OC Blog

Janet's Little Saigon Office: Come get your Housing Application

Janet Nguyen's Community Service Center, or "Welfare Center" as some folks like to call it, officially opened for business today with a grand opening ceremony that took place at 3:00 PM.  Without factoring in employees' salaries, it will cost county taxpayers $5000 a month to sustain this office.  Housed next to a Vietnamese restaurant named Saigon Bistro and a laundry mat, Janet's satellite office is conveniently located within Westminster, a city where she underperformed in the February '07 Special Election.

Janet Stiffed Again

Martin Wisckol posts about Supervisor Janet Nguyen being left off a bipartisan letter from Vietnamese electeds to Senator Barbara Boxer. This is starting to get a bit old.

Martin also points to it as proof of the triumph of ethnicity over party affiliation. In that vein, readers might recall this anecdote from OCEA chief Nick Berardino about their experiencing running a pro-Tom Umberg phone bank manned by Vietnamese OCEA members.

Lincoln Club Endorses Janet Nguyen for Supervisor

I just found out the Lincoln Club of Orange County has decided to endorse Supervisor Janet Nguyen for re-election to the Board of Supervisors next year. Here's the statement from Lincoln Club President Rich Wagner:

“The Board of Directors voted unanimously this morning to endorse Janet Nguyen for supervisor of the first district. As the Republican incumbent for this seat, she is the clear choice to represent this district. She has proven she will stand up for taxpayers and we’re confident she will continue to support Supervisor John Moorlach’s efforts to challenge the legality of retroactive pension benefits.”

This is a good news for Supervisor Nguyen. The challenge for Janet is adding the support of important constituencies such as the Lincoln Club to her existing base.

Janet Nguyen Seeking Endorsements for Re-Election

Someone in Garden Grove sent me this letter yesterday.  It's a letter from Janet Nguyen's campaign office soliciting endorsement from local elected officials.  The quality of this letter is very poor, not necessarily in content, but in appearance.  From the physical copy, one can see that the inks are smearing so i'm suspecting that the letterhead was printed from an ink jet printer in the campaign office rather than from a professional print house.

Janet Nguyen have a reputation of being an aggressive campaigner so it doesn't surprise me that she is soliciting political endorsements this early out.  Good for her.  However I am curious to know what kind of endorsements Janet has gotten so far, if any.  Here is my analysis of the current political landscape:

Little Saigon Outreach Headquarters Grand Opening

Little Saigon Outreach Headquarters Grand Opening
LITTLE SAIGON OUTREACH HEADQUARTERS
Asian Village Mall
9191 Bolsa Avenue, Suite 209
Westminster, CA 92683
May 30, 2007

Dear Friends,

As part of our ongoing outreach effort and constituents service, we will be inaugurating the Little Saigon Outreach Headquarters to better serve our mutual constituents in Central Orange County. Below are details of the grand opening celebration:

1st SD Mailbox: Trung Mails Once...

The mail is surprisingly light at Stately Leyes Manor considering that the election is now just one week away. But each of the last two days has produced mailers from First District Supervisorial candidate Trung Nguyen. The pieces are starting to look a lot alike, but he gets points for his relentless pace.

The first mailer from Trung is a 8.5x11 card that repeats some of the catch-phrases and imagery of his earlier mailers. This one labels him "the conservative" and has photos of him with McClintock and Lynn Daucher so I presume it targeted Republicans.

Garden Grove's Courting of Casinos and the Race to Replace Correa

I saw this article the day after Thanksgiving, "For Many Asians, an Atlantic City Pilgrimage." Imagine a casino on Harbor Boulevard, the kind that several on the Garden Grove City Council had been courted by Indian tribes and Las Vegas moguls over the past several years. While adjacent Anaheim is adamently against such a casino, one has to wonder why Garden Grove remains open to proposals.

It's the demography, stupid.

Visit the Bicycle Club Casino or Hawaiian Gardens Casino or Pechanga Resort in Temecula or any Vegas gambling joint. It's no secret that "The gambling is in the Asian blood," said one of the tour operators in Atlantic City. Your likelihood of sitting next to another Asian is very very high according to this 2004 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligence, "Deck stacked against Asians; casinos play off gambling-intensive culture." Of course GG's casino would be filled with Little Saigonese and other Asian Americans (15% of the 3 million OC residents), not all of whom would need to be bussed to the card tables.

Voters in the upcoming 1st Supervisorial District special election ought to revisit how two of the potential candidates, Mark Rosen and the recently declared Janet Nguyen, conducted themselves during this courting of the casinos. (Also see Stephen Greenhut's 2005 column on the Brown Act.)

Now hit me again, Garden Grove!

