OC Blog

Red County/OC Blog News Roundup -- March 31, 2007

Today's top stories from behind the Orange Curtain (better late than never edition):

Seeking More Resort Housing -- OCR
Property owners are lining up to seek residential zoning in the resort – a key reason resort businesses are trying to deter homes with a ballot initiative.

Increase In OC's Immigrant Detainees -- LAT
The number has tripled since December, overwhelming the local consulate. Some seeking help there have been deported before.

Water Supply In Good Shape -- OCR
Residents' conservation helps county out of trouble.

A Platform For Debate -- OCR
Conference discusses the fate of unused oil platforms and their surrounding sea life.

March Honors Chavez -- OCR
About 50 Savanna High School students carry Mexican and American flags in early morning tribute to labor leader.

RSM City Council Introduces Zoning Ordinance -- OCR (3/29/07)
The zoning ordinance establishes regulations related to the use of land and resources within the city.

City Eyes Residential Condo Conversions -- DP
Less than two weeks after putting a moratorium on industrial park subdivisions, the Costa Mesa City Council may also temporarily block residential condo conversions while the city beefs up the standards building owners must meet.

Costa Mesa Celebrates Business Leaders -- DP
Honored for his 36-year career at Orange Coast College, Jim Carnett humbly thanked those he worked with at the college throughout the years as he accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce and South Coast Metro Alliance Friday.

World Class Clown Still Disrupts School Work -- LAT
Orange Unified's quirky trustee has worn out his welcome.

Alternative Fuels Fest Rolls Into Anaheim -- LAT
Southern Californians interested in "green" fuels and vehicles can get an eyeful as the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute wraps up its annual national convention.

A Final (Hopefully) Tan Nguyen Anecdote

What do you get when you mix togerther shamelessness, chutzpah, opportunism and obtuseness?

Tan Nguyen.

OC Republican party Chairman Scott Baugh told me this morning that Tan Nguyen left a message for him on Monday, claiming he had a poll showing him at 54% and climbing, and expressed his desire to patch things up with Scott.

"I think Tan needs to expand his polling beyond just Republicans," qipped Scott.

"Stand By Your Tan"

A fishnet stocking-clad chanteuse warbling "Stand By Your Tan" at this past weekend's pro-Tan rally (H/T TheLiberalOC):

Insane.

Gustavo Thinks He May Have Found "Sergio Ramirez"

Gustavo Arellano follows a thread in the tangled Tan Nguyen web and posts over at The Blotter that he may have found the Sergio Ramirez who's name was on the "immigrants can't vote" letter.

And don't forget to listen to Tan Nguyen on John & Ken today at 5:00 p.m. Will they defend or destroy him?

A CALL TO ACTION by Frank Barbaro

A friend just forwarded me this email...

A CALL TO ACTION

October 24, 2006

Dear B,

This morning, by a 4-1 margin, the Orange County Board of Supervisors passed a “Resolution in Support of the Right to Vote.” This resolution, drafted by Board Chairman Bill Campbell, a Republican, purports to provide an adequate response to the recent attempted disenfranchisement of 14,000 American citizens in Orange County. Campbell’s resolution merely states the obvious inaccuracies in the Tan Nguyen letter and encourages U.S.citizens who are properly registered voters to exercise their right to vote. The resolution takes no significant action towards preempting future voter fraud or intimidation, nor does it call for the notification of the 14,000 individuals initially victimized, in the form of a letter or otherwise.

We are deeply disappointed by the Board majority’s lack of leadership on this issue. In fact, we believe that it is yet another indication of a pattern of behavior on the part of local Republican officials to turn their backs in the face of obvious voter intimidation or fraud.

* In 1988, the Republican Party of Orange County was responsible for funding and placing uniformed guards at Hispanic polling places in Santa Ana in an attempt to suppress minority votes.

* Earlier this year, bounty hunters paid for by the Orange County Republican Party switched the registrations of hundreds of individuals from Democratic or Decline to State to Republican without their knowledge or authorization.

* In the past year, more than 500 verified complaints of voter registration fraud have been filed with the California Secretary of State, the District Attorney, and the Registrar of Voters. Each of these Republican officials has promised a swift investigation and prosecution of these recent acts of fraud. Months after these initial complaints were filed and the offenders identified, no charges have been filed.

Until Republican officials show real leadership rather than offer mere rhetoric, the claims of the Republican Party to be one of inclusion will remain laughable. Until Republican District Attorney Rackauckas moves to arrest all of those who have perpetrated this pattern of criminal attack against the democratic process, the integrity of our elections in Orange County will remain questionable.

