The Controversial Van Tran

David Bauer, who is based in Sacramento, is a well-known treasurer for the campaigns of many Republican elected officials and political candidates in California.

Assemblyman Van Tran who will be termed out of the Assembly this year, currently has two active accounts: one for State Senate 2012, the other for the 47th Congressional District.  If Van Tran decided to run for the US congressional seat this year, he will face businessowner and Marine Corps veteran Quang Pham and Aneheim School Boardmember Katherine Smith for the GOP nomination. 



Within the Vietnamese-American community in Little Saigon, there are doubts whether Van Tran will run since he could not get the support of the people.  It shows in his inability to raise money despite being an incumbent and the most powerful politician within the community.   The majority of the Vietnamese-American people who gave him money are from San Jose and those who live outside of his district.  Noticeable are the owners and employees of of RAAS and California Waste Solutions.  David Duong, his brother Victor Duong and Hoang Kieu (RAAS) all have close tie with the communist government in Vietnam.  Hoang Kieu last year received private reception with President Nguyen Minh Triet and was given commendation for his business development work in Vietnam.   These two groups alone gave over $40,000 to Van Tran. 


A review of the FEC Disclosure Database (http://fec.gov) revealed that Bauer had previoulsy signed as Tran’s federal campaign treasurer on January 21, 2010, October 14, 2009, October 6, 2009, and on July 15, 2009.

Yet it was Rorick Luepton, a State Assembly staffer according to his LinkedIn profile, who signed as Treasurer on January 31, 2010 for the Van Tran for Congress’ Federal Elections Commission (FEC) year-end filing.  is also working as political consultant and handles media relations for Tran’s campaign.
 
According to the FEC, “A contribution’s date of receipt is the date on which the person receiving the contribution on behalf of the committee obtains possession of it. That is the date used for recordkeeping and reporting.”   Additionally, the FEC clearly defines date of receipts as “Once the treasurer (or authorized agent) receives a contribution or other receipt, he or she must deposit it within 10 days. Contributions not deposited within 10 days must be returned to their donors.”
 
On January 31, 2010, Van Tran’s campaign released its 2009 FEC year-end filings. Of the $99,355 in total donation, nearly $78,955 came in on December 31, 2009, the last day of the reporting period. Tran and Pham have raised over $700,000 combined.

 
On January 21, 2010, Quang Pham’s campaign released its 2009 Federal Elections Commission (FEC) year-end filings in advance of the January 31, 2010 deadline. His campaign reported receipts totaling $156,440 for the period between October 1 through December 31, 2009. Cash on hand totaled $246,776 and receipts to date were $282,798.  His campaign treasurer is Gail E. Gardner of Campaign Financial Services based in Bethesda, Maryland.
 
 
Pham and Tran’s bank accounts should reflect deposits (credited for 2009) no later than January 10, 2010 to comply with the FEC. Both had high amounts of contributions on the last days of 2009. The FEC does not require campaigns to produce bank deposits unless a complaint was made concerning possible violations of federal election campaign laws. Both Pham and Tran need to show evidence that their contributions came in on time.
 
The buzz among the OC political watchers is why didn’t Bauer sign Tran’s latest report?  Is it typical of a candidate to have a staffer sign FEC reports?   The 64K question is did Van Tran’s campaign accept contributions after January 21, 2010 and counted them toward 2009 to make sure that he would not be trailing Quang Pham and look weak?
 
Meanwhile, Katherine Smith, the other Republican 47th CD candidate, has qualified for the June primary. She and Quang Pham are the only two candidates who have pulled papers and paid their fees as of last Friday.

Footnote:  State Assemblyman Van Tran received contributions from 48 individuals who gave more than the $2,400 allowable per election per the FEC. Many of them gave $4,800 each of which Tran can only use $2,400 toward the primary election.    That means Tran cannot use $114,200 of the $314,797 cash on hand that he reported on 12/31/09. Tran’s real cash on hand for the primary was $200,597.

Thus Van Tran trails Quang Pham by $36,579 in terms of cash available for the June 8 primary election. The real number is a far cry from the half million dollars raised claimed by Tran at the California Republican Assembly endorsing convention held on 2/20/10 in Costa Mesa, California.

Van Tran and Taxpayer's money

State Assemblyman Van Tran is a fear politician within the Vietnamese-American in Little Saigon.  He is considered to be the "Godfather" and his "Gang of Seven" can make or break any aspiring political candidates.  His main platform within the community is that if you are not my followers, you are a pro-communist or communist.   And he means business for he has great influence over most of the major Vietnamese-American media in OC from newspapers like Nguoi Viet, Viet Bao, Viet Star and a host of radio stations.  Matter of fact, he has his own radio station that his gangs own along with Nguoi Viet newspaper empire.  In the last election when one of his gang members was behind Janet Nguyen in a supervisorial race,  Van Tran did not hesistate to send out a 2-page letter to 20,000 househoulds using his own assembly letterhead to proclaim that Janet Nguyen is a communist. 

