Did Janet Know?

It's been a busy week, which translated into less posting than the local political news scene warranted -- so time to catch up a little.

For example, the bizarre Trung Nguyen recall episode. The sheer incompetence of it is head-turning. And the fact they were trying to recall Trung from the OC Board of Education when he is a trustee of the Garden Grove School District is a pretty clear indication it had nothing to do with genuine constituent satisfaction. My guess is they didn't even care about collecting enough signatures to actually qualify, just push it along far enough so Trung could be hit with mailers next year claiming voters "tried to recall him from the school board."

Of course, the big question is what, if any, involvement Supervisor Janet Nguyen had in this snafu. For her part, Janet was johnny-on-the-spot with a disavowal. In fact, the disavowal was issued the day the story broke. Team Janet has at least one lesson from the illegal legal defense fund controversy - don't let the story fester.

But is the disavowal true or false? Was Janet in on this thing, or were her supporters giving a keystone cops re-enactment of Henry II's knights' response to his exasperated cry of "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

As readers are well aware, one of those signing the recall petition was Jimmy Gaughan, who is married to Janet's sister, who works on Janet's supervisor staff.

The politically-impaired recall proponents are Main Street merchants who claim their motivation was Trung's support of the anti-Viet Weekly protests on Main Street. If that's the case, why single out Trung Nguyen out of all the Vietnamese electeds -- like Supervisor Janet Nguyen -- who support the protesters?

I'll go out on a limb and suggest it's because Trung is challenging Janet in the June primary.

Janet's disavowal was pretty unequivocal, but even then its requires a pretty determined act of suspended disbelief to think there's no connection to her, or at least to those around her. The recall petition was filed a week before Peggy Lowe broke the story. Either Supervisor Nguyen heard from her sister that her sister's husband had signed a petition to recall Janet's arch-enemy and then did nothing about it until it became public, or we're to believe that Jimmy Gaughan said nothing about to his wife, who in turn said nothing about it to her sister.

In any case, it wasn't great timing for Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who seemed to be picking up momentum and turning a corner: she seemed to be settling into the job, snagged the Lincoln Club of Orange County's endorsement of her re-election, and it had been a while since any embarrassing stories of self-inflicted political wounds had surfaced.

But Janet's quick, emphatic disavowal -- rather than a guilty silence -- help shoo the story away, so at least her team is more sure-footed politically than a few months ago.

Comments

Did Janet Know?
Yes she did. Im guessing she had a statement prepared and in the tube ready to fire off if anything went wrong. I understand that she had committed to helping fund the paid signature gathering operation that would berequired to gather enough signatures to force the special election.

[Of Course Janet Know]

Janet is a vindictive *****, but he had to play the "victim" card to get the Lincoln Club's support.

I don’t think the Lincoln Club would bother to endorse her simply because she convinced them that she is the victim. Rather, I think the Lincoln Club endorsed her to try and give pause to any Democratic contender such as Tom Umberg or Claudia Alverez and to try and scare any potential donors to their potential campaigns out of the water.
Additionally, a Lincoln Club endorsement would make a Democratic contender work harder to raise more money to counter the influence of any Democratic Contenders and thus steal some of the air out of the room for other races in a Presidential Election year.

I doubt that this would be a pity play on part of the Lincoln Club on behalf of Janet to scare away the Van Tran machine. They would not want to drive a wedge between themselves and the other half of the Vietnamese vote that Van Tran controls.

In the end, the Lincoln Club endorsement IMHO is not a total backing of Janet but more of a strategic shoring up of a front that Democrats and the unions will be attacking in order to steal some of the thunder away from them and keep other races from absorbing some of the impact that a roll over of Janet will surely entail.

Janet has too many enemies and has burned too many bridges. She is still not out of debt, and she still has to raise money to wage a serious campaign next year. She has no other base save for less than half of the Vietnamese Vote that will be diluted in a General Presidential year campaign.

Janet has to fight off the Democrats, The unions, all her enemies in Little Saigon, in addition to all the former supporters who have turned on her after getting stabbed in the back by Janet. And last but not least, the Latino Community is going to remember all those blatantly racist mailers she was sending out last year and fly up her butt and do jumping jacks.

Trust me this leak of the legal opinions is going to be one of the many things that catches up to her to bite her in the rear end come November 08. I can’t imagine any of the Supes supporting her after a stunt like this.

No support, no friends and nothing but enemies at the gate. Oh Janet we hardly knew thee. But then again that was enough.

