There's an incredible scandal brewing at the Orange County Fairgrounds and Attorney General Jerry Brown better get on top of this before it blows up in his face. The deal to sell the fairgrounds has stunk, and the Attorney General's office is right in the middle of the muck.
The Fairgrounds is run by an obscure state agency, the 32nd Agricultural District, and their legal representation comes from the Attorney General's office. Unfortunately, the current functionary has completely failed to protect the interests of the people of the State of California. The Fair Board, political appointeees of the Governator, have gone far beyond violating open meeting laws, and instead have used public funds in a conspiracy that approaches racketeering.
Here's how the story unfolds.
The Board of Directors of the Orange County Fair Grounds are as arrogant and clueless a bunch of Yacht Party Republicans as you would find anywhere. Their appointments were political plums for big campaign contributors. Until public scrutiny ended the practice, each of them was receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year in front-row concert tickets complete with catered meals at the Pacific Amphitheatre summer concert series.
On August 2, 2009, Westminster City Councilman Andy Quatch, a fundraiser for and political protege of Asm. Van Tran, an Orange County Republican who is challenging Loretta Sanchez for her Congressional Seat, crashed into an electrical pole and was detained on suspicion of DUI.
Apparently, this made the Assemblyman scared. He had to come to the aid of his friend, even if it meant interrupting a police field sobriety test. Check out the audio:
Asm. Tran claims to be Quatch's attorney (don't know if he actually is, but he uses it as a pretext to involve himself in the matter). In case you can't watch the video, here's a transcript of the audio exchange between Tran and the presiding officer. Tran tries to involve himself three times, and the officer eventually has to threaten Tran with arrest to get him to back off while the sobriety test is being interfered with:
Officer: Yeah, can I help you?
Tran: Yeah, I'm with Andy.
Officer: Okay, well, you'll have to let them do their job right now.
Tran: I'm his lawyer.
Officer: He's doing a field sobriety test right now, okay? Can I ask you to stand back over here?
Tran: (unintelligible)
Officer: Sir? You're going to need to back up a little bit, okay?
Tran: (unintelligible)
Officer: Right now. Please back up.
Tran: Okay. How far do you want me...?
Officer: I want you back by that car over there.
Tran: (unintelligible)
Officer: Sir, I've asked you to back up over there.
Tran: I'm his lawyer!
Officer: I don't care who you are. I understand that, you need to back up over here.
Tran: I'm not interfering.
Officer: You are interfering. I'm going to warn you, a field sobriety test officer, it's very obvious.
Tran: (unintelligible)
Officer: You need to stand over there. If you come back over here again, I'm going to have you arrested. I'm not going to stand by this car.
Tran: (unintelligible)
A couple of things to point out here. First of all, if Tran is an attorney, he should know that he can certainly monitor an investigation with due cause involving a client, but he can't interfere with it. Secondly, though--and more importantly--this type of influence-peddling on behalf of someone who had just cut power to 300 local residents by crashing into a utility pole does not speak well about Asm. Tran's character and what type of Congressman he would be.
You can see the take written up by Chris Prevatt at The Liberal OC for more info about the Van Tran vs. Loretta Sanchez race, and just how fast Van Tran's star has fallen.
And incidentally--rumor has it that there's an attractive Democratic candidate out there who will be running to fill Van Tran's open seat. I'm looking forward to bringing you more on that.
If you're going to announce a run for a Congressional seat, you might want to do it in the district you're running for. From the OC Register:
After years of will-he or won't-he speculation, Assemblyman Van Tran officially launched his quest to unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez at a press conference this afternoon at a Little Saigon office building in Westminster.
Just one thing: the office is in Congressman Dana Rohrbacher's district, not Sanchez's.
Ouch.
At about 10 a.m. this morning, Tran aide Dave Everett sent an email to Orange County politicos, inviting them to a 2 p.m. press conference at Tran's Little Saigon headquarters at "9191 Bolsa Avenue, Suite #209 Westminster, California 92683."...If you run that address through the Registrar of Voter's online district finder, you'll see that 9191 Bolsa Ave. in Westminster is located in the 46th.
