(Assembly candidate Ken Arnold and wife Thanh-Thanh Ho at July 4 parade)
So Van Tran, the notoriously corrupt and power-hungry assemblyman for the 68th AD (Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley and Costa Mesa) has decided, true to form, to opt out of campaign spending limits, which means he won’t be allowed to place a “candidate statement” in the state-published voter information booklet. This presents a unique opportunity to his Democratic challenger, the popular progressive patriot Ken Arnold, who will now get to be the only candidate with a statement in the booklet, BUT it will cost him twice as much as it would have otherwise — over $10,500, for a 250-word statement, due by the first week of August.
That’s where you and I come in — Ken has launched a “Buy A Word” campaign, and for $42 you can be the proud owner of one of the 250 words in his statement — democracy in action! If you can afford more you can buy an entire sentence for $420, or just a letter for $15. Personally I bought a word just now, and although the statement’s not written yet, I have called dibs on “values.” (If that word doesn’t end up in the statement I’ll take the first “of.”) Contribute here: www.actblue.com/page/buy_a_word and remember: Each time Ken sells a word, another Trannie loses its wings! (Click “read more” for a little more info on Ken, Van Tran, and Ken’s first fundraiser in Costa Mesa August 8…)
The incumbent, Van Thai Tran, is often referred to as “Boss Tran” for his patient, systematic, and sometimes ruthless, building of a Little-Saigon-centered political machine, whose members are known as “Trannies.” Although his grip on power has begun to slip of late, between the success of non-Trannie Republican Supervisor Janet Nguyen and the steady exodus of young Vietnamese-American voters to the Democratic Party and Decline-to-state status, he is still a malign figure in state and local politics (with even higher ambitions) whom all local patriots should want to take down. As Ken enumerates, Tran “does not represent the people of his district or community, has practically no legislation to show for his two terms, appears to be isolated by even his Republican colleagues, and most importantly has among the worst voting records on the environment, consumer protection, support for education, and women’s and children’s issues.”
I’ve known Ken Arnold for several years as a dedicated member of DFA (Democracy For America) and Veterans for Peace — with whom he’s been the driving force behind the Arlington West Memorial on Huntington Beach the first Sunday of each month. He has had a long successful career in Information Technology and has a lovely, fascinating Vietnamese wife, Thanh-Thanh Ho; it’s their twin eleven-year old nieces the “Minhs” that you hear singing in Vietnamese in the middle of my “I Got A Crush on Debbie Cook” song. I’ll let Ken speak for himself on what he hopes to accomplish in the California legislature:
“…my campaign is about bringing real representation to the whole district and about bringing more cooperation, reason, common sense and openness to our government. If elected I intend to make great use of th e internet and new technologies to interact with constituents and to keep them very well informed of what I and the rest of the assembly are doing and why.
The areas of my greatest concern and interest are our environment and energy future, restoring and updating our once great educational systems and solving our terrible and ongoing budget crisis. I will try to make our vast state government more effective and efficient — providing the required services while making the most of our tax dollars. I will fight for universal health care, for our and the world’s environment, for workers’, women’s and everyone’s full rights, for our children, schools, colleges and universities, for our beaches, parks, and libraries, for effective law enforcement, fire protection and other aspects of public safety, for just laws and a state judicial system that may again exercise judgment in the service of justice, for restoring and protecting our infrastructure, for helping bring to California the energy and transportation infrastructure of the 21st century, for rational redistricting and reliable electoral processes that will result in20elected officials responsive to all their constituents, for a growing Orange County and California economy and business community that serves its employees as well as its owners, customers and neighbors and that is profitable yet socially and environmentally responsible, for rational affordable public transportation, for proper and appropriate care for the truly needy elderly and others.”
WOW. And through that all Ken and Thanh-Thanh never forget to have fun, as witness you’re invited to their first fundraiser party:
Ken Arnold is a great candidate who deserves our support. I will donate time and money to see that he wins. Thanks for the heads up Vern.
I just donated (it’s very convenient!) because the word “integrity” comes to mind when I think of Ken and the phenomenal job he will do representing the 68th! I hope everyone who can help will!
Son-of-a-gun Vern, I hadn’t realized Tran was my assemblyman — I just looked at a map of the 68th. I just bought two words for Ken, but not sure what they should be — I’m leaning toward a verb with a direct object. Are you joining the Screwdrivers group this evening? Maybe you can give me suggestions there.
#3… I’ll go to Screwdrivers if you’re going, but I might be a little late, gotta hit a Chau fundraiser first…
Last time it was nice to meet Overmyer, Nutto and Tardif, and of course Art and Sarah are my pals and Sarah’s kid is the greatest… but it sort of turned into a mini-NRA rally. And although I support the second amendment along with the rest of the Constitution, I didn’t really have much to add not knowing much about guns…
Nelson,
Since we’re slinging around unfounded, xenophobic caricatures of people we hardly know, I’d like to respond in kind you ignorant, dumbsh$*.
I realize that this board is an outlet for idiotic rants from people who have no idea how government works and who themselves are self aggrandizing egotistical fools. But smearing someone’s name like this in the course of a campaign just goes to show how Arnold and his supporters should stay far from the ballot box an even further from the voting dais of the California State Assembly.
After growing a sense of honor and a spine get a real job you fools.
PO’d in the 68th
Wow, SOME anonymous Tran supporter (fictitious e-mail “FPedroza” btw) sure has his/her panties in a bunch! I’ll just take issue with the word “xenophobic.” I take that to mean Van Tran shouldn’t be criticized, or that the criticism are inaccurate, just because he comes from Vietnam? Of course this is horses**t; even in this post I’ve mentioned Ken’s wife Thanh-Than positively, Janet Nguyen neutrally, and have elsewhere heaped praise on Linh Ho, Dr. Kim-Oanh Nguyen-Lam, and other honorable Viet-Americans who help their community.
“People we hardly know”? Well I suppose I hardly know Van Tran, I’ve only met him once, and heard him speak two or three times, met with his staff once to talk about healthcare reform even though I’m not in his district. (The main thing I remember is his incredulity that people can’t afford health insurance: “If they just cut off their cable, or got generic graham crackers instead of their favorite kind… I’m sure they could afford insurance.” Generic graham crackers — that’s what we came away with from that encounter.
As far as it being “unfounded” to call Van Tran “corrupt” “power-hungry” and “building a political machine” sometimes “ruthlessly” … anyone else here think those descrpitions are “unfounded?”
Finally, remember these are my words, not Ken’s. I don’t think he would express himself as brusquely as I.
Whoa! Better be there Vern to watch my back. I don’t want to get my cable cut off.
Vern – Could I just buy some letters that spell “no chance” ?
84 bucks, Junior! Ken may be able to use them in a sentence, say, “There is no chance that voters in this district will have the representation they deserve from this incumbent…” or something more positive, I don’t know. Thanks!
Or maybe “a CHANCE encounter with a neighbor the other day convinced me that there is NO challenge this district can not overcome, if we all work together, Asians, Latinos, whites, in an unbroken circle of…” you get the idea. Thanks Junior. Still waiting…
Vern,
I will contribute the $84 to Ken, if he wins – and if you will contribute a like amount to Van if he wins.