So Long, Pham! Dovinh is Last Vietnamese Standing in AD-72. (Or IS he?)

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Long Pham
The most dangerous job in politics: Vietnamese Republican candidate in AD-72.

Back when we redistricting geeks were attending Commission hearings last year, what would become AD-72 was supposed to be “the Vietnamese district.”  Combining virtually all of Little Saigon, in response to extensive lobbying by the Vietnamese community in the Santa Ana hearing, AD-72 was a de facto recognition that the Vietnamese community was finally large enough to dominate its own Assembly district even in the absence of a charismatic boss-man like Van Tran.

It is not turning out that way — not by a longshot.  The non-Little Saigon portion of the district also included all but southeastern  Huntington Beach up the coast through Seal Beach and Los Alamitos, then north through the other portions of Westminster and Garden Grove — and it looks like Republican candidates from there will have driven out all Vietnamese candidates but the sole serious Democrat.  (Albert Ayala, you can write in and make your case if you want to dispute that, but {“Albert Ayala” Assembly} got 247 Google hits while {“Joe Dovinh” Assembly} got over 7300.  Just saying.)

The Registrar of Voters website indicates that yesterday Long Pham was issued his nomination papers and Declaration of Candidacy for seat 1 on the Orange County Board of Education (where he currently serves) — seemingly a good indication that he is dropping his bid for Assembly.  This follows Los Alamitos Councilmember Troy Edgar’s moving into the race after leaving the high-rolling CD-37 race.  Huntington Beach Councilmember Matthew Harper was already in the race.  Albert Ayala and Anthony Stuart Pinkston (who does not appear to be well known) have also taken out papers; Ayala has filed.  Westminster Councilmember Tyler Diep had also announced plans to run, but dropped out last week before taking out papers.

The upshot of all this is: Joe Dovinh looks like the luckiest politico in the county.  Not only is he the only serious Democrat left in the race but, presuming that Pham really does scram, he is the only candidate left of Vietnamese ancestry in any party.  In a district where Vietnamese voters have shown themselves willing to vote on ethnic heritage over party — not a bad idea, given the apparent purge of Vietnamese Republicans from the voting menu — this means that Dovinh is even more likely to make the runoff against either Harper or Edgar.  Now, though, while they tear one another apart, he can stay above the fray and consolidate his support in the Vietnamese community all year long.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Republicans try to gin up an anti-Dovinh candidate before March 9 rather than give Dovinh such a leg up.  (If the Republican race is nasty enough and turns off voters, he could already end up with 40% of the primary vote — or more.)  But with Harper and Edgar in a death-lock right now and the prospect of both of them surviving until November diminishing, they may not want to waste and fire on Dovinh.

(Faithful readers know that Dovinh has been a source of controversy here due to actions of his related to Phu Nguyen’s 2010 Assembly campaign; a story exploring just what did go on and why has been initiated and is still brewing.  Competitor publications, feel welcome to beat us to it.)

I don’t know what Dovinh was imagining the situation might look like in late February, back when he announced for this race, but I doubt that he thought that his path to the runoff — and to the Vietnamese vote there — would be quite this clear.


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)