So, did Assemblymember Tran just not know, or did he not care? Neither is good, but the latter is worse. And the latter it is:
Everett said Tran and his aides knew the location was outside the district, but went with it anyway because it's only "like a block out of Garden Grove" and because it's a good, central location for the Vietnamese press.
"What, are we going to quibble with a block?" he asked.
Are we? No. But Sanchez might.
Well played. Yes, it's a cosmetic detail, but it's not exactly the foot you want your campaign getting off on.
The Internet moves at, well, Internet speed, so parts of my House race roundup were already out of date or incomplete by the time I published it. So here's an update on a few races.
• CA-10: John Garamendi announced a significant series of national labor endorsements for the upcoming CA-10 race, despite Mark DeSaulnier having locked up the Contra Costa County Central Labor Committee endorsement and the local Building Trades (which cover almost 100 local unions) and chairing the Senate Labor Committee. They include:
AFSCME: American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
CNA: California Nurses Association
CFT: California Federation of Teachers
UFCW: United Food & Commercial Workers
CSEA: California School Employees Association
Laborers International Union of North America
International Union of Operating Engineers
CWA: Communication Workers of America
Many of those can provide PAC money, resources and support to Garamendi, leveling the playing field in a race where DeSaulnier captured all the early endorsements.
• CA-03: I passed on the rumor about Phil Angelides and CA-03 in my roundup, but local blogger Randy Bayne dismisses that report and notes that Elk Grove City Councilman Gary Davis will likely run, having met with the DCCC and begun the process of putting a team together. I don't agree with Bayne that a contested primary (Dr. Amerish Bera has also announced) would impact negatively on the race. Especially when the candidates have low name ID, a primary can increase their public profile and show them to be a "winner" in front of the district, at the end. Momentum can build. Primaries don't necessarily have to be nasty and debilitating, and I fail to understand why anyone would reject them out of hand.
Incidentally, I never took much stock in the rumor about Angelides, I simply thought it would be a decent line of inquiry, given his name ID, fundraising ability and progressive profile.
On the heels of an election marked by a dismal performance among Asian voters, top Republicans are aggressively recruiting California Assemblyman Van Tran, a Vietnamese-American, to challenge Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) next year.
If elected, Tran would be the second Vietnamese-American in Congress, after Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-La.), who won his seat in a 2008 election.
Tran has already been feted at the National Republican Congressional Committee's March fundraising dinner as a guest of the committee's recruitment chairman, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and he was encouraged to run by House Minority Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor. He also made a trip to Washington after last November's election to meet with officials from the NRCC.
Even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has assisted in the recruitment process, meeting with Tran and offering support for any potential candidacy. Tran was an outspoken backer of McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and helped him carry Orange County over Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential primary.
What the story fails to mention is that, not only does Tran not have full support among the Vietnamese community in the district, not only does Loretta Sanchez have experience easily defeating Vietnamese challengers, but Tran didn't even do that well in his own Assembly race last year, winning over 55% of the vote against Ken Arnold. If Tran is one of the Republicans' top recruits, they're in even bigger trouble than I thought. Incidentally, Sanchez' voting record has greatly improved over the past couple years.
• CA-50: I should have cited Francine Busby's Firedoglake chat from a couple weeks ago. I don't think I agree with her on this, though:
I've alway said that the Latino voters have to organize register and educate from within their own community. I see more activism and organizing going on than I did before. In fact, I will be attending a meeting on Monday of the reconstituted Latino American Democratic Club in Oceanside. We may have a strong Latina running for a state office who can rally the base. Also, Bilbray is their worst nightmare, so I expect that to motivate them to get out to vote. I reach out to leaders in the community as much as possible to maintain good communications and understanding.
Outreach consists of more than "hopefully they'll self-organize." You need to actually engage the Latino community instead of hoping some other local candidate can do it for you. Not a good sign.
Are you sick and tired of seeing headlines like this regarding voter intimidation in Orange County? Have you had enough of candidates using scare tactics to prevent legally eligible voters from actually exercising their right to vote? Do you want to make sure that we never, ever see anyone trying to scare people away from the ballot box ever again?
