The Making of Garden Grove City Mayor Bao Nguyen

Bao Nguyen, who won the  mayoral race 10 months ago by 15 votes largely on the strength of the Vietnamese-American voters,  has been making headlines lately.

First, he decided to come out as the first gay Vietnamese-American elected official at the same time as he declared himself a congressional candidate to replace Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.  Two weeks later, he shared with  an on-duty cop late at night in front of his house how he despises his fellow councilmen Phat Bui and Steve Jones.   The conversation was recorded by the policeman.  

To many Vietnamese-Americans, he is quite arrogant when he refused to ask Riverside City to rescind the sister-relationship with a city in Vietnam.

He does not have a chance in the congressional race since he could not raise money and he does not even live in the district.   He will also have a tough time in the re-election.   Phat Bui and Steve Jones will likely run for the mayoral office.  

Potential Candidates for San Jose City D8

Now we know that Attorney Jimmy Nguyen has declared himself to be the front runner (via Mercury News) in the city council race for D8, who else is considering?

Litigator Jenny Do has mentioned her intention.   Meanwhile, businesswoman Denise Belisle is rumored to be thinking hard about a possible run.  Jim Zito is another potential candidate that has his name floating in the mix.  But at the end of the day, the most prominent name is still Pattie Cortese. She is motivated to run before she left for her Italy vacation.  

Anyway, it is too early to tell for the campaign cannot be official until December when the fund raising can begin.  This is a district with high voter turnout.  In 2012, there were close to 32,000 ballots cast.  In comparison, D7 had no more than 15,000 ballots cast.

LSI expects the race to have at least 5 - 6 candidates.  

Attorney Jenny Do Runs for D8 City Council Seat

Overnight, the race for San Jose D8 city council seat just became exciting in the Vietnamese-American community.  Email was flying all night long in various e-groups as  Attorney Jenny Do mentioned her intention to run in around table discussion on air with Councilmember Tam Nguyen and  Council-elect Manh Nguyen last night.

A long time attorney, she is well known in the community and the philanthropic crowd.

Besides her legal practice focusing in health care insurance and compensation,  she founded the Green Rice Gallery in downtown San Jose.  The gallery provided a venue for Vietnamese-American artists. She was the curator for many well-received exhibitions around the San Francisco and Greater Bay Area. These exhibitions are designed to promote Vietnamese American arts and culture, as well as to raise awareness on social issues in the Asian-American community.   

She involves in South First Friday event to help promote downtown arts and culture in San Jose every first Friday of the month.

Her love for the arts also led her to run a very popular and successful wedding and special event design company in the Bay Area.   She recently sold the company for it grew too big where she could not effectively spend time on her legal work.

She has been a strong advocate against human trafficking before it became a nationally recognized issue.  She was a guest speaker at national conferences on human trafficking. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D) honored her with a special congressional recognition for her effort.


She also co-founded Homeowners in Action to help homeowners save their home against predatory practices by lenders during the housing crisis.   

In her spare time, she is responsible for Ao Dai Festival where she produces an elaborate production to showcase Vietnamese culture.  The bi-annual show attended by thousands of people and raised over $250,000 for a children shelter in Vietnam.  

She served on the Art Commission of San Jose and is currently a member of the American Leadership Forum in Silicon Valley.  The members of the forum include senior executives of hi-tech and biotech companies as well as political leaders like mayors of San Jose and Santa Clara County supervisors. 
  

For her philanthropic work in the community and her advocacy efforts, she was recognized as 2007 Woman of the Year in California for District 23,  a prestigious award bestowed by the California Legislature.  The state legislature identified her as one of those rare individuals who made a difference not only in her local community but much further beyond. 

She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the City of San Jose in 2007 and the unsolicited Belle Foundation grant in 2005.

She is an Amerasian and her story of gaining acceptance and her search of her American father whom she never knew was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

In San Jose D8,  about 22% of the registered voters are Vietnamese-American. 

