of their class.  



 
 

Janet Nguyen Can Help You With Your Taxes

An article posted on Forbes recently lays out the case for why Janet Nguyen's candidacy for state senate is the most important political fight in 2014 for Californians.

According to the article, the race is " likely to determine whether or not taxes will rise by billions in the world’s eighth largest economy"

The article further explains:

".......Fortunately for California Republicans, they have a strong candidate in Janet Nguyen, a current Orange County Supervisor, to go up against former Democratic Assemblyman Jose Solorio in this crucial race. Nguyen, who emigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam at age 5, describes herself as “a believer in limited government,” and says that if elected, she would spend taxpayer dollars the way she spends her own. That would certainly represent a stark contrast between both the status quo in Sacramento and her opponent’s legislative record.

“Janet Nguyen’s candidacy for state senate is the most important political fight in 2014 for Californians,” said Brian Calle, Opinion Editor for the OC Register and Editor-in-Chief of CalWatchdog.com. “And if Nguyen is victorious,” added Calle, “Democrats would not have the necessary two-thirds majority in the Legislature to unilaterally raise taxes in the Golden State


For further reading, see the link below:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickgleason/2014/08/06/cal-taxes/




 

Janet Nguyen Receives Endorsement from Orange County Register

 

 

 

Orange County Register Cites Nguyen's Commitment 

to Create Jobs

 

   

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 CONTACT:      Chris Marsh

July 20, 2014                                                                        (714) 705-0773

  

(Westminster, Calif.) - Support for Janet Nguyen's Campaign for the 

34^th State Senate District continues to build with the pivotal endorsement of the Orange County Register Editorial Department. 

In an editorial titled Janet Nguyen for State District 34, the Register recently announced its endorsement citing Supervisor Janet Nguyen's "commitment to fight for smaller government, fiscal restraint, no new taxes and a reduction in business regulations." 

 

"I am humbled and honored to receive the endorsement of Orange County's most read and respected news publication," noted Janet Nguyen upon receiving news of the endorsement this morning.

 

Below are some notable excerpts from today's editorial.

 

"Her dedication to preserving Proposition 13 and opposition to the destruction of property rights through eminent domain and the high-speed rail project were also welcome positions."

 

"California would do well to return to pro-growth and limited government policies if it is to restore economic prosperity and opportunity. Janet Nguyen clearly embodies these principles more than her opponent, so she has our support for the 34^th District state Senate race."

 

For the full editorial endorsing Janet Nguyen's Campaign for the 34^th State Senate District, you can visit the OC Register website here. 

Madison Nguyen Goes Shopping

San Jose Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen is shopping to see who would bite her endorsement bait.   After her third place finish in the recent mayoral race, she is anxious to cut a deal for her endorsement with either one of the two remaining candidates who will face each other in the fall for the runoff. 

Last week, Nguyen met with County Supervisor Dave Cortese.   LSI was not at the meeting but from what Nguyen has been ranting about after the election to whoever wants to hear, it would be safe to expect a similar outburst. 

She has been expressing her bitterness of how San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed did not endorse her even though she supported him on all of his issues.  She has even gone further to say that most of Sam Liccardo's money and votes should have been hers if Reed had endorsed her.  And she is particularly upset with the Mercury editorial for calling her lacking city-wide issue experience.   

Just a bit of history, Nguyen abandoned Labor Unions after they had helped her to beat back the recall and took side with Reed.  The switch in loyalty was because she wanted to win this race and Reed backing was supposedly her ticket.  Reed gave her the vice mayor position and apparently promised his support for her mayoral race.   

So what does she want from Cortese?  If Dave wins, she will run for his supervisor seat.  She wants his endorsement in return for hers now.   The problem is Nora Campos already has her eye for the D3  seat.   How about Nora's current assembly seat?  Well, that is likely to be reserved for Ash Kalra by the Labor Unions.

LSI does not know the future of Nguyen's political career but any politician that can betray the people that supported them with no regrets really has no future with the electorate.   Who would trust Madison Nguyen?  Not the Vietnamese-American community in San Jose.   Sam Liccardo knows  that she will stab him the in back at any given opportunity.  Dave Cortese and Cindy Chavez simply wish that she would go away. 

