How to Politically Attack OC County Supervisor Janet Nguyen

District Attorney Clears Supervisor Janet Nguyen of Politically Motivated Complaints

 

 

Garden Grove, CA - - Stephen Larson, an attorney for County Supervisor and Cal Optima Board Member Janet Nguyen, announced today that the Orange County District Attorney's Office, in correspondence prepared by Senior Assistant District Attorney Michael Lubinski, has confirmed in writing that it has completed its investigation concerning conflict-of-interest allegations concerning Supervisor Nguyen.  

 

 According to Mr. Lubinski, the District Attorney has concluded -- after conducting witness interviews and reviewing campaign finance documents, contracts, and voting records -- "that no criminal conflict of interest laws were violated by Janet Nguyen" in her position as a Cal Optima Board member.   

 

Although Supervisor Nguyen has always been confident that nothing improper ever occurred and that the complaints submitted to the District Attorney were politically motivated, she is pleased to receive this written confirmation from the District Attorney and, through that office, the FPPC.

Madison Nguyen No Show at the 32nd Tet Festival in San Jose

The 32nd Tet Festival at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds attracted tens of thousands of people.   It was one of the largest crowd ever in the history of the event.   It was a resounding success for the VTF committee who put many volunteer hours and efforts to pull off such a great event.  

Interestingly enough, during the two festive days,  San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen, who is running for mayor, decided not to show up.   There are 5 candidates running in 2014 and County Supervisor Dave Cortese is the clear favorite in the Vietnamese-American community.   His long standing relationship and ever presence in the community is so well like and respect that it is not surprising.

This fact is significant since it was the Asian-American votes that got the current Mayor Chuck Reed into the run-off and won it all against Cindy Chavez.   With 1/3 Asian, 1/3 Hispanic and 1/3 White,  the electoral demographics favor whoever won the non-White votes will have the best chance to win the election.
 

Obamacare in Little Saigon

With the community asking for more information and participation in Obamacare,  OC County Supervisor Janet Nguyen and her staff conducted a Q & A forum to help explaining the program.

In San Jose,  Santa Clara County supervisors Cindy Chavez and Dave Cortese also arranged for different events to help the community.  

Richard Nguyen Edged Out Incumbent Al Hoang for Houston City Council Seat

In a battle of mostly for Vietnamese-Amerian votes,  political novice Richard Nguyen beat out the incumbent Al Hoang for Houston City Council District F.  

Nguyen received 3,160 votes while Hoang garnered 2,964 votes.   Less than 12% of the registered voters went to the poll.   In District F has about 67,000 registered voters and Vietnamese-American voters is 15% of the total.

Al Hoang served for 2 terms since 2009.  He lost partly because of his controversial dialogues with the Vietnamese government and his heavy handed tactics in dealing with the Vietnamese-Americans whom voted him in the office in 2009.   His defeat was a referendum of the Vietnamese-American community that does not want to be jerk around.  

Hung Nguyen Lost Virginia House of Delegates Race

With 90% of the precincts reported, it seems that Hung Nguyen (D) has lost his bid to become the first Vietnamese-American elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.  It was an opportunistic campaign with lack of funding and little support from his own Vietnamese community.   Thus the result was encouraging and it is up to him to learn from this experience in order to mount a challenge two years from now.  Candidate Votes Percent Recount Votes Recount % Column13 Column14 Column15 REP James M. "Jim" LeMunyon 9,516 54.37% 0 220 0.543709290366815 595 N 067 DEM Hung Q. Nguyen 7,949 45.42% 0 220 0.45417666552394 531 N 067 Write-in 37 0.21% 99 220 0.00211404410924466 1265 N 067 Total Votes 17,502

Hung Nguyen and His Chances

Hung Nguyen (D) is falling behind his opponent in fund raising effort.   Currently, he has raised about $53K (1/3 of the money came from California where he originally resided).  Meanwhile, his opponent, the Republican incumbent James LeMunyon, is flushed with cash at $280K (10% came from out-of-state).