It has yet to fail to amaze me the number of unfounded, suppositional comments that are made about Ms. Nguyen. I didn't vote for her, I voted for Bustamonte. But since I have seen the "rage of the machine/s" against her, I can't figure out if it is because there is something very "right" and uncorruptable about her; or if she is really the evil "______" she is claimed to be.

Hoping I am an objective person here, I look at an election race, where Janet's opponent was hugely funded, and hugely supported by a well-established "machine" (no need to mention any names there) and Janet still won. This leads me to believe she is a good "crossover" candidate.

Since Janet was elected, I have received many reports from my friends in the Viet community that tell me of the vote collection methods by other candidates. That many seniors are registered to vote and teams go out and help them vote and "mail" their ballots for them...by the way, that wasn't the Janet team.

I look at the continuing, draining, long running commentaries by mostly the same parties on this blog repudiating Janet for almost everything she has or has not done. Keeping her name on this blog in a negative light for months and months and months seems to be the objective of these people. Most of the items she has been accused of or have been attributed to her, would not stand up in a court of law where real scrutiny can take place. The campaign defense fund was about the only one I've seen that actually had merit.

The rest is a "whispering" campaign meant to discredit a good Vietnamese office holder and future candidate. This campaign of inuenndo and questionable accusations have had little basis in truth but have certainly been featured on the RED COUNTY blog nonetheless.

What have we heard of the continous slanderers, where is their accountability? Who continues to fund all these lawsuits, most without merit against this woman? Why are they doing this? What is their motivation?

These undignified, meandering, hateful and pretty much unproveable, accusations only go to prove one thing to me. That those that are against Janet are hateful, petty, and have a "scorched earth policy" with regard to her which will in turn hurt the Republican Party, but they quite apparently have no compunction about doing that.

It seems some bloggers on here have no compunction about saying "yes, Janet knew" and then they go on to "suppose" or "guess" this or that; and then imply that they "understand" that she had committed to helping fund the signature gathering operation" ("Guess", "understand" and name calling seems to be the M.O. of these haters). But still, these are not facts, but supposition.

The Republican Party is falling apart at the seams all over this country. Can't the most conservative county in the country get its "you know what" together and figure out that a machine that persists in this scorched earth policy is not good for the party or the people of the County of Orange. Do you want those kind of vindictive people representing you?

I looked at the recall petition. It does not look very professional; and if Janet was "behind" this or "knew about it" I would think she would have had it done correctly. It looks like something put together by citizens who are tired of the interruption of their daily businesses by the continued picketing. It cost the City of Westminster over a million dollars to Police the protests against the video store owner and it disrupted many businesses in that area so after a while people do get a little frustrated with the continuous protesting. When there is a protest and it has hit the newspapers; and you still continue to protest day after day what exactly do you hope to accomplish? To put Janet's brother out of business? Is this more of the scorched earth policy, going after her family members livelihoods now?

[d'Anconia]

I'm glad to see that Janet has her apologist posse out here trying to convince us against the obvious.

The lack of professionalism in the recall petition only makes it even more likely that Janet was involved. I mean, come on, we've seen nothing BUT lack of professionalism from her office.

I feel bad for Harper though. He's a good guy in a bad situation.

[killerjoe]

The "Janet derraingment syndrome" runs amuke in Orange County. What a bunch of tools.

[Pepin]

To Anon 4:02 AM,

You have no idea what you're talking about, believe me. And just because Janet appointed you to some county trail commission doesn't mean she is really your friend or a good representation of the 1st District.

There is no "scorched earth policy" or "conspiracy" going on against Janet. Everything that bad that happened to her for the past few months is her own fault.

No one forces Janet to open an illegal campaign account, no one forces her to organize the recall against Trung Nguyen, and she is also suspected of leaking confidential information to the unions.

I know you are a concern citizen, but please you dont know about half of the stuff that is going on.

Happy trails,

Mr. Pepin

Dear Anaon Janet Acolade at 4:02pm
You forgot to mention Janets overtly racist mailers from the BOS election. How do you expect a person who is running for a district with such a heavy Latino population to be an effective representative of her constiuents when she expresses such overt racism towards half of that constituency?

Pepin: how do you K-N-O-W that Janet "organized" the recall against Trung? You say she is also "suspected" of leaking information..there you go again with that innuendo that you cannot seem to give us facts for. What trail commission? what the heck are you talking about? and furthermore, it certainly has all the appearances of a "scorched earth policy", and if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, honey, it's usually a duck.

[Uncle Fred]

Anon 10:07 and 4:02,

Jubal is just using a little deductive reasoning and common sense. Give him some credit for bringing a balanced account of the situation.