What a tangle web Nguyen has weaved with her disloyalty.

 

Madison Nguyen and Dina Nguyen Plotting for Supervisor Seats

The primary election is just over less than a week, and the pundits are already predicting upcoming political moves.   So from the corners of many Viet coffee bars here in San Jose and Garden Grove, here are what LSI had overheard (Disclaimer:  It was difficult to listen to some of these conversations while being constantly distracted with fully and partly nude waitresses in their high heels).

- Madison Nguyen will likely run for the Santa Clara County supervisor in D3 in 2015 if the current supervisor, Dave Cortese, wins the mayoral race in November.   This time, she will likely get the endorsement from Mayor Chuck Reed.  San Jose D4 is Reed's district and it is part of the the county D1.    Nguyen can be quite vindictive as some of her close friends already know.   She was and still is very upset when Reed decided not to endorse her in the mayoral race even though she turned her back against Labor just for him.   But she is also a smart politician and knows how to move forward.

This is actually a favorable race for her if the Vietnamese-American voters would support her.  However, history has shown that she will not get the Vietnamese-American votes so she will have to throw her fortune in the wind again and see how far it will carry.

Her opponent (s) will mostly likely  be  Milpitas Mayor Jose Esteves.  Other names keep  surfacing including Rose H. and Daisy C.

- Dina Nguyen, the former Garden Grove councilmember, has her eye on Janet Nguyen's seat of OC supervisor D1.  She lost the supervisor race to Janet in 2008.  If Janet wins the state senatorial race this November, a special election will be held in Feb 2015 for a winner-take-all election.  The current GC councilmember, Chris Phan, will no doubt put his hat in the ring.   Of course, former assemblyman Van Tran, is no dummy and he can  see a golden opportunity when it appears.   He knows that even with three Vietnamese candidates, the chance is still there for one of them to win because  D1 is so heavily dominated with Vietnamese-American voters.  Janet Nguyen won election despite being challenged by 2 Vietnamese candidates.  Matter of fact, none of the Hispanic candidates made the top two.

Another interesting candidate seems to be emerging is another former Garden Grove councilmember, Andrew Do.  He is a strong candidate and respected by the community.

Of course all of these are coffee bar talks and are irrelevant if Dave Cortese and Janet Nguyen both lose in the runoff.   Both Madison and Dina are hoping that is not the case since these are the needed openings for them to salvage their political career.  

Ready for Another Round of Mike Honda vs. Rho Khanna

LSI is not sure what is the going on with Rho Khanna's campaign but they sure know how to spin a terrible trouncing.   Right after the election, a mass email campaign already started by Khanna depicting Honda as a weak candidate since he only won 49% of the total votes in a 4-person race.  

Up till the primary election, LSI was told by his people that he had been getting a lot of supports from tens of thousands of phone calls and weekly town hall meetings with his voters for the last one year.   Surprisingly, he could not even beat Honda in his own hometown and county.  Khanna lost by almost 19 points to Honda in Alameda County.  He did worse in Santa Clara County with a 24 points difference.

Khanna wants badly the Vietnamese-American votes and is trying his best to hitch a free ride on the coattail of attorney Tam Nguyen's popularity in the community.  However, his lack of record working and supporting  the Vietnamese-American community is being scrutinized within the community.  

In general, the conventional wisdom is that Khanna made a wrong impression in the primary with the overall voting population. 

The unscientific feedback that LSI received so far is the typical Bay Area voters do not really care for the negative attacks that are borderline the truth against an incumbent like Mike Honda, a respected figure who came across as a caring and affable grandfather.   The barrage of negative attacks in the primary did not stick and left voters with bad taste in their mouth. 

Madison Nguyen and Her Toxic Endorsement

LSI learned that Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen was quite eager to offer her endorsement to the second place finisher of the recent San Jose mayoral race.   However, the offer was politely turn down for now.

It just happens that Councilmember Sam Liccardo is an astute student of political history.   He knows how Nguyen's endorsement of Teresa Alvarado  in last year Santa Clara County supervisorial race riled up  the Vietnamese-American voters and they turned out to vote in drove and gave the now Supervisor Cindy Chavez the necessary vote difference.  