So what are his chances?  The Democratic Party is fully behind him.  The Asian-Americans are lukewarm right now.  Whether the government shut dow will entice them to go to vote en-mass is too early to tell.   With not a lot of money, he has been relying on other Democratic candidates to co-promoting his name.   His co-campaigning with other better funded Democratic candidates is a practical strategy to get his name out there for free.

LSI thinks the race is actually closer than the conventional wisdom predicted.   LeMunyon is sitting on $84K of cash unspent.  He should be worry and use the money wisely for he might be in for a suprise in November.   As mentioned before, if Nguyen loses, he will be better ready next time.   LSI can see the ambition in his eyes.  He is a good guy and could make a difference in office.



 

Janet Nguyen and San Francisco Chronicle

It is quite rare to have SF Chronicle to interview a political candidate in Orange County.   So LSI was surprised to see the article about OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen (R) along with the video -

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2013/10/06/meet-the-female-gop-candidate-who-grew-up-on-welfare-video/

 So what is going with the OC state senate race between Janet Nguyen (R) and Jose Solorio.   See below for a nice breakdown by an article in the OC Register.    By all indication thus far, it will be a close race but if Nguyen can rally her base, she might be ahead by more than 7 votes on election night (which is still a year from now).

Vietnamese Americans more engaged politically
There are far more Mexican-born residents of Orange County than Vietnamese-born, but those from Vietnam are more likely to register to vote.
By MARTIN WISCKOL / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Vietnamese Americans repeatedly prove themselves more engaged with Orange County elections than their Latino counterparts, and Register stats wiz Ronald Campbell has turned up a new indicator of that.

County residents are more than three times as likely to be Mexican-born (12 percent of the population) as Vietnamese born (4 percent), according to census data. But the Vietnamese-born are more likely to be registered to vote than the Mexican-born (4.8 percent to 4.2 percent), according to Campbell’s rundown.

There are far more Mexican-born residents of Orange County than Vietnamese-born, but those from Vietnam are more likely to register to vote.
But even among registered voters, Vietnamese Americans are more likely to vote than Mexican Americans or Latinos in general.

Perhaps the most dramatic display of county Vietnamese Americans’ electoral muscle came in the 2007 special election for county supervisor, which was won by Janet Nguyen. The district had 20 percent more Latino voters than Vietnamese American voters. But Vietnamese Americans’ ballots outnumbered those from Latinos by more than 2-1. Although there were three Latinos on the ballot, the top two finishers were Vietnamese Americans.That’s worth keeping in mind in the 2014 race for state Senate District 34, which is being vacated by termed-out Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana. Nguyen, a Republican, is running against Democratic former Assemblyman Jose Solorio.

Democrats have a narrow 3-percentage point advantage in the district’s voter registration. Latinos are 47 percent of the district’s population but just 27 percent of the district’s citizens of voting age, according to Paul Mitchell at Political Data Inc. Asians – predominantly of Vietnamese descent – are 21 percent of the population and 23 percent of the district’s citizens of voting age.
Vietnamese Americans (and Asians overall) are traditionally more likely to register to vote than Latinos, and once registered are more likely to cast ballots. That likely tips the scale of ethnic votes in favor of Nguyen.
A similar dynamic could come into play in Assembly District 65 if Vietnamese Americans join Korean Americans in identifying with Korean American candidate Young Kim, a Republican. The GOP hopes she can beat incumbent Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton. Democrats have an insignificant half-percentage point advantage in voter registration. Latinos and Asians each have about a 24-percent share of the district’s citizens of voting age.

By most assessments, the Mexican American population is younger than its Vietnamese American counterpart (ditto for the broader Latino vs. Asian numbers), so voter registration numbers are apt to improve for Latinos as more reach voting age.But even once they reach voting age, Latino citizens are less likely to register than others. About 25 percent of the state’s voting-age citizens are not registered, while that shoots up to 37 percent among Latino citizens of voting age, according to Mitchell.