An interesting story broke yesterday as Trung Nguyen’s campaign suddenly imploded in an apparent Photoshop malfunction. Nguyen’s head was added to a scene including Governor Schwarzenegger and Lynn Daucher. He was at that event, but in a dark suit, whereas in the picture (seen below, courtesy of Red County/OC Blog) he is in a dark gray suit.
In the picture seen below (again courtesy of Red County/OC Blog) we see Trung at the same event, this time in a different suit.
Busted! However, I am left with the question – why did this break on Red County/OC Blog – and why is everyone so happy about Trung’s demise?
Here is my theory – I believe that Team Bustamante has convinced at least a few of the Trannies that their guy can win this race. But apparently Trung would not go away of his own volition. So they took him out. Let’s see who gets the blame for this “error” in the Trung camp. The timing is just too iffy.
Trung was in the way and so Team Bustamante had to take him out. He also was one of the last overtly conservative candidates in the race. Now the conservatives can drift over to Team Bustamante and find refuge with Lupe Moreno, Kermit Marsh, Rosie Avila, etc.
But it appears to be too late for Bustamante. Thousands of Vietnamese votes have already been cast. How many of the remaining votes will now go to Bustamante? Not many. Janet Nguyen is bound to pick up steam now that Trung has nuked himself.
That brings me to another scandal that broke on Red County/OC Blog yesterday. They took the time to translate one of Janet’s press releases that was sent out in Vietnamese. Here are a few excerpts from that translation:
In less two weeks, the Vietnamese American will decide or accept a County Supervisor, either (of a) Mexican (American), American (born) or whatever; to supervise an area in Orange County, which has Vietnamese (American) as the majority population; or we will put a Vietnamese (American) into an important, real power position; to mark a historic event of the Vietnamese community in Orange County for the last 30 years. For if the Vietnamese community is able to do this, then this (would) be a remarkable action which reflects the political maturity of the community.
With a very small absentee ballots number of the Mexican (American voters), in addition to the low number of turn out in Santa Anna City, compared to Garden Grow City, The winning chance of the Republican Mexican (American nominee) had vanished. The Santa Ana City and the Democratic voting percentage is too low in compare to of the Republican’s, thus the Democratic nominate leader would not have any (winning) chance. (That’s because) part the Mexican (Spanish speaking voters) have divide up the votes…
I can only hope that the racism I detected in this release was due more to the difficulty of translating Vietnamese into English than anything else. I have written extensively about the growing divide between Vietnamese and Latino residents of the O.C. – and this type of stuff doesn’t help. As Jubal/Matt pointed out, “It appears that some candidates hope – if not expect – that their Vietnamese-language missives will never be seen by the Anglo population and the mainstream media.” True – that is a trick used by Latinos as well. Who can forget the Claudia Alvarez “She’s one of us” signs?
Altogether a disappointing weekend for those of us who thought that the O.C. Vietnamese community had matured enough politically to be a real force in this county. It has a ways to go. But we should ignore the reflexive reaction of going over to Team Bustamante. As Martin Wisckol revealed in today’s O.C. Register:
“Carlos Bustamante, the GOP front-runner in the race for the First District Supervisors race, sent out a mailer bashing Tom Umberg as a “Hispanic-bashing politician.” The piece also had pictures of Claudia Alvarez, a Santa Ana councilwoman, and Lou Correa, the new state senator, in what looked like endorsements of Bustamante.
Trouble is, they didn’t endorse Bustamante. After the mailer went out, Alvarez was so offended that she
“Well, Brett Franklin is a good guy too…”
That’s why I voted for Brett. My neighbor has a Bustamante sign and I did it just out of spite.
Benny who?
Benny is virtually invisible in this race. We have received no mailers, seen no signs, and he sure hasn’t come knocking at our door.
He’s not a seriouis candidate except in the mind of certain blog authors.
Big scandal! I don’t read Vietnamese, but does the caption say something like “Tall Trung is now almost the same size as the Terminator”, or is it just something like “I’m part of Arnies Army”? Big difference.
Union Thug
Art:
1) The Bustamante campaign had nothing to do with the Trung-Photoshop story breaking on Red County/OC Blog.
2) Tthe quote you attribute to me was actually written by Mark Leyes, the author of the post in question.
Here is my theory – I believe that Team Bustamante has convinced at least a few of the Trannies that their guy can win this race. But apparently Trung would not go away of his own volition. So they took him out.
You’re letting your prejudices get in the way of your analysis.
I recieved the information from the Janet Nguyen campaign.
Besides, Art — why in the world would the Bustamante campaign want to torpedo Trung? It’s in their interest for Trung do well. The more Viet votes Trung takes from Janet, the better for Carlos.
Also, the quote you attribute to me was written by Mark Leyes — the author of the post you quoted from.
Anon #2,
You must be either a bustamonte or umberg paid worker judging from the time you posted. Why else would you rip into BENNY DIAZ if not that you folks are afraid of him.
I’m sure glad I sent him my $150.00 donation already as have many other people.
As far as the signs, they are there and your candidate is in trouble.
Yeah your $150 put his race over the top! Look out everyone….Diaz just won!