A lot of people in the Vietnamese-American community felt bad for Teresa for she is a nice and decent person.  What did her in was her naivete to the sentiment of the  Vietnamese-American community.   Blanca Alvarado (the a well respected former supervisor of the same seat) sensed her daughter mistake and in the end was personally asking the Vietnamese-American leaders to help her daughter.   But it was too late and Nguyen's polarizing reputation damaged the campaign to a point that the Alvarado staff could not attract Vietnamese callers and walkers to help with their race (despite the fact that they offered $10/hour for the service). 

This week election for mayor and city council,  Buu Thai was another candidate as the unfortunate recipient of Nguyen's endorsement.  On the surface, with strong name recognition in D7 for her work in the last 8 years as a school board trustee and Nguyen throwing her weight behind her,  the conventional wisdom was that she would at least come in second place.  In reality, she was dead last. 

Liccardo knows that this will be a tight race and he is fighting an uphill battle against Dave Cortese.  He does not need another reason to motivate the Vietnamese-American voters to support  Cortese.  But on the other hand,  Nguyen can be a very persuasive and in the upcoming mailer,  there might be a picture of Liccardo and Nguyen together urging the Vietnamese-American voters to vote for him.




 

Three Nguyens, One Lost, Two Won

It was an election night that the Vietnamese-American communities in Orange County and San Jose were expecting from the start of the campaign season

Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen (R) won her state senatorial race with ease.  She received 54% while her nearest competitor, former Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D), garnered 31%.  This is a seat that the Republican Party wants desperately and Janet Nguyen is their woman.   With a weak candidate and low Hispanic turnout as predicted, Janet Nguyen will again face Jose Solorio in the runoff.  She will be a strong favorite of course for this is a partisan race and this is the year voters will lining up for the Republican Party to show their disapproval of Obama.


In San Jose, the lawyer Tam Nguyen won his city council race for D7 with 34% of the vote.   Maya Esparza will be his opponent in the runoff this coming November.  She received 28% of the vote.

Tam Nguyen was dismissed by the Mercury News Editors as a community activist with no experience.  The scathing put down of him by the editorial as somebody who does not know how  government works and worst of all, the Mercury News Editors did not bother to mention the fact that he is a practicing lawyer for over 20 years.  Interestingly enough, he won a lawsuit against the Merc in 2000 for plagiarism.  The Merc was ordered to pay him $20,000 for the damages. 

Buu Thai, school board trustee and with a shining endorsement from Madison Nguyen,  came in dead last among the four candidates.

It is interesting to see how Tam Nguyen will fare now that the other two Vietnamese-Americans are out of the race.   He is a hard campaigner and has the skill sets and experience to bring the voice of the D7 people to city hall.   This is something that Madison Nguyen was unwilling to do.

And then there is Councilmember Madison Nguyen and her mayoral race.   She told her Asian supporters that she would get 90% of the Asian votes.  This is quite significant of course since they are 1/3 of the demographics.  She came in third with 21%, Sam Liccardo is second with 25%.   Of course, Dave Cortese, the favorite from the start, won with 34%.   

Dave Cortese put together a strong coalition of Asian, Hispanic and White.  He is also very favorable among female voters.   His campaign calculated that Cortese  should be able to carry D10, D9, D7, D8, D2, D5 and D4.   It is too early to have any concrete numbers to analyze.   However, in the runoff, it is not far fetch to say that Cortese will carry these 6 districts. 

Sam Liccardo will have the money and Madison Nguyen will throw her support behind him, as well as Mayor Chuck Reed.   However,  it will be a tough hill to climb with 9% separating him and Cortese.  Also, in the last 2 elections, whoever Nguyen publicly supported, they would end up loosing.


It is too early to predict but LSI has the gambling bug the last couple of days.  The early conventional wisdom is that Dave Cortese will be the next mayor and Janet Nguyen will be the first Vietnamese-American to be elected California State Senator.

