OC Blog

Will Janet Pay The Fine?

Martin Wisckol wrote a post last Thursday suggesting Supervisor Janet Nguyen if she "went straight to the state Fair Political Practices Commission today, explained that she had possible violations in the last election and that she was eager to settle, she might sidestep a lot of the legal hassling she's facing from Team Trung Nguyen."

Later that day, Martin followed with a post reporting that Sup. Nguyen was interested in his idea:

"I'm going to look into that," she told me a little while ago.

Nguyen V. Nguyen Update From Total Buzz

Total Buzz's Peggy Lowe, who indefatigably covers the ongoing court drama between Supervisor Janet Nguyen and Trung Nguyen, posted this update earlier in the day:

Had a nice meeting of the Recount Recovery Support Group this morning over at Judge MIchael Brenner's courtroom. The Nguyen v. Nguyen peeps were back in court over a couple issues I wrote about last Friday.

In a motion brought by Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley, the boys needed to decide if 1.) Brenner could return the approximately 200 challenged ballots from the trial, and 2.) if Kelley could proceed with routine maintenance on the machines, which means he needs to break the seal on the machines used in the First District special election.

 

Neither Mike Schroeder, Team Trung's guy, nor Phil Greer, Janet's guy, had problems with Brenner giving back the ballots. Brenner's retiring on Friday and so he handed them over to Leon Page, Kelley's lawyer, who walked out of court with them this morning.

You can read the rest of Peggy's post here.

Trung Responds To OC Register Editorial

This came over the transom a little while ago. it's a response from Trung Nguyen to the editorial in today's OC Register:

Making Ones Own Bed

By Garden Grove Unified School District Vice-President Trung Nguyen

Thursday, June 21, 2007

I was disappointed when I read the Orange County Register's June 20th editorial criticizing several good government legal battles as "lose-lose" and efforts to "destroy the re-election hopes of Janet Nguyen" – nothing could be further from the truth. Sadly, for the Republican Party and Orange County's Vietnamese community, Janet has brought these legal challenges on herself by refusing to follow the laws that every elected official in our county follows. I am frankly surprised that after Assemblyman Van Tran's and my own efforts to elect Republican Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher to State Senate last year, that anyone would accuse us of trying to "weaken the GOP." We are both passionate about freedom, good government and our conservative Republican beliefs.

Steve Greenhut's Perspective On Janet Nguyen's Troubles

Steve Greenhut wrote an editorial calling for an end to the Janet Nguyen-Trung Nguyen feud, and yesterday posted this item on the Orange Punch blog in which he puts forth his belief that Janet's "real crime" was "defying" the Van Tran "political machine":

We know Janet's real crime. She defied Assemblyman Van Tran's political machine and ran for office without his blessing. She won the election. She is independent of them. Janet's politics aren't noticeably different from those of Trung Nguyen, Van Tran or even Mike Schroeder. But the political establishment would rather drive her out of office than have in office a Republican who doesn't owe them any allegiance. At least that's my theory.

Vietnamese Media Coverage Of the Janet Nguyen Disclosure Episode

A reader sent me this article that appeared in a Vietnamese-language publication called Thu Vien Toan Cao about Supervisor Janet Nguyen's illegal legal defense fund caper.

I don't understand what it says, other than I can pick out names like "Christian Berthelsen," "Andrew Davey" and "Matt Cunningham," and I'm curious to know how the Vietnamese-language covered the brouhaha. If anyone wants to take the time to translate the article, or at least a detailed summary, be my guest:

Khởi đầu câu chuyện, ký giả Christian Berthelsen của tờ LA Times số ra ngày 4 tháng 5, năm 2007, đã tiết lộ về một điện thư (e-mail) xin tiền bí mật...

Bị Áp Lực Báo Mỹ: Janet Đã Khai Báo Thu Tiền Bí Mật Bất Hợp Pháp

Lửa Việt - Tin Tổng Hợp

New Complaint Filed Against Janet Nguyen

I just saw this on Total Buzz:

Trung Nguyen loyalists have filed a second complaint against county Supervisor Janet Nguyen. The first attacked her illegal legal defense fund, which she has since dissolved, refunded the money and -- 50 days after the deadline -- disclosed the donors.

