OC Blog

Tan Nguyen's Way With Words

Tan Nguyen, in so many ways, is an abject lesson in why a candidate shouldn't be his or her own campaign consultant.

For one, an good consultant will tell you, "Hey, you probably shouldn't send that letter on fake letterhead to Latino Democrats telling them immigrants can't vote."

Also, having a good consultant means you won't have a candidate writing stilted, laughable copy like this:

Tan will represent all of us. That means Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, Afro-Americans, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Catholics, and all other peoples, not specifically designated who live in District 47.

"Afro-Americans"? I don't think I've heard that one since 1976.

"and all other peoples, not specifically designated who live in District 47."? Who writes like that? It sounds like one of those disclaimers at the end of a pharmaceutical commercial.

   

Memo To Board of Supes: Don't Send The Letter

Peggy Lowe over at Total Buzz posts about Supervisor Lou Correa's letter to his board colleagues, in which he requests the BOS direct the OC Registrar of Voters to send a clarification letter to the 14,000 recipients of the "immigrants can't vote" letter and outlines what he wants the letter to say.

Last week, the Secretary of State pledged last week to send out a clarification letter to those same 14,000 people. In fact, according to Total Buzz, those clarification letters will go out tomorrow or Wednesday. In other words, clarification letters will be mailed out even as the Board of Supervisors considers Lou Correa's request to send out clarification letters.

Correa's request is redundant and a waste of taxpayer resources. I'm on record as supporting a clarification letter. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has already taken care of it.

What Part Of "Independent" Doesn't Tan Understand?

For a guy who has run in two federal elections inside of two years, Tan Nguyen doesn't know much about election law -- like the part barring coordination with independent expenditures.

Here's a letter that Tan Nguyen sent to Republican Party of Orange County Chairman Scott Baugh on September 7, 2006.

Tan states he is "surprised and deeply disappointed at the total and lack of help and support our campaign has received."

Tan goes on to say:

"I am requesting specifically that independent mailings to the voters be undertaken. These mailing might describe the type of representation Ms. Sanchez has provided her district during her ten year tenure."

Not only does Tan seek to coordinate an independent expenditure, but he attempts to dictate the content of the IEs.

Needless to say, the OC GOP ignored the request.

In the letter, Tan also cites the same poll he cited yesterday -- six weeks later -- claiming he is neck-and-neck wiith Loretta. That is one stale poll.

Who's Tan Nguyen's Mystery Staffer?

At his press conference yesterday, Tan Nguyen said he was sorry for making a rush to judgment and firing the un-named female staffer whom he initially blamed for the "immigrants can't vote" letter.

Who is she?

Only one person, Tan's friend Ryan Flynn, shows up on the campaign reports as recieving a salary -- which left me wondering who the mystery female staffer was, because I assumed the office manager (as Tan has described her) would also be a salaried job).

After looking through Tan's FEC reports again, I think it may well be a person named Chi Dinh, who shows up on the reports being re-imbursed for various tasks. For example, here's a record for July 28, 2006 re-imbursement for a CD-ROM from the OC Registrar of Voters.

At least, that's my best guess.

Gustavo On The Mis-Translation Word

Gustavo Arellano posts over at The Blotter on the Spanish word "emigrante" "emigrado" that Nguyen campaign attorney discussed at the press conference today.

Of course, as Gustavo points out, the mis-translated word is only one aspect of the letter -- not to mention the larger issue of how Tan Nguyen has conducted himself throughout this controversy.

Tan Campaign Attorney Bill Braniff On The Letter

Here's an audio file of Bill Braniff, representing the Tan Nguyen campaign, discussing the letter: specifically as to why the Spanish language version that was mailed out to voters claimed that immigrants can't vote -- without making distinctions between naturalized citizens and legal residents and illegal aliens.

Braniff was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District from 1988 to 1993, was Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District from 1980-1988, and Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey from 1970 to 1980.