Madison Nguyen, Dave Cortese, Sam Liccardo and the San Jose Mayoral Race

In the 2006 San Jose mayoral race,  then San Jose Councilmember Dave Cortese came in fourth while receiving 20,691 votes.   It was such a poor showing for him.  He was considered to be one of the two candidates to be in the run-off.   To this day, he still considers it to be a very disappointing loss.

Eight years since passed and he is now a presiding supervisor for Santa Clara County.    He is once again considered to be one of the favorites.   Dave Cortese, by all people who know him well, is a politician who genuinely believes in using government to benefit the people.   He is truly a behind-the-scenes deal maker who will carefully weigh issues often to a fault.  

He very actively involves in the Vietnamese-American community.  LSI could see him attending at least 2 community events a month for the last 4-5 years; unlike Madison Nguyen who rarely makes appearance in the community.  The community has taken a really liking of him and the poll done on behalf of LSI showed a great amount of support for him. 

If the 2006 mayoral election results could be used as a predictor of the 2014 race,  Cortese will need at least 30,000 votes to be in the runoff.

In a city where there is no majority voting block anymore and where the demographic is  1/3 White, 1/3 Hispanic and 1/3 Asian,  a true rainbow voting coalition is needed for any candidate to win. 

Cortese is well known and liked among the Chinese-Americans and Indo-Americans.   His long friendship with elected leaders of the respective ethnic groups certainly will bring him the needed votes.  Labor will deliver their voting bloc of Hispanic and union folks to him for he is their favorite candidate.

The Vietnamese-American voters is expected to be about 11,000 to 13,000 if past history holds true.  Cortese is hoping to split the votes with Madison Nguyen.   Based on the last poll taken in the Vietnamese-American community,  LSI thinks Cortese will win about 40% of the votes and the rest will be split unevenly among the other 4 candidates,  It will be an unbearable failure for Cortese if he cannot get into the runoff.   This is his ultimate prize and he  works so hard and long to earn it. 

Madison Nguyen meanwhile is lacking support from her own ethnic base due to her controversial fighting with the community for the name Little Saigon.  Beyond D7, she is limited in her appeal. 

Sam Liccardo with the support of all the big money and Chamber of Commerce, suddently realizes that even with over $700k on hand, it is still not enough to convince people.  


LSI's prediction -  Dave Cortese will be in the runoff riding the stronger than expected  support of the Vietnamese-Americans.  
 

Janet Nguyen and Global Sounds Festival

Ao Dai Festival, Fairmont Hotel, Sunday, May 4, 2014

A noteworthy event organized by Friends of Hue to support their charitable activities in Vietnam

www.friendsofhue.org

www.aodaifestival.com

Against a tapestry of colored flags and red silks, one hundred dancers dressed in the Vietnamese Ao Dai will dance to the drumbeats of forty drummers in front of the Fairmont Hotel San Jose, California on Sunday, May 4, 2014, marking the opening of the 2014 Ao Dai Vietnamese Cultural Festival. 

Designers from Vietnam and the Greater Bay Area are invited to celebrate Vietnamese visual arts, language and energy. The event is designed to promote the beauty and grace of Vietnamese women. This family-friendly event will be a stunning visual feast appealing to everyone who appreciates beauty, fashion and cultural diversity.

The Festival includes:

Free Outdoor Festivities

• “Vinh Quy Bai To” (Traditional horse and carriage wedding ceremony.)
• Featuring 100 Ao Dai models, 20 zither performers and 20 drummers
• Dragon Dance
• Ao Dai stilt walkers

Indoor Event (for ticket holders only)

• VIP Champagne & Cocktail Reception, Cognac testing sponsored by Martell
• Cocktail Reception with Jazz performance by Thuy Linh and her Jazz Quartet
• Designer’s Walk
• Face and Hand Painting

• Music performed by Emmy Award Winner Vanessa Vo 
• Hon Vong Phu (Yearning Mountain – poetry in motion)
• Fashion Show of exquisite Ao Dai – International Designers dazzle with exquisite creations from traditional to modern
• Humanitarian Awards
• Ao Dai Fashion Awards
• Gourmet Five Course Asian Cuisine Dinner with Wine

 

 

Dave Cortese and Vietnamese-American Voters in San Jose

Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese is trying to fulfill his political ambition to become the leader of San Jose.   He lost the mayoral race to his arch enemy, the current Mayor Chuck Reed, in 2006.  

