Did you notice that Orange County’s Vietnamese American candidates took a beating on Election Day last week? According to the Bolsavik blog, their losses were incredible. They included:
- Phu Nguyen, the Democrat who ran for the 68th A.D. He lost by about 8,000 votes.
- Bao Quoc Nguyen, another Democrat, who ran for the Garden Grove Unified School District’s School Board
- Chris Nguyen, a Republican who ran for the Orange Unified School District’s School Board
- Charlie Chi Manh Nguyen, a candidate for the Huntington Beach Unified School District’s School Board
- Duy Nguyen, a candidate for the Fountain Valley City Council
- Nam Pham, a Republican who ran for the Santa Ana City Council, in Ward 6
- Bruce Quang Tran, a candidate for Mayor in Westminster
- Khoa Do, a candidate for the Westminster City Council
- Tony Lam, a candidate for the Midway City Sanitary District’s Board
Other Asians who lost included Roland Chi, a candidate for the Fullerton City Council, and Jerry Kong, a candidate for the Buena Park City Council.
If you look at the Vietnamese and Asian candidates who lost, almost all of them are in the 47th Congressional District, where Sanchez battled it out with Tran. This leads me to believe that Sanchez’ attacks on Tran ended up hurting other Viet and Asian candidates running locally in the same area.
According to Bolsavik, many of the Viet candidates who lost were real players in their community:
The Vice-President of the group is Bruce Tran, owner of VHN-TV. (Click here for all entries tagged Bruce Tran.) Tran ran for mayor of Westminster, and lost big time, 19%-71%.
The spokesman of the committee that organized that public voting, Charlie Chi Manh Nguyen, ran for the Huntington Beach Union HSD, which reaches into and covers parts of Westminster. With 3 positions available, Nguyen ended in 4th place with a little over half the votes the 3rd place person got.
The other group that lost big is SBTN-TV, the media giant that had backed Hoa Van Tran for OC Supervisor. This time, SBTN stands behind the Westminster City Council race for Khoa Do, a show host who’s well thought of in the community, having volunteered for several popular community events. Despite the might of mass media thrown in, Do ended up next to last place.
A few Vietnamese candidates did win however, including:
- Lan Quoc Nguyen, Garden Grove Unified School District’s School Board
- Andrew Nguyen, Westminster Unified School District’s School Board
- Michael Vo, Fountain Valley City Council
- Dina Nguyen, Garden Grove City Council
- Tri Ta, Westminster City Council
- Andy Quach, Westminster City Council
- Tyler Diep, Midway Sanitary District Board
Most if not all of the winners are allied with Tran. So yes, he lost, but he still has quite a power base in the O.C.
The outcome is not surprised by many Viets, except Khoa Do and Andy Quach
So it looks like Loomer in Westminster loses to the DUI Mercedes-wrecker. What ever did happen to the restaurant/bar that was serving up all that illegal booze to Quach? And we’ll never know, but how much to Van Tran pay for trying to keep his buddy out of the clink?
The Vietnamese candidates attacked other Vietnamese candidates on radio. Dina Nguyen is a prime example. Dina Nguyen attacked Phu Nguyen constantly on vietnamese radio. The fact that her latest husband, Joe Dovinh, lost the democratic nomination by 17.6% for the 68th Assembly district was the reason to bash Phu Nguyen who did win the nomination rather than her husband.