Last weekend, the 2007 Republican Western States Leadership Conference was held in San Diego and I wanted to give our readers a local Orange County update on this convention.
A reliable OC source sent me this photo of our own Assemblyman Van Tran from Saturday morning debating surrogates from the Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani campaigns. Tran was originally scheduled to debate Curt Pringle for Giuliani, Ron Kaufman for Romney, Bob Wickers for Huckabee and an unknown representative for Thompson.
It ended up with Tran outshining two mid-level staffers, which is tough when you’re representing a candidate as battered as Sen. McCain has been recently. Tran spoke of his admiration for the Senator’s military service, fight to cut “pork barrel” spending and defense of the war on terrorism.
Former CRP Communications Director Patrick Dorinson moderated the panel on “How Republicans can win the changing west in 2008.”
Van’s answer stressed a return to our core GOP principals of freedom and opportunity which most audience members took as a mild swipe at Governor’s Schwarzenegger’s call to the middle just a day before.
Tran was also the speaker for the VIP reception before Saturday’s lunch and predicted that we would get a water bond out of the special session, but that Gov. Schwarzenegger’s healthcare reform would most likely be killed by the Republican Caucus’s commitment to oppose any taxes.
Other conference speakers were Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, Congressman John Shadegg (R-Arizona), GOPAC Chairman and former Lt. Gov. of Maryland Michael Steele, former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines.
"...Gov. Schwarzenegger’s healthcare reform would most likely be killed by the Republican Caucus’s commitment to oppose any taxes."
Please God, let this be true. We need less government in healthcare. Not more.
Posted by: DMV Healthcare...No Thanks | September 29, 2007 at 05:33 PM
Tomahawk, please stop talking about reliable sources sending you stuff.
Posted by: out | September 29, 2007 at 06:32 PM
Yeah Tomahawk. Out all your sources so you never get any information. That would be fun.
Posted by: RE: out | September 29, 2007 at 07:24 PM
People, let's not be that anal about how information are distributed.
Posted by: Pepin | September 29, 2007 at 07:36 PM
Tomohawk.
Great job on a good piece of coverage.
Posted by: Lam Pho | September 30, 2007 at 04:18 AM
Good piece Mr. Hawk (or may I call you Tom?)
But the event you write of occurred over a week ago.
Did your "source" use a carrier pigeon?
Posted by: One Who Knows | September 30, 2007 at 11:20 AM
Hawk is fine with me. A friend who attended the convention gave me some info and asked that I write something about it, I didn't get to it until yesterday.
Posted by: Tomahawk | September 30, 2007 at 12:13 PM
Van Tran and John McCain are both losers.
Posted by: Quang87 | September 30, 2007 at 07:26 PM
Quang87,
Envy, envy. Is it not curious that he's a California assemblyman and you're a nobody?
Posted by: Envious Quang | September 30, 2007 at 11:44 PM
Martin Wisckol has this whole theory that Tran believes in ethnicity over party affiliation. I don’t think he is seeing the forest from the trees here.
Tran recruits and mentors other GOP candidates (6 of which are ethnic minorities – something the party seems to always be searching for), has a PRIVATELY funded outreach office and has an ongoing GOP registration program in Central OC. His registration effort has helped the GOP nearly corner the Vietnamese vote by a 2-1 margin and has helped non-Vietnamese GOP candidates like Lynn Daucher nearly win in the recent Democratic stronghold of Central OC and has so many good GOP operatives on his team that they will be running at least 3 Assembly races according to this blog.
He fights against overspending and new taxes in the budget, for traffic relief, against socialized healthcare and supports our military.
I think Wisckol is taking the fact that the Vietnamese-American electeds work across party lines on democracy and human rights issues for Vietnam a little too far.
Posted by: Tran seems like a good GOP leader to me | October 01, 2007 at 08:43 AM
Van Tran has been out there working for the OC GOP for over 20 years. He is a very well known activist and community leader, even before getting elected to the city council in 2000. He has certainly paid more than his fair share for the GOP cause without asking anything in return.
Without Tran, the GOP wouldn't have a leg to stand on in the Vietnamese community. No one, inside or outside the community can mobilize the growing Vietnamese community like him. He brings pride to his community and hope to the GOP in Central Orange County.
Posted by: One who knows Van since 1985 | October 01, 2007 at 11:50 AM
Phan is running for Sanchez seat next year.
Posted by: PHO WHAT | October 02, 2007 at 02:42 PM