For a city with a population comprises of 1/3 Hispanic, 1/3 Asian and 1/3 White, forming a rainbow coalition is a must for anybody to win a city wide race.   Reed, in 2006, won by carrying the Asian and White votes.

Cortese was stunned at that time when most of the Vietnamese-American votes went to Reed despite his efforts to woo them.  Even though they only represent roughly 10% of the electorate,  the Vietnamese-American voters often have a much higher turn-out and this could make a difference in the primary where there are multiple candidates.  

It is no accident that for the last 8 years, Cortese has spent considerable time to build his image among the Vietnamese-American voters. 

Cortese, being a strong supporter of labor unions, will likely to carry the Hispanic votes.  His strong presence in the Chinese-American community (with the help of San Jose City Councilmember Kansen Chu and his wife) will certainly help him to win this voting bloc.   His  alliance with San Jose City Councilmember Ash Kalra will gain him some votes with the Indo-American community.  Of course, it does not hurt when your chief-of-staff is also Indo-American.


Without a doubt, this race is strongly followed by the community, especially when Councilmember Madison Nguyen is one of the candidates.    Nguyen barely survived a recall  and she is considered to be a polarized figure in the community.   Recently,  there was a candidate forum hosted by a network of  Vietnamese-American  organizations with over 400 people attending -

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/SJ-Mayoral-Forum-With-Vietnamese-American-Community--254986371.html.

Just to see what the conventional wisdom is revealing, an ad hoc poll was conducted by our friend at Asian Poll Media and LSI would like to share the results

The question was asked -  If the primary would be held today, who would you likely to support out of the five candidates?

A field of 315 most likely Vietnamese American voters (145 women and 170 men) were asked during the third week of April.  The poll was conducted within a 4% margin of error. 

Dave Cortese - 38%
Madison Nguyen - 35%
Sam Liccardo - 9%
Rose Herrera - 6%
Pierluigi Oliverio - 1%
Undecided - 11%

This is a surprising number since Dave Cortese is not expected to win the Vietnamese-American votes, his game plan is to have enough support to prevent Nguyen to carry an overwhelming majority.  

The poll shows that the Vietnamese-American community is ambivalent about Nguyen.  It also reflects that fact that she has not actively reaching out to the community for the last 4 years.  

She has been flooding the community with a campaigning theme that reads - "Vietnamese Voters vote for Vietnamese Candidate."

This so far has its limit. 





 

Kieu Hoang, The First Vietnamese-American Billionaire

Kieu Hoang, 69, the owner of RAAS Group debuts recently on the 2014 Forbes Billionaires List after the shares of one of his companies,  Shanghai RAAS Blood Products took a big jump this year.   His net worth is estimated to be $1.8 billion.  

He was born in Quang Tri, a city in the central region of Vietnam.   He came to the US in 1975 and is currently  resides in Southern California.  In 1980, he founded a plasma testing company with a central lab center established in Agoura Hills.   In 1992, he branched into China and founded Shanghai RAAS.  

Kieu is well known for some of his tourism ventures in Vietnam, including his efforts to organize Miss World 2010 in Vietnam.  However, he made a mess of himself with his wheeling dealing and ultimately shut down his many ventures.   The press in Vietnam was quite critical of him as a typical brash Viet Kieu throwing their money to buy influence and fame in Vietnam.

The other wealthy Vietnamese-American that made it big in the hi-tech is the serial entrepreneur Bill Nguyen.  He sold his first company back in the days of the dotcom bubble for $850 million.   He  estimates to be worth at $350 million.  At 41 years old, Nguyen still has time on his hand to be a billionaire like Kieu Hoang. 

While Kieu builds his companies the old fashion way with strong products and revenues,  Nguyen made his money by wheeling and dealing with the hope that his companies would get bought out based on hype.  These are usually the case and the buyers are often ended writing off their investment.

And then there is Steve Tran, a truck driver in the Bay Area, who is the owner of $324 million lottery ticket.