Open Thread: MAGA Dog Votes, Amy Phan West challenges Derek Tran!

Why do no other local journalists make these connections? This is what you have the Orange Juice Blog for. Could it be a coincidence that in the same week OC dogs are caught voting (and voting Republican at that!) Amy Phan West jumps into the race between Congressman Derek Tran and Westminster Mayor Charlie Chi Nguyen? As they say portentously in some corny movies, THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES.

The news just keeps getting better for Derek, who last year beat the long-established and bottomlessly funded Michelle Steel in a nailbiter by only 643 votes. The district, the 45th, just keeps getting more Democratic, every time Trump opens his hateful mouth and barks out another fascistic order, every time folks have to go to the store or see ICE grab their neighbor. This is BEFORE the likely passage of Prop 50 which will bring the district from a 6-point Dem advantage to a 9-point – 39D-30R.

At first, Michelle and her svengali husband Shawn had planned to claw back their rightful seat next year. But (sources tell me) Will O’Neill’s OCGOP had different ideas. Namely, they believe that ONLY A VIET CANDIDATE can beat Derek in the Little-Saigon-dominated district. I wonder how much they had to listen to Shawn whine and bluster as they talked him off the ledge. (Remember when he had Michelle telling people she was “more Vietnamese than Derek?”) He was still whining at the Convention last week, that “old Republicans are California’s biggest export to Texas” or something, maybe the Steels will move.

Problem now: None of the Viets Willie thought viable were interested in this kamikaze mission. Not Supervisor Janet Nguyen (with her plum new raise and lil kids.) Not Assemblyman Tri Ta. Not Former Assemblyman (& political boss) Tyler Diep. Not Fountain Valley’s Ted Bui. Who, who would rid the OC of this troublesome Tran?

Enter Charlie “Chi” Nguyen. Hat in hand, the hapless Westminster Mayor told the Party Bosses, “I could do this, don’t rule me out,” and duly filed. Problem here is old Charlie Chi, along with all his other weaknesses (terrible speaker, ineffective/bad leader, secretive & defensive) is currently a Man Without a Clique. A Viet politician without a clique. Originally a puppet, along with the firebrand Amy Phan West, of Bosses Tyler Diep and Van Tran, Charlie’s understandable inability to co-exist with Amy has left him cliqueless.

So, whether in a gesture of “sticking it to Charlie” or really thinking she could win, Tyler & Amy decided to run Amy for Congress! Amy Phan West that is, crazy as it may sound to the rest of us. Amy is best known to the public for two things: trying to bribe a Westminster cop to not tow her husband’s truck; and getting sued multiple times by her Council colleagues because she won’t shut the fuck up during meetings.

The most notable difference between Charlie and Amy, according to my Westminster sources, is:

• Charlie is devoted solely to the “Vietnamization” of the town – that is, erasing anything not Vietnamese from Westminster’s landscape and history, to the degree of raising the new South-Viet flag across from City Hall BEFORE the US flag;
• while Amy (with her white hubby and cute little family) is more 24-7 Trump, 24-7 MAGA, with her recent pushes for Voter ID, resolution against Prop 50, and attacks on VietRise.

All this tying herself to the Ochre Abomination could help Amy get the OCGOP’s support (they did endorse the equally crazed MAGAt Gracey Van Der Mark, didn’t they?) And it will probably help her with Republican PRIMARY voters in June. And then it will sink her like a stone when she faces Derek in November 2026.

That’s how I see it unfolding anyway. Which is why, with apologies to the folks who sent me SO much damaging material about Amy, let’s keep our powder dry till next year. (Bonus: You’ll have her off your Council!) Meanwhile Republicans are exceedingly butt-hurt that Derek said this last month (in who knows what context; hat-tip Will O’Neill via Nesahanian) :

FLASHBACK: Democrat Rep. Derek Tran last month:

"It’s time for us as a party to get together and fight back, punch back, and make sure that they stay down, and you know what, kick them when they’re down because they deserve it."

This is what Democrats were saying in the lead-up… pic.twitter.com/fMwTNgVcBo

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 11, 2025

Still. You think Derek is blessed in his opposition next year, wait till you meet the guy running against Dave Min in the neighboring 47th! That would be one Michael Maxsenti, an “acolyte” of Trump’s most bizarre and controversial appointee, RFK “Brainworm” Jr. – who tells the Register, “America’s health crisis is at a tipping point… This is our moonshot moment.” Even as Proposition 50 gives District 47 a 4-point lead for Democrats, the MAHA Polyanna exults, “I feel uniquely qualified, I feel the time is right.” And who can gainsay that?

Of course if dogs continue to vote next year – particularly Republican dogs, MAGA dogs – then all bets are off, any of these races could go either way. Min pooh-poohs the phenomenon, but Janet Nguyen and Don Wagner, who know what dogs are capable of, take it VERY seriously:

But it is always important to give credit where due, to tie up a story in a symmetrical bow, and to remember – ALWAYS remember – that it was Michelle Steel herself who first rang the alarm on Species Discrimination – that same systemic injustice that forced humans to wear masks during COVID while letting dogs go mask-free, and now is fueling heartless species-ist Todd Spitzer in his relentless repression of Canine Enfranchisement. NEVER FORGET:

(I got a big spectacular piece on Cypress coming out, but it’s going through final fact-checking…)

Open Thread Now in 3, 2, 1…