He didn't say Janet orchestrated the recall deal. You did. He's just saying that it's hard to believe that she didn't know about this considering the facts.

[Truth Squad]

Janet Nguyen will be exposed as a fraud. You can't really fool people for long. Playing the victim can only get so far while you are secretly trying to sow dissesion in the community.

Just look at all the people who were supporters and benefactors of this gal. One has to wonder why they are no longer around and opposed her so vehemently. You can't really hide your fraudulent conduct forever and expect people not to discover your real character.

[Subpar performance]

After about nine months campaigning and being on the job, we all know one fact, most of the trouble that Janet Nguyen had faced and continue to face is brought upon by her, and her only. It really shows Nguyen's immaturity, inexperience, and a chronic case of the inferiority complex.

[False face]

Here's the modus oper rendi for Janet Nguyen and her crew. Publicly claim that she's working for untiy and reconciliation. Reality: Empty gestures full of insincerity and seething anger. For good measure, let's also play the victim who's trying to make peace and dropping a few crocodile tears for good measure. In private and secretly, sow discord and spread rumors against her opponents. Continue to manipulate and go on the attack against her oppoenents. Just ask Nick Le Cong, Tony Lam, and Nhi Ho. They have been busy. Sadly, she's fooling very few people.

[killerjoe]

If ms Nguyen is such a terrible person, how did she ever get elected to office? Why is she still in Office? Why is she not behind bars for being a really bad person? Are the last 3 posters the same person? Let's see some of the evidence that Janet is truley as bad as the last 3 person has stated. Otherwise, STFU.

killerjoe I like your style LOL. Not sure what STFU means but I would imagine it isn't a compliment 8-)

I agree with you, if she's so terrible then all those people wouldn't have voted for her. She wouldn't have crowds showing up at her public appearances - and in the hispanic neighborhoods even - so the people who thought her anti-illegal immigration comments would hurt her, well apparently they haven't.

We could look at other publications run by the well oiled machine, now that we have hunted them down and had them translated from the Vietnamese newspapers into English and they diametrically oppose what has been expressed in other publications by the machine. Then we would see some real distracting information about Janet's opponents...which actually supports prior claims about that well-oiled machine.

But we don't want to talk bad about other republicans even those we don't agree with. Now if only the Janet-Haters could see the wisdom of that and let the election take place without all this hatred and devisiveness..........

"so the people who thought her anti-illegal immigration comments would hurt her, well apparently they haven't."

Anon 11:45 AM,
These people only show up to hear City Council Woman Michelle Martinez Speak. Not Janet. When Michelle Martinez feels the pressure to back a Democrat in the Sup race she will leave janet in the dark. janet is going to feel very lonely in Snta Ana when that happens.

Those anti-immigrant comments, They were all sent to Vietnamese and English households. Not hispanic households which were specifically left out of the targeted mailings of those anti-latino mailers.

Well you don't have too much to worry about, from what I understand, there is an unusually low hispanic voter turnout anyway...see Bustamonte couldn't even get elected in a predominately hispanic district...

Well Anon 1:24PM, AKA Tom Bonokowski Nguyen,
Feel free to spread all that vile hatred around very liberally then. Because youre right. Racist mailers bring out the GOP base, and stifle the latino vote. Remember Tan Nguyen?

[Harvey]

Leave Tom Bonakowski Nguyen alone, he's just protecting his wifey.

[Charm School]

To Tommy Boniskowski Nguyen,

Please tell your wife to be nice. Please..... Being mean and ugly don't get you too far.

[Stealth Spouse]

Does Janet Nguyen really have a husband? I sure thought that she was single. How come we never heard from him? Or does he only show up on the blog, in our imagination? What a surprise.

I wonder if this is some sort of a campaign strategy from Janet to stash your spouse.

[Nguyen=Lose]

Let's start a betting pool on how Janet Nguyen will do in the next election. I'd bet that she will not be re-elected. The demographics, the math, and the types and number of candidates running in the heated race already pre-determine the outcome. No matter how you splice this one up in a Presidential election year, I just don't see her coming out on top.

I predict that janet closes the gap in the Viet vote with Trung to come out 10% ahead in that population insetad oof the other way around which is how it was last time around.
Conversley, janet will lose by biblical proportions to Joe Dunn in Santa Ana, by far thelargets voting block in that district.

Joe and janet will close garden Grove with 65% going to Joe Dunn, and the remainder split between Trung and Janet.

In the end, Janet loses in a landslide to Joe Dunn.

[Harvey]

Anon @ 08:49 PM:

A very supportable analysis, even without Westminster, which Trung Nguyen won the last time around.