Well, here's our chance to do something about voter intimidation in California. My Assembly Member, Jose Solorio (D- Santa Ana), is actually teaming up with Republican Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) to offer some real solutions here. Follow me after the flip to find out more.
The Executive Director of the OC GOP, some guy named George, called Ryan and complained about this post. He asked Ryan to remove my reference to the OC GOP voter registration effort. No go! Ryan was NOT my source for that information. And no, it is not coming down. If the OC GOP wants to put a guy in charge of voter registration in central OC, who ran perhaps the most anti-Latino campaign I have ever seen (i.e. Trung Nguyen standing at the border to "stop" the Mexicans), that is his prerogative. But it is a dumb idea!
Here's a shocker - my sources are telling me that GOP Assemblyman Van Tran is trying to talk Democrat (and former state legislator) Joe Dunn into running against Supervisor Janet Nguyen in two years. Tran is apparently still quite bitter over Nguyen's victory over his Trannie, Trung Nguyen. This sort of thing is not new for Tran - he has worked behind the scenes with other Democrats before, such as Bruce Broadwater and Mark Rosen.
Rosen by the way changed a prior vote and ended up backing Republican Steve Jones to replace Janet on the Garden Grove City Council. I wonder if Tran had anything to do with that? Jones is a developer - watch and see if he either has contributed to Tran and his cronies or will do so in the near future.
While we are on the subject of Trannies, Trung's campaign manager, Saulo Londono, was apparently tabbed by the OC GOP to conduct voter registration in Central Orange County. They didn't even bother to ask Janet how she felt about this. The sense was that Van Tran has been successful at this and so they went with the Trannies. I cannot see how this is going to work out. The Trannies will make this work for them and will not try to help the most prominent GOP elected official in the area, Janet Nguyen. (Yes, she is ostensibly in a non-partisan office, but you know that is true in name only).
So what's going on with those lovely Republicans? And why do they hate bloggers? Well, follow me after the flip for more...
UPDATE: I just spoke to the media folks over at the CalChamber, who called in response to my phone call. Apparently, the wires between them, the Capitol Morning Report, and umm...me, got crossed somehow. I can now confirm that this was a mistake, and the CalChamber has not endorsed Ms. Nguyen over Van Tran. Well, I guess that Janet will likely be running for re-election. Too bad, that would have been fun.
CalChamber reports endorsing Republican Janet Nguyen for the AD 68 Primary Election. Nguyen is a Garden Grove City Council member and seeks to replace fellow Republican Van Tran who is not termed out until 2010.
It looks like she has no intention of sticking around long in OC's First District, and would rather pursue her fight with Van Tran. Now, I can't say that I'm particularly opposed to that fight. It's just, well, that was quick. It could be an interesting race, Janet Nguyen vs. Van Tran, a lot of interesting relationships there. But, I'll leave that to others to go into.
OK, I know that I shouldn't be doing this...
But I just can't help it! Total Buzz made me do it! ; )
Got a press release today saying that Assemblyman Van Tran, R-Garden Grove, will be in Santa Ana on Friday to promote the Earned Income Tax Credit -- an income-tax benefit for the poor. Among those on hand will be Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante -- who was among those running for supervisor this year against Tran's candidate, Trung Nguyen -- and the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, which is often finds Democrats more sympathetic to their causes. Former U.S. Treasurer and currently -- take a breath -- California State and Consumer Services Agency Secretary Rosario Marin will also be there.
(Just 588 days until Janet's next election, when a Democrat will take back the (non-partisan) seat.- Brian
OK, here's what everyone else is saying... Ryan Gene has a lot so say about Janet and her new job at Orange Juice. And Total Buzz has more on Janet and the GOPers who may want to be her friends again. Stay tuned for more! : ) - promoted by atdleft)
Today, something happened. What we've all been waiting for finally happened. Janet Nguyen was FINALLY sworn in as County Supervisor. THANK GAWD I FINALLY HAVE A SUPERVISOR!! But how long will this last? Will she really be able to follow through on her promise to "unite the district" and "represent everyone"?