You can read the rest of the post here.

UPDATE: Here's Steve Greenhut's reaction from Orange Punch:

Here are reports on OCBlog and Total Buzz about Trung Nguyen supporters' latest legal action against Supervisor Janet Nguyen. This is enough already. Trung lost by a razor-thin margin, but such is life. These efforts strike me as an abuse of the legal system for political purposes. If Trung feels wronged, he should gear up to run for her seat, which will be up next summer -- given that the special election only filled the remainder of Lou Correa's term as he vacated the seat for the Senate.

Janet Nguyen Count-Up: The Likely End Of A Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Episode

I'm sitting in the lobby of the Sacramento Grand Sheraton, having flown up this morning to sit on a panel at California Association Realtors conference (Wayne Johnson, Richard Temple and Gail Kaufman were the other panelists).

I'm sure readers have already seen Janet Nguyen attorney Phil Greer's letter to Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley and Janet's statement blaming her lawyers over at Total Buzz, but here they are anyway:

“On the advice of my attorneys a legal trust fund was established and funds were collected to cover the cost of legal bills related to the recount and election contest. These funds were never in my possession, nor were they ever deposited into my campaign committee account. When the advice of my attorneys changed, we determined it was best to return the money and we reported all the details about the funds to the Registrar of Voters. I am happy the issue is behind us now.”

Did Janet Finally Disclose?

Is the long wait finally over? Rumors were swirling today that Supervisor Janet Nguyen would finally end her inexplicable refusal to disclose the identities of the three donors to her illegal legal defense fund.

One of our commenters posted this about 45 minutes ago:

Finally, Janet Nguyen filed her paper today. It showed three donors: Mission Viejo Company for $5K, Townsend for $5K and Parking Concept for $2.5K. All checks were returned on April 14.

Check it out.

I get a vibe of legitimacy about this. And if this comment is accurate, then why did Janet wait so bloody long to disclose contributions from a developer, a lobbyist and a company that presumably would like to do some business with the county? It's not as if a supervisor has never received contributions from a developer, a lobbyist and a company that would like to do business with the county.

If this sudden decision to disclose is first of all genuine and secondly, related to Matt Harper's arrival today on Janet's staff, then perhaps we're seeing the beginning of the end of amateur hour in Supervisor Janet Nguyen's office.

Janet Nguyen Count-Up: 53 Days Of Evading The Law

Local liberal blogger Andrew Davey posted this over at Calitics, and I think it accurately conveys the sentiment of the OC blogosphere across the political spectrum:

Left, Right, and Center ALL AGREE: Janet Nguyen Needs to Come Clean

Why is Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen evading the law? This is a question that all of us are asking. This is a question that bloggers on the left, right, and center are all asking. This is a question that Janet Nguyen is forcing us to ask so long as she refuses to file a report on those secret campaign contributions that violated Orange County's campaign finance law. And so long as Janet Nguyen does not file this report, we will all be counting the days that she has not filed.

Even though Martin Wisckol began reporting on this matter at The OC Register's Total Buzz blog, Janet Nguyen has not taken notice, and she has not reported. Even though Mike Lawson has begun counting the days that Janet Nguyen has evaded county law at The Liberal OC, Janet Nguyen has not taken notice, and she has not reported. Even though Matt Cunningham has spoken out about this at OC Blog, Janet Nguyen has not taken notice, and she has not reported. Oh yes, and even though we at Calitics have turned our eyes to Orange County for this, Janet Nguyen has not taken notice, and she has not reported. So what will it take for Janet Nguyen to report these contributions? How many more days must we count?

The "Guess Janet's Secret Donors" Contest

Who are the three mysterious and overly generous donors to Supervisor Janet Nguyen's illegal legal defense fund?

Unions?

Vietnamese with ties and/or sympathies to Hanoi communists?

Democrats?

I don't know, but it sounds like a good excuse for another Red County/OC Blog contest.

Post a maximum of three guesses in the comments. The commenter with the most correct guesses will win a Magic 8-Ball:

The winner will be announced when and if Janet Nguyen discloses the identities of the three donors.