Just like any ethnic politicians, he is known to be able to get away with many things within his community.  To mainstream, he is an anti-tax, pro-business but within his community, he promises more welfare, more medicaid, more medicare and more subsidized housing to his community.  Why, because his strongest supporters in the Vietnamese-American community are an elderly populations in the late 50s and mid 60s.

Whatever the case may be, Van Tran is not immune to the the temptation of an arrogant incumbent who knows that he can get away with abusing the taxpayer's money when they don't know or realize that they have been duped.  The OC Register wrote an interesting investigative article about Van Tran and his smart of taking advantage of the system to pocket millions of taxpayer's money in the last 6 years.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/-235056--.html#article-comments



The majority of the voters sentiment in the Vietnamese-American community is very clear so far.  This is the year of getting rid of the business-as-usual politicians who has displayed lack of concerns for not only his own community but his overall constituents.

Brown Act Violation Verdict and Madison Nguyen

On Thursday, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Mark Pierce issued his order regarding the summary judgment motion on VACNORCAL's Brown Act claim against the City of San Jose and Madison Nguyen.  This is the first ruling on the lawsuit whether Nguyen and city council members violated the Brown Act during their refusal of naming a stretch of road on Story Road in San Jose  "Little Saigon".

Judge Pierce is a relatively new judge who replaced Judge James Emerson who had just retired last month. Judge Emerson was in charge of the case for the past 2 years.  Judge Pierce ruled against VACNORCAL  for an injunctive and declarative relief against the City Council. 

 Judge Pierce reasoned that there was sufficient corrective action taken by City Council when they capitulated to VACNORCAL's demand to have the name " Little Saigon" after realizing that they had violated Brown Act.  Thus, the City Council do not have to publicly admit that they had violated Brown Act and that there should not be any monetary judgement against the city. 

It is well known that VACNORCAL does not have money to hire the lawyer to take on the city.  Thus, they expanded the breadth of the lawsuit to include the demand for monetary relief so that they could pay the legal fees if they won.

 In doing so, their burden of proof is higher and Judge Pierce could not see any provisions in the Brown Act that can justify their cause of action.

Here are some of the main excerpts of the ruling by Judge Pierce:

...... The SAC (the Plaintiff) alleges and City Council demonstrates that City Council’s alleged use of a series of communications to deliberate on an item of business within the subject matter jurisdiction of the City Council was cured by its rescinding of Resolution No. 74127 on March 4, 2008. The Brown Act does not required – and Plaintiff does not cite to any section of the Brown Act that requires – a party to publicly admit any violoation.  The City's failure to cure its violation within 30 days is a one-time past offense that is unrelated to a present or future violation. Plaintiff has not clearly demonstrated that City and City Council have committed past actions and violations that are related to present or future ones, or that City and City Council's alleged violations are likely to recur....."


Councilmember Madison Nguyen, in her email to the Vietnamese-American community, declared the ruling showed that the City Council did not violate the Brown Act and it is now time to move forward.    The judge's ruling acknowledged that there was violation and it was not cured within 30 days as required by the Brown Act.  However, he sided with the City Council based on precedents and ruled against the public admission of  Brown Act violation and damages (or monetary relief) for VACNORCAL.

VACNORCAL has decided to appeal the ruling.

POLITICO & Quang Pham

13 up-and-comers in the '08 class
By CHARLES MAHTESIAN

1/6/09 4:28 AM EST

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17083.html

It’s far too early to know if the House Class of 2008 will have a collective identity, like the Watergate babies of 1974 or the revolutionary Republicans of 1994. With 55 members, the group elected in November is considerably smaller than those famed classes, and the 33 Democrats and 22 Republicans as yet don’t appear to have any central organizing ideology. 

But already, more than a few characters on both sides of the aisle are attracting notice, some for their unique backstories, some for their quick rise and others as players to watch in the future.

................Quang Pham (R), age 45, Independent Businessowner, Marine Corps veteran,community leader, and author of “A Sense of Duty: Our Journey from Vietnam to America” (Paperback coming from Random House on April 20, 2010).

Quang “Q” Pham is running for Congress in California’s 47th District. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lathian Health, a provider of pharmaceutical marketing data and services. He was born and raised in Viet Nam and arrived in California following the evacuation of Saigon.

He then graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Economics before serving as a Marine Corps helicopter pilot in Operation Desert Storm.  Quang sits on the board of THINK Together, an afterschool provider in Santa Ana, and current chairs the Marines Memorial Association’s Finance Committee.

Visit http://www.phamforcongress.com/.



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

          Rod McDermott, General William Lyon, Carol Rudat,
                                         and Brian Wilcox


                                          Special Guest


                                          Congressman Duncan D. Hunter


                                                   AT A LUNCHEON IN SUPPORT OF


                                                                 Quang Pham


                                   REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS (CA-47)


WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010               
 THE CENTER CLUB

  650 TOWN CENTER DRIVE
  COSTA MESA, CA 92626

RSVP:
Alexandra Wilcox (714) 653-1140

Van Tran vs. Quang Pham for US Congress

A lot of spin on the fund raising successes and failures of the two candidates.  Ultimately, the key number is cash on hand to spend.   Right  now cash on hand for Quang Pham, the ex-marine pilot, a successful author and businessman is $246,777.  For Van Tran, an incumbent assemblyman, his cash on hand  is $314,798.