- And WHO'S with Woocher? Apparently, the Garden Grove voter who "hired" Woocher is none other than Gerald Feather. But WHO is this Gerald Feather? Jubal at OC Blog is suggesting that Mr. Feather is awfully too close to Janet Nguyen to be "doing it himself". However, Feather denies any connection to Janet's campaign.
- So what are the unions doing? Peggy Lowe wanted to know, so she called the head of the county employees union. His answer? "We won't confirm anything that's in the legal arena." And as for the deputy sheriffs' union? "It's not AOCDS [the union]." So are the unions involved? Well, why would they when their candidate (Tom Umberg) is languishing in third place?
Phil Greer, an attorney representing Janet Nguyen's campaign, formally requested a recount this morning for the Feb. 6 special election for county supervisor. Which ballots the campaign will ask to be counted first is still being decided on by Janet's team, according to Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley.
Oh yes, and the recount could begin as early as this Thursday. Now will all thoseabsenteeballots be able to withstand all this extra scrutiny...
Or does Van Tran have something else in mind?
So you thought that the aftermath from last week's special election could not possibly get any more horrendous? Well, think again! My friend Claudio Gallegos at Orange Juice has now dug up yet ANOTHER ACCUSATION that, if proven true, could be enough to deny Trung Nguyen a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors:
There are accusations of Trung Nguyen's people collecting absentee ballots and delivering them to the ROV [Registrar of Voters]. This accusation gains credibility from the fact that Van Tran's Assembly campaign once got caught doing the same thing during the 2004 primary. Then there is an accusation that Trung Nguyen's people were going to the Vietnamese community in Cerritos and registering people there into addresses in Westminster or Garden Grove. Whether these accusations are true, only an investigation will tell. But if this took place, it clearly would swing the race in Janet's favor.
It was bad enough when I heard about Team Tran/Trung handing out ABSENTEE BALLOTS...
And then, I thought it couldn't get worse when I heard about the dead people "voting"...
And now, this??!!
For the sake of democracy in Orange County, ALL OF THIS needs to be investigated! If Van Tran and his protege Trung Nguyen really did all of this, then Trung shouldn't be headed to the County Administration Building...
He and Van should then be taken TO JAIL!
Here are some interesting stories from behind the Orange Curtain that will make you scratch your head this morning:
- Go with Van... OR ELSE! The OC Register has a glowing article on every one's favorite machine pol, VAN TRAN! OK, so perhaps Van and the Trannies played a great role in propelling Trung Nguyen to what may be a victory in last week's special election...
But they forgot to mention HOW they were able to do it!
- Is Costa Mesa going green? The Daily Pilot is reporting that a city councilmember who rejected last year's proposal to encourage Costa Mesa homes and businesses more energy-efficient and eco-friendly is now working on an "incentive-based" energy efficiency plan of his own. So will Costa Mesa finally start tackling an issue that they actually have jurisdiction over? Let's hope so. Arresting immigrants on bicycles does nothing to save our planet, but being more energy-wise can!
I am hearing accounts of dead people voting, hundreds of ballots being sent to P.O boxes, voter coercion, votes cast by people who have been in Vietnam for six months, etc. This is shameful! It should not be allowed to stand. I expect this kind of behavior in third world countries, but not here in the U.S. The Trannies have made a mockery of our election laws.
If this is true, then Trung Nguyen has become the new Tan Nguyen. Will he do anything to win? Even cheat a fellow Vietnamese Republican out of a County Supervisor seat? Well, then I guess his political mentor Van Tran has taught him well.
As we continue to watch the still unresolved special election to replace Lou Correa on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, here are some questions that we progressives should be thinking about:
- So can we just get over it and learn our lesson? Huntington Beach small business owner and progressive activist Joe Shawsums it up perfectly for us:
Maybe I'm naive. I'm definitely a newbie to OC politics, but it seems to me Democrats in OC at the grassroots level spend a lot of time working on the high profile campaigns that don't stand a chance in hell, but little time working on the lower profile campaigns they can win. This one was winnable, but the candidate was not the right choice. Democrats should concentrate on developing strong leaders at the local level. Candidates with strong records of accomplishment locally can win these bigger races.
Right on, Joe! You said it much better than any of us could. I hope we get over our squabbling soon and take your advice. : )