A Long List of BOS Candidates

Here is a list of potential candidates for the 1st District Board of Supervisors seat soon to be vacated by Senator-elect Lou Correa. The criteria for inclusion: ANY mention by any THIRD party (for example, you will find MY name on the list because it has been proposed on some recent blogs - I'm not saying I am ... I'm not saying I'm not...). So, without any commentary or estimation of seriousness, here goes:

Assemblyman Tom Umberg, Assemblyman Van Tran, Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante, SA Councilwoman Claudia Alavarez, SA Councilwoman Lisa Bist, former SA Councilman Brett Franklin, former SA Councilman Tom Lutz, SA Mayor Miguel Pulido, Garden Grove City Councilman Mark Rosen, GG Councilwoman Janet Nguyen, GG Councilman-elect Bruce Broadwater, GG Councilman Mark Leyes, GG Mayor Bill Dalton, Westminster Councilman Andy Quach, Westminster Mayor Margie Rice, former Westminster Councilwoman Joy Neugebauer, Garden Grove School Board Trustee Trung Nguyen, GG Trustee Lan Nguyen, GG Trustee KimOanh Nguyen-Lam, Santa Ana School Board Trustee Rosie Avila, Westminster School District Trustee Sergio Contreras, Westminster School District Trustee Jo-Ann Purcell, Rancho Santiago Community College Trustee Brian Conley, Umberg Chief of Staff George Urch, former Correa Chief of Staff Chris Leo, former Sanchez staffer Armando de Libertad, community activist Zeke Hernandez, community activist Benny Diaz, Blogger/activist Art Pedroza, community activist Long Pham, businessman/activist Ken Nguyen.

I have NOT included Kermit Marsh because he has insisted to me in person that he is NOT running. Others are not likely given recent events - for example, Lan Nguyen and Van Tran are both included although they are apparently supporting Trung Nguyen (according to his press release).

That makes the 1st District the Baskin Robbins of politics - 31 flavors - 31 potential candidates. Of course, not all will run. Have I have left anyone off?

Janet Nguyen Makes Her Supervisor Campaign Official

This just came over the transom from the Janet nguyen for Supervisor campaign:

Janet Nguyen Announces for Orange County Board of Supervisors – Starts Campaign with over $200,000

GARDEN GROVE, CA – City Councilwoman Janet Nguyen announced today that she will be a candidate for the Board of Supervisors in the 1st district seat being vacated by State Senator-elect Lou Correa.  She already has over $200,000 on hand for this campaign.

“Central County faces many challenges and I have the experience, commitment and fiscally conservative philosophy the Board needs,” said Janet.  “My priorities will include protecting taxpayers from higher taxes, reducing government bureaucracy and intervention into our local economy, making our neighborhoods safer, and protecting private property owners from eminent domain abuse.

More On the 1st Supervisor District Race

This morning, a 1st Supervisor District observer e-mailed these observations (I'm on vacation, so apologies for not posting earlier):

I believe that at two Nguyens are serious about filing.  One is Truong Nguyen, of the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Trustees.  The other is Janet Nguyen of the Garden Grove City Council.  Both have indicated to me their intent to run.  They are not friends.

I do not believe that both will run, however, both will declare and raise money briefly.  One of the two will drop out of the game of political chicken.  However, the non-Vietnamese candidates will want that vote diluted, so an Otto Bade style campaign will be employed with a lower visibility Vietnamese American candidate, probably named Nguyen, thrown in to drain votes.

My prediction is 2 Nguyens will run in the special election, but more than 2 will claim they are setting up exploratory committees before that.

If I'm right, can I have a mug?

An attractive Red County/OC Blog mug? Sure, what the hell.

Obviously, Quang's posting earlier this evening has proven part one of above prediction true. I alos received this e-mail from Davie Gilliard:

I wanted to give you a heads up - that Janet Nguyen is definitely running for Supervisor. I will be handling her campaign and she already has over $200,000 for the race, with more on the way. I also heard that Tom Umberg is probably going to run.

I was discussing the possibility of an Umberg candidacy with a friend recently. There's a certain logic to an Umberg candidacy.

The special election for the 1st SD will be a crowded sprint. If memory serves, the special will be on February 6. Candidates with higher name recognition will have a definite advantage. Umberg has higher name recognition, having won several legislative contests in the central OC. Unfortunately for Umberg, nuch of that name ID is negative in the wake of the 34th SD primary. Still, if you have two Vietnamese candidates, a couple of Hispanic candidates and a white Democrat Garden Grove Councilman, Umberg might have a shot in a winner-take-all election where the winner might only grab 20% of the vote.

Finally, Assemblyman Van Tran's comment in the Trung Nguyen press release would seem to confirm thr rumor of a Van Tran-Janet Nguyen falling out after his decision not to run for the 34th SD pulled the plug on her incipient 68th Assembly District race. It would also seem to squelch speculation that Van himself might run.