The difference is only $68,021.   Last quarter, Van Tran spent $67,444 while Quang Pham spent only $26,000.

A look at Van Tran's supporter list showed that he has more Vietnamese Americans  from San Jose donated money to him than his own base  in Orange County.  

For somebody who is considered to be the "Godfather" of Vietnamese-American politics in Orange County, his hometown and base, Van Tran's situation is puzzling.  And this is a race that County Supervisor Chairwoman Janet Nguyen has not even showed her hand who she is supporting.


What is the sentiment within the Vietnamese-American community in OC?   Van Tran will need to have a strong fund raising event in Little Saigon.  This is something he has been hesitated to do since he does not want to have a no show. 

There are about 18,000 Vietnamese-American registered voters in the contested district.  Chances are there will be 9,000 to 10,000 Vietnamese-American voters going to the poll.    Right now Van Tran cannot seem to capture their attention yet, despite having all the big name media like Nguoi Viet, Viet Bao, Viet Star, etc... behind him.   And of course, Van Tran and his group have their own radio show to blast their propaganda everyday.

Five Candidates Vying for District 7 City Council Seat

Bryan Do, after months of indecisiveness, has now told people  that he is throwing his hat in the ring for the city council race to replace the incumbent Madison Nguyen.    There are now at least 4 challengers against Nguyen.  They  have either declared their intention or already filed their statement of intention with the city clerk. 

Michael Tran, a real estate investor from southern California, who is currently residing in the Evergreen area, publicly declared his intention since October of last year.  He is backed by Vietnamese American Community of Northern California.  VACNORCAL is the same group that is suing Madison Nguyen and the city for Brown Act violation.    A summary judgement is expected in February.  James Chadwick, one of the best lawyers in the Bay Area,  is the lead lawyer for VACNORCAL.

Phu Le, a long time community activist, a close friend and advisor of Councilman Kansen Chu, had filed his statement last week.  A resident of Milpitas and a county health commissioner, he is well known for  his supports of many politicians.  He is a serious challenger to Madison Nguyen according to a recent article by the Mercury News - http://www.mercurynews.com/internal-affairs/ci_14296808

Bryan Do, another community activist and one time a city council candidate for District 4, has many political ambitions.  According to Bryan, he is the chief strategist and unofficial advisor for Vietnamese-American Voters of Northern California Foundation.  This organization is formed by the Recall Team after their defeat by Madison Nguyen.  

The fourth candidate is Minh Duong, another well known community activist, a small business development commissioner and a one time District 8 city council candidate.   He is well liked in the community and is considered by the community to be less controversial than the other four candidates. 

The convention wisdom is that not all four of the challengers will actually be running.  The two challengers who are likely to drop out are Bryan Do and Michael Tran because they both know that they have no chance of winning.   On the other hand, they all could stay in and may the best man wins.   Bryan Do can play a spoiler for he has nothing to lose. 

No matter who is running, the real favorite in the election of course is Madison Nguyen.  It is almost impossible to defeat a Teflon incumbent.

Captain Phan Ngo Becomes Deputy Chief of SJPD

Captain Phan Ngo, a commander in the San Jose Police Department, has been promoted to deputy chief.  San Jose is a city where only 1/3 of the population is white, Captain Ngo is the only ethnic deputy chief.  The other three deputy chiefs are white.  The police chief and assistant police chief are also white.

The Mercury News noted that:

"And with the promotion, San Jose Police Department ceased to be a major police department with an all-white, all-male command staff. The San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon is a Cuban-American and his Deputy Chief David Shinn is Chinese-American. Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts is African-American, as is his assistant chief. One of Sacramento's deputy chief is a Chinese-American. The Santa Clara County Sheriff is a woman, Laurie Smith; her undersheriff is John Hirokawa, a Japanese-American."

In a period of incredible tension between the Latino and Asian communities (particulary the Vietnamese-American community) for a number of alleged police brutality cases, this is considered to be a positive sign by many community activists.

The Mercury News commented:

"His selection also comes at a time when some in San Jose's sizable Vietnamese population distrust the police because of two controversial cases — the police shooting of a mentally ill Daniel Pham in the backyard of his home, and the violent and videotaped arrest of San Jose State University student Phuong Ho. Ngo also becomes the only non-white in Davis' top command staff, filling a job that has been open for months"

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14297961

Phan Ngo joined the SJPD since 1989 and became a captain in 2008 and had served as  a commander since.  He came to the US in 1975 when he was 8 years old.  His father, as soldier, died during the Vietnam War.


In related news, Assemblymen Joe Coto (D) and Paul Fong (D)  have asked the State Auditor Elaine Howe to investigate the SJPD.  The ground for investigation is their concerns on whether the police force is properly train and procedure for handling police abuse is adequate