District 7 Drama - Charlie Ly and Madison Nguyen

With a little bit more than a week to go, the city council race is heating up in D7 with Minh Duong and his supporters taking the beating literally.  First it was Minh Duong's mom who had her car's window smashed in front of Minh Duong's house.   Then Dr. Ho Vu, a supporter of Minh Duong, happened to park his car in front of Minh Duong's campaign office recently.  Within a few hours, his window was also smashed.  The police was called to the scene and case report was filed.

There have been a lot of email by Charlie Ly attacking Minh Duong both in Vietnamese and in English.  He flooded the mainstream media,  ethnic media as well as different political organizations about Minh Duong and his business disputes.  The  interesting thing is Charlie Ly lives in San Bruno which is not even in the same county as San Jose.  Sign-in record showed that he visited Madison Nguyen's office at least 3 times last year.  He knows his way around the city with his email pinpoint to various department heads of the city  as well as of Santa Clara County.  Some of his innuendos are  politically twisted but kudos to him since it would take a person of knowledge and free time to go through public record,  find the information and then twisted them to become negative political issues.

And thene there was an incident in which Charlie Ly was caught putting Madison Nguyen sign illegally on somebody's lawn without permission.   The owner confronted Charlie Ly, he immediately yelled at her and threatened to beat her up.  She promptly took out her phone and took a picture of him.   She had filed a complain with the police.  Here is a picture of him running away as she took picture of him after he had threaten to beat her up.

Both Minh Duong's mom and his wife are scared since they are worried for their safety with all the vandalism and threats by anynomous e-mail posting.   But again this is small town politics and these types of intimidation happen.  What suprising is why beating up on Minh Duong and his family since he is clearly not the front-runner?  Why would Charlie Ly from San Bruno spend so much time and effort attacking Minh Duong?  

A footnote:  Here is another picture of Charlie Ly in one of the communty meetings in December 2009 when he suddenly erupted into profanity and proclaimed certain people in the meeting are agents of the communist government

A CIA Spy Working Against Her own Dad and his Government

                           A Thousand Tears Falling by Dang My Dung

http://www.yungkrall.com/

All Quiet On The D7 Council Race

While District 5 council race heating up with dirty political tricks,  the District 7 council race is eerily quiet and basically stale in comparison.   The front-runner Councilmember Madison Nguyen has not been active with her radio and newspaper ads.  She has more than $65,000 at her disposal.    Nguyen of course has a great name recognition and is confident to win it out rigth in the primary.  Meanwhile Minh Duong is working hard to gather as much vote as he can while dealing with a couple of anynomous dirty hit pieces against him.   The hit pieces have been in the form of mass e-mail to news media, political and business organizations and Internet forum.  The other three candidates are campaigning within their own ethnic group and so far have not outreached to the rest of the community.

With little more than 2 weeks to go, LSI does not expect any last minute uproar in the D7 race considering that the conventional wisdom already predicts Nguyen and Duong would be in the run-off.  If there is a high turn-out ,  the conventional wisdom expects Duong to have a very good chance to close the gap between him and Nguyen. 

Hit Piece Against Magdalena Carrasco

San Jose is a town that tends to be controlled politcally by South Bay Labor Council and those who oppose them would tend to pay the consequences.  The message is loud and clear to District 5 candidate Magdalena Carrasco this week as she is heading toward the home stretch against South Bay Labor Council's candidate Xavier Campos. 

Just a little background, Xavier is the little brother of Nora Campos, the termed-out D5 councilmember.  Of course Nora Campos along with Madison Nguyen are little sisters of Cindy Chavez when it comes to politically pecking order and patronage.  And Cindy Chavez is the head of Labor Council and they both have been known for infamous political hit piece and dirty political tactics.

Vietnamese-American voters in D5  this week received a flyer from what appeared to be from Magdalena Carrasco's campaign.  It was very poorly done both on graphics and contents.  But the main emphasis was a Vietnamese Communist  Flag positioned next to Carrasco.  Representing about 10% of the votes in D5 and in what expects to be a closely contested race, the flyer was clearly designed to hurt Carrasco with the Vietnamese-American voters by associating her with the communist government.  The communist flag is considered to be offensive within the Vietnamese-American community

Thomas Nguyen, a community leader, first took notice of the flyer and alerted the Carrasco's campaign.  Magdalena Carrasco emphatically said that the flyer was not from her campaign.   Whoever it is definitely knew what they were doing and is smart enough not to send the flyer in bulk mail so that it would not be traceable.   They simply put a standard  $0.44 stamp on each flyer.

Jeff Rosen Endorse by Vietnamese-American Community

This is a content of an email announcement by a coalition of Vietnamese-Americans who were at the heart of the Madison Nguyen recall -  LSI usually call them the Recall Team.


" VietvotersPAC is pleased to announce our endorsement of Jeff Rosen for District Attorney of Santa Clara County.


