Long Pham!
[poll id=”267″]
Costa Mesa Councilman Allan Mansoor would do well not to understimate his opponent in the GOP primary for the 68th Assembly District, O.C. Board of Education Member Long Pham.
Pham pulled off an upset in 2008, when he defeated longtime incumbent Felix Rocha, in Area 1 of the O.C. Board of Education. Pham ended up with over 19,000 votes, winning 51% to 48.9%, according to Smart Voter.
This year Pham will benefit from the contest between Assemblyman Van Tran, who represents the 68th A.D., and businessman Quang Pham, in the 47th Congressional District’s GOP primary. Tran and his opponent will be marketing heavily to Viet voters in the 68th. Do you really think those voters will vote for Mansoor?
To make things even worse for Mansoor, the Democratic candidate for the 68th, Phu Nguyen, will also be marketing heavily to Viet voters.
The 68th A.D. consists of 14.88% of Orange County, including all of Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley, and 10.08% of Anaheim, 64.92% of Garden Grove, 10.17% of Newport Beach, 82.98% of Stanton, and 69.30% Westminster.
Costa Mesa has 108,724 voters. The part of Garden Grove in the district has 107,239 voters. The portion of Fountain Valley in the district has 54,978 voters. And the Westminster area has 61,129 voters.
It is quite conceivable indeed that Pham could win – without spending much money.
Other Viet candidates will also be working the Viet vote in the area, including Hugh Nguyen, who is running for Orange County Clerk-Recorder.
Mansoor, on the other hand, has few supporters. He showed up to the recent Tet Festival Parade by himself. He will be doing all he can to get the Minuteman vote to the polls. That is his sorry base. Look at his endorsements and you will see a list of white names – no minority support at all.
So far, Supervisor Janet Nguyen has done nothing to help Pham. But she is helping Quang, in his contest against Tran. Will she support Mansoor? If she is smart she will stay out of this contest.
Tran, on the other hand, is helping Pham. Good. Pham deserves the support. I hope he prevails!
I do not see how Mansoor can pull off his “ethnocentric white pro law enforcement Minuteman stance”, with the Vietnamese contingent…than again, I have never really understood how Van tran has managed to win.
I think Mansoor is DOA…
This race is over. No one can beat Mansoor. He’s got an impressive list of endorsements, plenty of cash on hand and is running a strong campaign. How much money does Pham have? Who are his endorsers? Election in a few months and no one has heard of him. Like him or not, Mansoor is going to Sacramento.
Pete,
You forget. Long beat Rocha in 2008 with no money.
His name is all he needs…
Mansoor does not need money.. He has the people’s vote..
He has did not brilliant job in Costa Mesa..
Too bad he is not running Santa Ana!
Wow, that is a lot of voters in Costa Mesa, almost the whole population. What is the voting age in Costa Mesa, five?
Incoming for MinuteMansoor:
Michelle, you made me laugh! Mansoor runing Santa Ana, they would run him out of town.
The primary will be interesting, I am not going to make any predictions, but this is rapidly becoming the most exciting race in Orange County.
I think Long should exploit the fact that Mansoor is a deputy sheriff. A member of a policing union that is BKing this county with its overly generous retirement benefits, and most other policing bodies throughout the state.
Policing unions aren’t high in the admireable list among citizens, especially Republicans from the OC.
I think Long can put up a good fight if he makes /mansoor make a choice between OCDS or Republican voters values of good governance.
Joe, Mansoor quit his jailer job 12/31/09.. Except for the stipends he gets from his gig as Costa Mesa councilman and as a member of the OCTA Board, he’s out of work. Maybe he’ll join the day laborers on the streets of Costa Mesa, waving signs seeking a job.
*Long is an intrepid campaigner…little doubt about that.
Also, we think Long was born in the year of the Tiger! Who knows what can happen?
Alan however has been anointed by the “power structure” of the Republican Party.
Interesting question however…
The RPOC (Scott Baugh) just passed a resolution this week at the Central Committee Meeting, saying that any Republican endorsed candidate
could not take cash from any Government Employee Union. Did Alan take anything from Wayne Quint or other Union Gov Groups?
This is sad for me. A few months ago, I was excited about Quang Pham and Phu Nguyen.
Now that I know Janet Nguyen is supporting Pham, that’s a clear sign for me to support Van Tran.
As far as Phu Nguyen. He’s a nice guy I hear, but does he have anything between the ears? I talked to him a while back and wasn’t impressed. And his handlers are idiots. I was at a particular event recently and supporters of Phu Nguyen were chanting “FREEDOM”. It made me sick to my stomach and I was so damn disappointed. Is he just another Vietnamese politician running on the anti-communist theme? California is going through a huge financial disaster and these morons are chatting “Freedom” as if they’re liberating Vietnam.
“Michelle, you made me laugh! Mansoor runing Santa Ana, they would run him out of town.”
I very much doub’t it.. Mr.Mansoor has shown that he is neither afraid of the Mexican elitists trying to tell him how to run his town in his country, nor is he afraid to go up against corrupt Americans trying to convince him to allow the Mexicans to rule his town!
He is what i would say, “Good for the Americans of OC”.
What is really striking about the article is how the author makes very little out of the obvious ethno-ploitics of the vietnamese support for pham Then she comes back and does the “tisk-tisk bad white man thing”. So overdone. So overplayed. And so blatantly racist. It is a curious thing when a minority gets votes for being a minority that is acceptable. But not the big bad white-man.