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.
People Watching
It was a good venue to spot political figures:
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.
Posing with beauty queens
Because this was a political celebration, polyethnic beauty queens were out in force
Best wishes to Phan. Do wants to “follow in the footsteps” of the egregious Nguyen (hopefully to incarceration). Correa has amply demonstrated that he’s just in it for Correa – particularly in tricking himself out to the OC Smash ‘N Grab Club.
Smash n grab club? Elaborate please.
Wow. So much intrigue! I must have forgotten how melodramatic the OC political scene can be.
So how many 1st Supe candidates are we up to now?
Only Wagner and Moorlach have announced so far. Other Republicans are likely. Democrats — well, it’s unclear. One person recently noted to me that in this race both Lorri Galloway and Harry Sidhu could conceivably run using their actual home addresses.
Wagner and Moorlach? You’re talking about Congress.
No, he’s talking about the Assembly.
Wait… no we’re all three wrong. He’s talking about state Senate … and Expat was asking about Supervisor.
These musical chairs…
That reminds me, you notice how now Mimi is the official eye candy standing behind Boehner on TV? Gag me with a spoon…
Yeah Senate. Well what the Hell is the difference? Same collection of greedheads.
Yes, I was referring to the 1st Supervisorial Special Election. I’ve already lost count of how many are running to fill the seat Janet Nguyen is leaving behind to join the “‘Just Say No’ Slightly Bigger, But Still Irrelevant Minority” in Sacramento.
Sheldon was also in attendance with Solorio. Their photos with the Mayor must have gotten lost in the shuffle.
Steve Sheldon? I’m sure he wants to get in good with the new Mayor since he’s very busy on GG’s Main Street. Did you notice him, Greg?
The one and only. He strolled in about halfway through and hung in the back with the councilwoman pictured above (Carey) while Bao went through the photo op line.
Uh, I was only taking photos for a short time, at the end, when people kept asking me to “do them a favor and….” So they were never in my shuffle.
I’ve only seen Sheldon in photos; his image did not jump out at me.
Yous should have been able to detect the slimy trail.