The Vietnamese American Community of Northern California has been underrepresented in many areas of governments. There is a lack of diversity in the Police Department, The District Attorney Office, the Judiciary Committee, Santa Clara County and San Jose government. VietvotersPAC strive to mobilize candidates and government representatives that share our values and concerns of public safety, ethics, conflict of interest, job growth and our community calling card, FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney office has lost touch with the Vietnamese American Community during the last 3 years. Police brutality and abuse were not addressed until video evidence come to light. Campaign irregularity, voter fraud and lying at City Council hearing complaints went unanswered. The stonewalling tactic employed by the District Attorney for the Daniel Pham police related shooting is the last straw that broke the camel's back. Not only has the current administration reversed the earlier stance of open Grand Jury proceeding and community input for Vietnamese victim shooting at the hand of the San Jose Police Department - a procedure implemented by former District Attorney George Kennedy in light of questionable shooting death of Bich Cau Chao Nguyen in 2003, the Vietnamese community were kept totally in the dark for 6 agonizing months amidst protest and letter writing campaign to "sunshine" facts related to the Daniel Pham police shooting incident. In fact, Dolores Carr spoke openly against the proposed sunshine reform at the September 2009 San Jose City Council that, if passed, would have shed some much needed light for the family members of Daniel Pham and the Vietnamese American community's demand for justice and accountability.


Jeff Rosen exemplified the core value of honesty and integrity that is currently lacking in the incumbent Dolores Carr. His lifelong dedication to justice and accountability as a respected and experienced prosecutor is beyond reproach and will provide the strong leadership anchor Santa Clara County need in this time of crisis. Jeff’s fresh approach to openness and transparency in government, his strong commitment to diversity and his willingness to address controversial issues head-on with the community without Press liaison is the answer VietvotersPAC has been searching for the Vietnamese American Community of Northern California. Jeff Rosen will serve well to restore trust and pride to the District Attorney office."

Minh Duong - Can he stand up to Labor Unions and Madison Nguyen?

It is a known fact that San Jose local politics is controlled by the powerful labor unions - in particular, the South Bay Labor Council. With their established machinery and money, they can raise a lot ot money at will and wield tremendous political power.  In the last local election, the 2009 Recall of Madison Nguyen, Labor Unions helped Nguyen raised over $400,000 with most of the money coming from outside of San Jose to defeat the recall effort.   Now with the city facing another budget deficit of over $100 million (With the majority of the funding going to support an unsustainable rich benefits and pension funds that are overly endowed to city union workers at the expense of the taxpayers), Labor Unions have a keen interest to keep its influence more than ever to prepare for a budget cut fight.

Minh Duong, an eloquent fiscal conservative, pro-business Republican, is running against Madison Nguyen for the council seat in District 7.  He is considered as an underdog by the conventional wisdom.  Nguyen  expects herself to be able to win the election outright in the primary.  After all, Nguyen not only has the support of Labor Unions but also labor-friendly councilmembers like Sam Liccardo, Nora Campos, Rose Herrera, Judy Chirco, etc.... She also has the support of the Democratic Party and even the Republican Pete Constant. 

With the Vietnamese-American voting base splitting between him and another Vietnamese-American candidate - Patrick Phu Le,  Minh Duong's best chance is coming in second if he can mobilized his Republican base as well as the the majority of the Vietnamese-American voters. 

It has been a very quiet campaign with Madison Nguyen leading the money game with over $65,000 raised.  Patrick Phu Le has raised about $45,000 (of which $20,000 is his own money) while Minh Duong has over $25,000 (of which $10,000 is loan to himself).

Minh Duong, despite his clear practical vision as a businessman and the ability to carry a fresh to-the-point message that can instill new ideas in order to bring changes, he still fights a tough uphill battle against a powerful and tricky politician in Madison Nguyen.  She can invoke retribution against those who cross her yet can manipulate people's emotion with her "I am a powerless and humble minority woman who are being unjustly criticized". 

At the end of the day, this race and other city-wide races will be decided by the voters asking the questions:" Do I want to keep the status quo of the political establishment and the political leaders that continue to control the city with the same policies and agenda?  Especially in a time where the city continously provides less services while could not stop enriche itself with unrealistic and unreasonable benefits at the taxpayer's expense"

Knowing the vunerability of San Jose voters at the skillful manipulation of messages by powerful political consultants like Vic Aljouny and tricky politicians like Madison Nguyen,  the answer is most likely yes - another big election win for Labor Unions in the primary.

Minh Duong and San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce

In recent press release by San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce,  Minh Duong is now officially endorsed by SJSV for the District 7 council seat.

This was a surprise since Councilmember Madison Nguyen received the full support of SJSV against the recall.  At the candidate forum,  Patrick Phu Le, Madison Nguyen and Minh Duong faced tough questions about the economy and business development vision.  Nguyen despite having many friends who are members of the board of directors, could not muster enough support.  Her political dependence to Labor Unions and  allegiance to Cindy Chavez, the head of South Bay Labor Unions, did not help also.

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SJSV ChamberPAC: Minh Duong Secures Endorsement for District 7 Council Seat


SAN JOSE – San Jose Silicon Valley ChamberPAC has endorsed City Council Candidate Minh Duong for the District 7 council seat after concluding that Candidate Duong represents ChamberPAC’s business positions on pension & benefit reform, business fee management & cost reduction to encourage improved business retention and expansion and contracting out of non-essential city services for the City of San Jose.



"During the current severe business downturn, having a councilmember representing District 7 who will embrace business friendly policies will help lead the city out of its current economic recession and facilitate improved financial stability for businesses in District 7 and throughout the City." stated Pat Sausedo, VP Public Policy for the Chamber



ChamberPAC determined that they were not able to endorse the incumbent councilmember due to her consistent failure to support ChamberPAC’s core business positions on public policy issues coming before council.