It is finally over. All the votes have been counted and the former Garden Grove City Councilmember and deputy DA won by 43 votes over the former State Senator Lou Correa.
What is next? A recount will unlike change the result and it just drags the process another 2 weeks. Correa still has a lot of money left in the campaign fund so he can afford the $2,400 per day cost.
Or he can save the money and effort to run against Do in 2016.
| | Vote Count | Percentage |
| ANDREW DO | 18,905 | 39.1% |
| LOU CORREA | 18,862 | 39.0% |
| CHRIS PHAN | 7,857 | 16.3% |
| CHUYEN VAN NGUYEN | 1,879 | 3.9% |
| LUPE MORFIN-MORENO | 834 | 1.7% |
* Indicates Incumbent Candidate, if any
1 comment:
It is clearly unjustified when uninformed constituents/media claim that voting has been corrupt in Orange County specifically relating to “Little Saigon’ areas, involving Viet American politicians. First of all, just the use of the title, “Little Saigon”, in the same breath in any subject instantly leads to the reader thinking ethnic. Unfortunately, with all the “scandals” involving Viet-American politicians, the logical conclusion is that “Little Saigon” has become another third world arena.
However, this perception is completely incorrect. Viet-American political leaders have had a direct influence in the revitalization of downtrodden areas of Westminster and Garden Grove that were once occupied primarily by non-Viet Americans and non-Asians. In fact, home values in areas occupied by primarily Viet-Americans and Asians have now escalated to the point that these very people are to be blamed for the high home prices. As logic dictates, high home value has a direct connection with superior schools and better community amenities.
Since the authors of these articles paint the people in Little Saigon areas as not upright in their dealings, let’s look at the $2 Billion bankruptcy OC suffered years ago. Viet-American politicians should be proud that they did not contribute to the asinine leadership. Were there Asian oriented names affiliated with the clowns who led the county to bankruptcy? No. What names do we find? Caucasian and Hispanic. Not only that, these idiots escaped the debacle without repercussion and even got voted into higher office later. Go figure.
The point is not to separate and divide ethnicity because the bulk of the poor in OC are Hispanic and Asians. By dividing the community and depriving it of representation is a great disservice to either group. When an individual spends time and effort to open parks throughout the poorest parts of OC, they should receive praise and adoration, leading to votes. The park serves all, not just for a particular group. If they should win by a landslide, is it ethnic voting bloc? Did the other candidate invest as much time and attention to their constituents?
If a minority candidate should be given office because their ethnicity is not represented, is that not a form of tokenism, even worse, misplaced application of affirmative action, where all factors of leadership are to be ignored? We should not even entertain such thoughts as it leads to societal downfall.
Let’s move on to the current event. If the Viet-American voters were ethnic-centric, would the race be as close as the final outcome? In this instance, Viet-American voters in the Little Saigon areas demonstrated free thinking and voted with conscience without prejudice, hence the close outcome.
Mr Lou Correa truly is a good man and practices retail politics, as he clearly states. He should be proud of the fact that he crossed ethnic lines and persuaded Viet-American voters to believe that he would make a difference if he were elected into office. He and the doubters should see the close race as an affirmation that democracy and unbiased voting is alive in the Little Saigon areas as any part of the United States.
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