He's served on the Executive Committee of the Criminal Law and Procedure Practice Group of the Federalist Society in 1997 and is on the Board of Advisors of Federalist Society's San Diego chapter.

He's obviously not some yahoo -- which makes me wonder why he's involved with Tan Nguyen. I can only speculate it's some kind of San Diego connection -- Braniff's practice is in San Diego, and Nguyen lived in San Marcos before he came to OC in search of a congressional seat.

Gustavo Gives Tan An Earful

Red County/OC Blog compadre Gustavo Arellano was as the Tan Nguyen press conference today -- along with about 10 TV cameras, the LA Times, the OC Register, Associated Press, etc.

Here's Gustavo offering his translating services to Tan as the latter was handing the press conference over to campaign attorney Bill Braniff.

Audio Of Tan Nguyen Press Conference

Here's the audio recording of Tan Nguyen's press conference this afternoon. The gentleman at the beginning thanking the press for coming is Tan's attorney, David Weichert.

Also, liberal blogger Andrew Davey (h/t to TheLiberalOC.com) has the alleged original text of the English letter before it was allegedly mis-translated into Spanish.

Tan Nguyen: "No Way In Hell Am I Gonna Withdraw"

I just got back from the surreal Tan Nguyen press conference. Tan began by saying:

"Let me begin by answering  all the political figures, including the Chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, Scott Baugh, and their ridiculous call for my withdrawal. I am innocent, and there is no way in hell I am gonna withdraw. I'm not gonna quit this race, and I'm gonna win this race."

That was pretty much the tenor of the press conference. I'll try and have an audio file up in due course.

Otherwise, I know a smidgen more after the press conference than I did before. Otherwise, nothing Nguyen said really alters the fundamentals of the situation.

He did introduce William Braniff as the attorney for his campaign. Braniff was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District from 1988-1993.

Braniff addressed a single portion of the infamous letter: the part telling immigrants they can't vote. According to Braniff, the letter began as a draft in English that differentiated between naturalized citizens (who can vote) and legal resident and illegal immigrant (who cannot vote).

According to Braniff, the letter was then given to a "respected" Spanish translator who translated references to legal residents/illegal immigrants with an idiom that is apparently a generic term for immigrant -- hence the confusion.

That's fine, but unfortunately neither Nguyen nor Braniff would answer any other questions, such as did he approve the letter, why use fake CCIR letterhead and a hots of other relevant questions.

Braniff did say the letter was the work of someone "associated with the campaign" but would say who.

Here are some video snippets I took of the press conference. There in .mov format, so you'll need QuickTime to play them.

Tan 1

Tan 2

Tan 3

Tan 4

Tan 5

UPDATE: Tan Nguyen said "I find it incredible that [Scott Baugh] didn't even call me to get my side of the story."

According to Scott Baugh, that isn't. Scott tried to call Tan at his campaign headquarters (the only number he had for Tan) on Wednesday and Thursday, but no one answered. He also sent Tan an e-mail on Thursday, to which Tan has never replied.

Scott had also asked Assemblyman Van Tran to call Tan Nguyen and find out was going on -- but Tan Nguyen hadn't return Van Tran's calls either.

Milking the Outrage, Part II

What, the Republicans aren't invited? (...but the media is!)

MEDIA ALERT ..... MEDIA ALERT ..... MEDIA ALERT
In response to the illegal activities of Republican Congressional candidate Tan Nguyen to suppress Latino voters on Election Day, the California Democratic Party and Democratic Party of Orange County are hosting an unprecedented Protect the Vote Rally

Featured Speakers (partial list): Phil Angelides, Loretta Sanchez, Fabian Nunez, Debra Bowen, Lou Correa, Jose Solorio

When: Monday morning, 10am, October 23

Where: Old Orange County Courthouse, Front Lawn, 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana, CA 92701
For more information, click here or call Mike Levin at (310) 740-6866

PUBLIC WELCOME
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

Democratic Party of Orange County
email: info@ocdemocrats.org
phone: (714) 835-5158
web: http://www.ocdemocrats.org/