Mayor Bao Nguyen Takes a Bow as a Packed House of Supporters (and a Future Rival or Two?) Celebrate His Victory

Bao and Volunteers

Incoming Garden Grove Mayor Bao Nguyen and his Bao Star volunteers.

It took a little longer than hoped — but Bao Nguyen finally got to celebrate his narrow victory in Garden Grove’s Mayoral race yesterday at the Ramada Plaza in Garden Grove.  Here is Bao’s speech to the crowd, as well as some photos and commentary.

Three highlights from the video:

(1) Bao squeezes agreement from a put-on-the-spot Sharon Quirk-Silva that she plans to run from Assembly again in 2016.  (The commitment is not legally binding.)

(2) When Bao’s fellow newly elected Garden Grove City Council member Phat Bui wishes Bao well on their upcoming two years on City Council, Bao quips “AT LEAST two years, right?” before laughing and saying “we won’t go there” as Bui departs.  Bui’s term on the City Council is 4 years; Bao’s as Mayor is 2 years — and so Bui could take a swing at him in 2016 if he chose.  We won’t go there.

(3) The congenial affection between Bao and City Councilmember Chris Phan, a moderate if not downright progressive Republican and a key Bao supporter in this election, is very evident in the last couple of minutes.  In the election to replace First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen early next year, Phan is opposing Lou Correa and Janet’s Chief of Staff Andrew Do, among other expected candidates.  Correa’s efforts in the most recent election seemed to be in support of Quang “Mike” Tran, who got the DPOC endorsement and finished fourth out of nine; if he took steps to support Bao over his own 2004 Supervisorial opponent Bruce Broadwater, the people I’ve spoken to didn’t notice it.

Bao with video screen

Bao caught both on video and in a Kennedyesque posture

People Watching

It was a good venue to spot political figures:

Al Jabbar looks over packed room

Al Jabbar (in black) looks over the packed room.

Sharon Quirk-Silva Watches the Crowd

Sharon Quirk-Silva watches the crowd

Diana Carey looking festive in fuchsia

Westminster Councilwoman Diana Lee Carey looking festive in fuchsia

Tyler Diep patiently stands alone

Incoming Westminster City Councilman Tyler Diep patiently stands alone

 

Posing with supporters

I ended up, somewhat unexpectedly, doing portrait camera duty for a while during the event; here are some of my photos of Bao with his supporters beyond his volunteers.

Bao with Viet community members

Bao with Viet community members

Bao and Robin Marcario

Bao with Garden Grove community activist (and recent Water Board candidate) Robin Marcario

Bao with Carina Franke-Pantone

Bao with political advisor Carina Franke-Pantone

Posing with beauty queens

Because this was a political celebration, polyethnic beauty queens were out in force

Bao with Beauty Queens

Bao with Beauty Queens

Bao with Miss Latina Global

Bao with Miss Latina Global

Bao with Miss Teenage Latina

Bao with Miss Teenage Latina

Bao with Miss Teenage Asia

Bao with Miss Teenage Asia

Bao with Korean Beauty Contestant

Bao with Korean Beauty Contestant (who could be a queen too, but without a tiara one can’t be sure)

And then the festivities were over

Crowd mills about at end of celebration

Crowd mills about at end of celebration

Phat Bui and Friends outside

Phat Bui outside with friends, perhaps contemplating that “AT LEAST two years” crack.

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)