Dave Cortese and Vietnamese-American Voters in San Jose

Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese is trying to fulfill his political ambition to become the leader of San Jose.   He lost the mayoral race to his arch enemy, the current Mayor Chuck Reed, in 2006.  

For a city with a population comprises of 1/3 Hispanic, 1/3 Asian and 1/3 White, forming a rainbow coalition is a must for anybody to win a city wide race.   Reed, in 2006, won by carrying the Asian and White votes.

Cortese was stunned at that time when most of the Vietnamese-American votes went to Reed despite his efforts to woo them.  Even though they only represent roughly 10% of the electorate,  the Vietnamese-American voters often have a much higher turn-out and this could make a difference in the primary where there are multiple candidates.  

It is no accident that for the last 8 years, Cortese has spent considerable time to build his image among the Vietnamese-American voters. 

Cortese, being a strong supporter of labor unions, will likely to carry the Hispanic votes.  His strong presence in the Chinese-American community (with the help of San Jose City Councilmember Kansen Chu and his wife) will certainly help him to win this voting bloc.   His  alliance with San Jose City Councilmember Ash Kalra will gain him some votes with the Indo-American community.  Of course, it does not hurt when your chief-of-staff is also Indo-American.


Without a doubt, this race is strongly followed by the community, especially when Councilmember Madison Nguyen is one of the candidates.    Nguyen barely survived a recall  and she is considered to be a polarized figure in the community.   Recently,  there was a candidate forum hosted by a network of  Vietnamese-American  organizations with over 400 people attending -

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/SJ-Mayoral-Forum-With-Vietnamese-American-Community--254986371.html.

Just to see what the conventional wisdom is revealing, an ad hoc poll was conducted by our friend at Asian Poll Media and LSI would like to share the results

The question was asked -  If the primary would be held today, who would you likely to support out of the five candidates?

A field of 315 most likely Vietnamese American voters (145 women and 170 men) were asked during the third week of April.  The poll was conducted within a 4% margin of error. 

Dave Cortese - 38%
Madison Nguyen - 35%
Sam Liccardo - 9%
Rose Herrera - 6%
Pierluigi Oliverio - 1%
Undecided - 11%

This is a surprising number since Dave Cortese is not expected to win the Vietnamese-American votes, his game plan is to have enough support to prevent Nguyen to carry an overwhelming majority.  

The poll shows that the Vietnamese-American community is ambivalent about Nguyen.  It also reflects that fact that she has not actively reaching out to the community for the last 4 years.  

She has been flooding the community with a campaigning theme that reads - "Vietnamese Voters vote for Vietnamese Candidate."

This so far has its limit. 





 

Kieu Hoang, The First Vietnamese-American Billionaire

Kieu Hoang, 69, the owner of RAAS Group debuts recently on the 2014 Forbes Billionaires List after the shares of one of his companies,  Shanghai RAAS Blood Products took a big jump this year.   His net worth is estimated to be $1.8 billion.  

He was born in Quang Tri, a city in the central region of Vietnam.   He came to the US in 1975 and is currently  resides in Southern California.  In 1980, he founded a plasma testing company with a central lab center established in Agoura Hills.   In 1992, he branched into China and founded Shanghai RAAS.  

Kieu is well known for some of his tourism ventures in Vietnam, including his efforts to organize Miss World 2010 in Vietnam.  However, he made a mess of himself with his wheeling dealing and ultimately shut down his many ventures.   The press in Vietnam was quite critical of him as a typical brash Viet Kieu throwing their money to buy influence and fame in Vietnam.

The other wealthy Vietnamese-American that made it big in the hi-tech is the serial entrepreneur Bill Nguyen.  He sold his first company back in the days of the dotcom bubble for $850 million.   He  estimates to be worth at $350 million.  At 41 years old, Nguyen still has time on his hand to be a billionaire like Kieu Hoang. 

While Kieu builds his companies the old fashion way with strong products and revenues,  Nguyen made his money by wheeling and dealing with the hope that his companies would get bought out based on hype.  These are usually the case and the buyers are often ended writing off their investment.

And then there is Steve Tran, a truck driver in the Bay Area, who is the owner of $324 million lottery ticket.  

2014 San Jose Mayoral Race Debate Organizing by Vietnamese-Americans

New Memorial Wall to Honor Vietnamese Soldier Heroes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

April 2, 2014

 

Contact: Janice Rombeck

Office of Supervisor Dave Cortese, 408-299-5030                            

New Memorial Wall to Honor Vietnamese Heroes

WHAT:         The unveiling of a new Memorial Wall dedicated to seven Vietnamese heroes who died in the Vietnam War.  The ceremony will feature a marching band, salute to the flags, a moment of silence, the playing of Taps and an introduction of the seven heroes in English and Vietnamese. Family members of the honored men will receive a balloon. After all the biographies have been read, family members will release the balloons.  Dignitaries will also speak. The monument is a project of the Lam Son Group in partnership with the Viet Museum and the Office of Supervisor Dave Cortese.

 

 

WHEN:           Saturday, April 5, 2014, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

 

WHERE:         Outside the Viet Museum, History Park, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose

 

WHO:           U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer

                   Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren

                   Congressman Mike Honda

                   Supervisor Dave Cortese          

                   San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and City Councilmembers

                   Loc Vu, Director of Viet Museum

                   Alida Bray, President and CEO of History San Jose

 

 

 

For more information, call the Lam Son Group at 650-823-6645 or the Office of Supervisor  Dave Cortese at 408-299-5030.

