Friday, October 31, 2014

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.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Kieu Hoang Winery

Kieu Hoang (credit: RAAS Corp.)


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.

 
 
 

Slow Voter Turnout in Santa Clara County for Midterm Election?

  Mirroring the voting trends in California, the voters in Santa Clara County have not returned their mail-in ballots as expected.   With ...