It will be an interesting race and if Pattie Cortese decides to run, she will automatically be the front-runner.   According to Pattie before she left for her vacation in Europe,  she is motivated but her only concern is that she promised East Side Union School Board that if they chose her to be the board trustee, she would not run for office in 2016.

Garden Grove Councilman Phat Bui vs. Sacramento City Council

A show down at high noon is expected on Tuesday July 14, 2015 between the Vietnamese-American anti-communist folks in Sacramento and the Sacramento City Council.

A press release was sent out by State Senator Janet Nguyen to alert the public about a Vietnam delegation visiting Sacramento.  She is urging the public to join her in protest against the city of Sacramento's effort to recognize a delegation from Vietnam. 

Since the Vietnamese-American represents less than 3% of the total population in Sacramento, the community is urging other anti-communist groups from Orange County to join the protest tomorrow. 

In response, Garden Grove City Councilman Phat Bui and some of his people will be arriving from Orange County to have their voices heard.

Councilman Phat Bui is a controversial figure in Garden Grove for some and a hero for others.  He is best known for his strong arm tactic recently against Riverside City when this city decided to establish friendship city with a city in Vietnam.  He vocally urged  his Vietnamese-American constituents to protest and disrupt any businesses in Riverside that have any dealings in Vietnam.

The Riverside City Council promptly ignored the anti-communist extremists and voted to have a sister city relationship with Vietnam.

And now with strong passion, he is urging the anti-communist people in Sacramento to remove any city council member who recognizes a delegation from Vietnam or even has the courage to suggest a sister city relationship with a city in Vietnam.

In Orange County, the anti-communist folks are vocal and often bring fear to elected officials.  The Sacramento City Council will either learn this either the easy way or hard way.  

San Jose D8 City Council Seat

With the 2016 election cycle coming up fast, the Vietnamese-American community is buzzing with names of potential candidates running for D8 city council.  This is district where Vietnamesse-Americans make up about 20% of the total registered voters.

Jimmy Nguyen, the candidate who lost to Rose H. in 2012 will try his chance again for sure.  Kim Trang, the business woman who owns a dental clinic, will enter the race only if Pattie Cortese decides not to run.  The well known and popular lawyer Jenny Do is being pushed by the community to run.  She is undecided for now.

It is too early and everything is still depending on whether Pattie Cortese will further her political horizon.  Like Daisy Chu in D4, her decision will influence the many potential candidates.  She is formidable just because of the name recognition and her long time associations with D8.   She is the preferred choice of Labor but at the moment, she is uncertain.

Manh Nguyen Wins in Landslide

With 80% of the ballots counted,  Manh Nguyen leads Tim Orozco 57% to 43%.   He will be a second Vietnamese-American elected official in San Jose City Council serving along Councilmember Tam Nguyen.

In a race where about 30% of the ballot cast were from Viet-American voters even though they only make up about 18% of the registered voters. Nguyen again shows that the Viet-American voting bloc is powerful.    This is one of the reasons why State Assemblyman Kansen Chu who represents D4 declined to endorse Tim Orozco, despite the fact that they both are heavily supported by South Bay Labor Council.

In San Jose politics, D4, D7 and D8 are districts that have strong Viet-American voting bloc.  It would not be a surprise that a new D8 councilmember next year is a Viet-American.

Even though Viet-Americans only make up 10% of the city population, they now control 20% of city council and many school board positions.

Ronald Reagan Statue Unveiled in Orange County

On Friday June 12, 2015, at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley,  Orange County prominent political leaders and elected officials unveiled the statue of President Ronald Reagan.  About 250 people attended the event.

This is to commemorate a a popular president who had a special tie with Orange County and is well beloved by the Viet-American community for his support of democratic causes and stand against the oppression of communism.   The statue was privately donated.

The approval of the county to place the statue in the park where President Reagan launched his 1984 presidential re-election campaign was led by OC Supervisor Andrew Do.