California Senate Republican Caucus

The outgoing California State Senator Janet Nguyen (R) made recommendation to the California Senate Republican Caucus to terminate their current pollsters.   The reason is because they provided her with erroneous polling indicating that she had a good lead going into the general election.    Meanwhile, the Democratic Caucus had their own polling and it showed that Tom Umberg (D) would at least be tie with Nguyen. 

In the primary, she beat Tom Umberg (D) by a landslide.  She received 60% of the votes while Umberg received 20%. 

The final tally of the SD34 is not known until next week.  Right now Umberg is leading by 1,862 votes.  

Nhat Tam Charity Raises Money for Paradise

Nhat Tam Charity, a local San Jose charity founded by a group of professionals in Silicon Valley has raised over $38,000 for the fire victims at Paradise.  During the week of Thanksgiving, Nhat Tam Charity members drove to the devastated town  and handed out $50 Target Gift Card to each victim.  All money raised were given directly to the victims

The fire storm totally destroyed the small town in its path.  It burned 12,000 homes  to the ground and left 24,000 people homeless.  Also there are still hundreds of people missing from the fire along with 84 known deaths.

Both local and federal governments have established valuable assistance to help the victims.  People from all over the countries are donating essential supplies.  Pallets after pallets are in storage waiting to be distribute as need.    However, according to officials, cash donations and gift cards are the most important right now.  For an idea of how to best help victims - see the link below:

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/news/how-help-victims-california-wildfires-ncna936911

To understand more about Nhat Tam Charity and their relief efforts to directly help the victims, please see the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/NhatTamCharity/posts/762590050742505

http://nhattamcharity.org/

Janet Nguyen Loses to Tom Umberg

With most the provisional ballots counted,  California State Senator Janet Nguyen (R) has lost her seat in D34 to retired Army Colonel Tom Umberg (D).   This is quite a turn of event considering Nguyen was the favorite to win as an incumbent and a popular politician in her district.  Many people think that the result is caused by the Democratic Blue Wave movement.

The currently tally is :  128,261 - Nguyen, 129,680 - Umberg.  The race is so close that the two candidates only separate by 0.38% .   As it stands, there might be an automatic machine recount but this will not likely to change the outcome.

This race was not a priority for the Democratic Party in California.  The Democratic Party has super majority in both state houses with or without this seat; thus, Umberg received little support from the party.

Janet Nguyen was confident going into the race with her large war chest and strong name recognition.  She decided to spend considerable amount of her time and campaign money trying to bring down her political enemies during her race.  

In her cross-hair were  two people that were her mentors and campaign managers for her previous  state senatorial and supervisorial  elections -  Nick Le and Andrew Do.    She also went after Tyler Diep trying to destroy his state assembly chance.   Ultimately, he won and she lost.

Tom Umberg (D) has lost the last 3 elections he entered.  Once against Janet Nguyen in 2007 for the supervisorial race by 3%.  This is his second try to win a state senate seat. 

Janet Nguyen Now Is Behind By 438 votes

With about 6,000 provisional ballots left in Orange County,  State Senator Janet Nguyen (R) is now behind challenger Tom Umberg (D) by 438 votes.   In a desperate attempt to ensure all the provisional ballots are accurate, she has a team of lawyers challenges every ballots for the last 3 days. 

Nguyen was ahead by more than 16% on election day.  But just like all of the congressional races in Orange County,  Democratic votes catch up steadily and eventually overtake.  So far, all 4 Republican congressional candidates lost.  This will be the first time in 90 years where Orange County will have no Republican represent in congress.

There are still a couple thousands of ballots left in LA County.  She will likely lose another 150 to 200 votes.

California's 34th District covers Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and part of Long Beach.  She won the seat in 2014 by beating Jose Solorio 58% to 42%.

The Democratic Blue Wave really has done her in if the result holds.

Still Counting in Orange County for State Senate - D34

State Senator Janet Nguyen (R) is ahead by 1,179 votes with about 17,000 provisional ballots left to count.  Her lead of 18% on election day has shrunk to 0.8%.   However, there are not a lot of ballots left so she might escape.  She has the history of pulling the rabbit out the hat in close races.

She and Tom Umberg (D) are anxiously awaiting the final tally which might not happen before Thanksgiving.