Kudos to Janet Nguyen for her continued battle to overturn Trung Nguyen’s 7 vote margin of victory. However, she faces an uphill road. The Register noted that Trung ally Mike Schroeder had this to say about Janet, “She has the prospect of becoming the next Al Gore, being seen as a sore loser.” I expect that Schroeder will use his influence at the O.C. District Attorney’s office for ill.
Today’s Register reported that “Trung Nguyen, meanwhile, spent Thursday making plans for serving as supervisor. He was talking to potential advisers.” Does the latter mean that he has already received Mark Leyes’ resume and job application?
Janet’s team appears to be focusing on the ballots. Someone needs to follow up on the other allegations: that the Trannies collected absentee ballots, illegally, and turned them in to the ROV; that they coerced older Vietnamese voters into voting for Trung; and that they may have committed other forms of voter fraud on their way to victory.
The Register’s Opinion page finally got into the act with a commentary today about the race. Predictably they totally overlooked the fact that the Democrats erred by drafting Umberg instead of a Latino candidate, and that the Republicans erred by assuming that Latino voters would side with a weak GOP candidate in Carlos Bustamante.
Where was the allegedly Libertarian Register when O.C. Libertarian Party Chairman Bruce Cohen was trying desperately to get the decidedly non-Libertarian Bustamante elected?
The opinion piece also made the crazy assumption that now Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez’ district is in play. No it’s not. And no, Trung’s victory is not a good thing for the GOP. Just watch him over the next two years, assuming he is eventually declared the winner. He will totally alienate Latinos and believe me, he will lose the seat next time, likely to Santa Ana Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez. Janet would have hung on to the seat.
County Democrats need to get on their horse, or donkey, right now and start working to beat Trung in two years. His victory must not be allowed to stand. And I hope that Janet will take him on again. Maybe this time she will actually compete in Santa Ana. Had she come to the one debate that we had, she would have had her seven votes. But she didn’t. Rookie mistake…
Astute points, Art.
Latinos/Hispanics and Vietnamese? We have to move beyond rascist/ethnic barricades. The Media is already projecting “revenues” from the upcoming “election contests,” which might explain their neglect of local issues and those political so as to force “candidates” to pay for the information we presume with subscription price?
Too frequently the Latino/Hispanic community is portrayed as apathetic .. they are characteristically Roman Catholic .. and it is possible that both of the “mainline” candidates were not acceptable.
Me thinks that the emerging social circle of the Washington Press and political insiders now unfolding with the Valerie Plame trial has long been operating in Orange County.
“…they coerced older Vietnamese voters…” Interesting accusation. As someone who’s been involved with Vietnamese/Asian politics in the past, you CANNOT coerce OLDER Vietnamese voters (or non-voters for that matter) to do ANYTHING. Try.
I agree, Art. I smell something foul over at Team Tran HQ.
http://www.calitics.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1823
But still… I do think that before we start planning on taking down Trung, that Janet should get her day in court, and that we know for sure if Trung ACTUALLY WON this election legitimately.
If they stare at the absentee and provisional ballots for too long, they may toss out hundreds, maybe thousands as defective.
Then #3 and #4 would become #1 & #2.
The “every vote counts” & “count every vote” sure has back fired this time.
I bet that there are plenty of ballots counted because the benefit of the doubt leaned towards “count every vote”.
In a recount, those hundreds? thousands? would be challenged and tossed, maybe even by the courts.
They don
Art,
You can spin lies and deceptions all you want, but when it comes trying to use the race bait, alienating the Latinos with Trung Nguyen, that is a new low for you.
Art,
I thought Alvarez was going to run against Pulido in two years. Is she now going to try to take out Trung? If Janet wins, will she still go after the seat or is this only a “Trung” thing?