SCA-5 Caused Uproar in the Asian American Community, CA State Assembly Speaker Perez Backed Down

(Santa Ana) In an unexpected turn of events, California State Assembly Speaker John H. Perez announced today that he will hold off on moving forward with Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 (SCA 5). Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who opposed this legislation, welcomed the news but vowed to continue monitoring the bill.

 

"I am pleased that SCA 5 has been tabled because it was a divisive piece of legislation that would have significantly affected the residents of Orange County," said Supervisor Nguyen.  "However, there's a chance it could still move forward so I will continue to watch it."

 

 

 

SCA 5 would have repealed portions of Proposition 209, which was passed by the voters in 1996 and removed preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public education. Given the widespread impact that this legislation would have on the residents of Orange County, Supervisor Nguyen authored an opinion piece opposing it and has asked that it be included on the Board of Supervisors' agenda for the County to take an official oppose position.

 

"Although SCA 5 will not move forward at this time, it has highlighted deficiencies in the K-12 education system that need to be addressed," said Supervisor Nguyen. "I think we still need to talk about how we proactively enhance the K-12 education system to make sure that we successfully increase the chances of those who wish to pursue their dreams of attending higher education."

 

According to Speaker John Perez, SCA 5 was sent back to the State Senate without taking action in the State Assembly at the request of SCA 5 author, Senator Ed Hernandez.

 

 

Mike Honda vs. Rho Khanna For US Congress, California D17

The main stream media has been abuzz with the ability of Rho Khanna (D) to raise over $3.2 million  to unseat the incumbent Mike Honda (D).   Rho lives in the East Bay and was a mid-level member of the Obama administration.   Honda so far received about $1.1 million.

However, with the latest poll conducted by Democracy for America,  Honda is 19% ahead of Rho and 16% ahead of a Republican challenger.  The latest poll results can be reviewed in the following link -


http://www.indiawest.com/news/17232-new-poll-shows-honda-leading-indian-american-competitors-in-hot-race.html17

LSI also had commissioned a poll asking Vietnamese-Americans about the name recognition of each candidate.   A poll, conducted by a private foundation - Viet Polling Media, asked 217 Vietnamese-Americans in D17 whether they recognize  Mike Honda,  Rho Khanna and Vanila Singh.

The result is 65% either recognize who is Mike Honda or familiar with his name.   Vanila Singh is not known at all in the community while Rho Khanna is familiar in 9% of the population.   The margin of error is 5%.

Khanna hired some Vietnamese-Americans to help him get closer to the Vietnamese-American voters.   Nevertheless, their lack of credibility with the community ends up hurting Rho more than helping him.

LSI is not a gambler but with this kind of name recognition in the community,  it is safe to predict that Khanna will not even make a dent in the Vietnamese-American voting blocs that will most likely favor Honda.

Vietnam Education Foundation Community Outreach, California

February 10, 2014 (Washington, D.C.)

The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) is pleased to announce its Community Outreach meetings in California:

(1) in Orange County on Saturday, March 8, at 3:00pm at Viet Bao Gallery - 14841 Moran St., Westminster, CA 92683 and

(2) in San Jose on Sunday, March 9, at 3 pm at Berryessa Public Library - 3355 Noble Avenue, San Jose, CA 95132. The meetings are free and open to the public. 

The purpose of these meetings is to share information about VEF. Brief presentations will be made that will also cover the requirements for applying for various VEF grants and scholarships. In addition, VEF Fellowship recipients, who are pursuing graduate degrees in leading California universities, will present their research endeavors via an interactive poster session.

Furthermore, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who is a member of the VEF Board of Directors, will be speaking at the event on Saturday, March 8. 

Several additional VEF Board members from the U.S. Vietnamese-American community will be speaking: Ms. Anhlan Nguyen, IT Portfolio Manager at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Mr. David Duong, CEO of California Waste Solutions; Ms. Quyen Vuong Executive Director, International Children Assistance Network; and Dr. Kim Oanh Nguyen Lam, Director, Advanced Training and Research, International and Foreign Language Education in the Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education.

In addition, a presentation will be given by Dr. Lynne McNamara, VEF Executive Director.  

VEF is an independent U.S. Federal Government agency, whose mission is to build the relationship between Vietnam and the United States through educational exchanges. As per the VEF legislative mandate, VEF activities focus only on the STEMM fields: sciences (natural, physical, and environmental), technology (including information technology), engineering, mathematics, and medicine.  
VEF educational exchange activities consist of three programs: (1) Fellowship Program, which sends Vietnamese nationals to the United States for graduate degree programs; (2) Visiting Scholar Program, which supports Vietnamese nationals, who already hold a doctorate, to further develop their professional skills via studies, research, and/or observational activities at leading U.S. academic institutions; and (3) U.S. Faculty Scholar Program, which supports American professors to teach courses in English at Vietnamese institutions for one or two semesters by teaching on site in Vietnam or by teaching via interactive, real-time videoconferencing from the United States



VEF began operations in 2003, and the year 2014 marks its 11th anniversary. The first VEF Community Outreach event took place in Houston, Texas, in 2013, and focused on sharing information about VEF programs with members of the community.  This is the second time that VEF is holding a public outreach meeting in the United States to introduce VEF programs and activities more widely to the public in order to promote public awareness. VEF is pleased to have an opportunity to reach out to the community in California, a key region for VEF and home to the largest community of Vietnamese-Americans in the United States.  

So far, VEF has sent 466 VEF Fellows to study at 92 top-tier U.S. universities of which 28 VEF Fellows are pursuing, or have received, graduate degrees, at the following universities in California: University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Los Angeles University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of Southern California 

VEF is pleased to invite all members of the community, who are interested in learning more about VEF, to come to the Community Outreach events. Refreshments will be served. 
For more information on VEF, please visit the VEF website at www.vef.gov.