Since it is obvious that we cannot rely on Republican leaders to ensure a full and fair vote, we must DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO GET THE VOTE OUT ON NOVEMBER 7.

If you are interested in helping, email us back at info@ocdemocrats.org.

Tell us where you live and what you would like to do to help, and we’ll get you in touch with a local campaign where you can TAKE ACTION.

Sincerely,

Frank Barbaro

Frank Barbaro

Chairman
email: info@ocdemocrats.org
phone: (714) 835-2122
web: http://www.ocdemocrats.org/

No Letter From OC Registrar

Peggy Lowe at Total Buzz reports the Board of Supervisors said "uh-uh" to Lou Correa's request for a letter from the Registrar of Voters to 14,000 recipients of the "immigrants can't vote" letter.

Kudos to those Supervisors who rejected Correa's request, which was duplicative of the Secretary of State's letter and would basically serve as a taxpayer-funded GOTV letter for the OC Democratic Party.

Here's Peggy Lowe's full web story on OC Register online.

Tan, Tan, Tan!

Although the allegations against Tan are very serious as well as his or his mystery campaign worker's actions, the coverage and discussion is now bordering comedy (did you see his press conference?). I believe this story would merit the level of coverage it has managed to attract if Tan was ever in contention in this race, however, fact is Tan was a weak candidate and Loretta was going to win with or without the Tan-gate scandal (I would like to copyright this).  Tan was a nobody and in my opinion is still a nobody and the longer we stop and stare at this amateur the more minutes we waste of our lives. Bottom line, next time lets find someone who can compete against Ms. Sanchez.

Tan Nguyen To Be On John & Ken Wednesday

I just saw a Gustavo post on The Blotter that Tan Nguyen will be on the John & Ken Show Wednesday afternoon.

Gustavo Arellano: "Why Is La Opinion Changing The Tan Nguyen Letter"

Gustavo has a worthy post here on La Opinion's coverage of the infamous "immigrants can't vote letter" and on a Tan mailer.

Tan Nguyen Is On Larry Elder Show

Tan Nguyen is on The Larry Elder Show on KABC 790 as I post this.

I can't believe Larry Elder is buying into Tan's con.

The call-in number is 1-877-995-2779. I tried calling in hopes of getting this clown to answer some questions, but the lines are jammed with what sounds like all of his supporters.

That's pretty simple to do. Campaigns do it all the time when they know their candidate is going to be on a show. You line up your staff and volunteers to call prior to the beginning of the segment and block out genuine callers who might ask an embarrassing question.

UPDATE: Tan just said going into Iraq was a mistake and called for withdrawing ground troops from Iraq. And Elder -- who's a small "l" libertarian made a comment that sounded like Tan adopts a government-centered approach to healthcare for seniors. Doesn't sound like Tan's conversion to the GOP was very genuine.

It says on the website there's an Internet re-broadcast at 9:00 a.m. that should be worth a listen.

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/

Sec'y of State to mail letter to Nguyen letter recipients...

I have received so many e-mails and faxes from politicians denouncing Tan Nguyen and his mailing that I admit that I am starting to get 'distancing fatigue' at a fast rate, leading me to want to be more sarcastic than I should.  That said, all of these GOP officials are right to make it clear that Tan Nguyen was, in fact, "Stupid, Party of One."

So when I received what I saw to be yet another press release via e-mail from another GOP official, I was almost done placing it into the round file when I read a little more closely.  This release was from Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson (pictured to the right) -- much of it the same as the others ... "outrage... unacceptable... misinformation..."  Again, don't let my weariness of the message in any way diminish its importance.

But when I read further down, I got to the truly newsworthy part...  Secretary McPherson has announced that, "he will be issuing an official, non-partisan voter education letter to Latino voters who recently received a letter attempting to intimidate them."

Tagging And Bagging Tan

"They're tagging and bagging!"

We must all be watching too much CSI, because that was the phrase one everyone's lips at the Tan Nguyen press conference that never was.

During my conversation yesterday with a veteran politico, I said I hoped the authorities didn't arrest Tan before the press conference, to which my friend responded, "They'll probably arrest him at the press conference."

I said the same thing to my wife this morning -- and she made the same reply: "They'll probably do it at the press conference."

They weren't far off.

I showed up for the 2:00 p.m. press conference shortly before two. There was a crowd in front of Tan Nguyen's campaign office, pressing against the glass storefront windows and peering in.

I caught Commie Girl's eye, and she came over and said, "The DOJ is in there tagging and bagging."

Indeed they were. Inside were about half-a-dozen uniformed California Department of Justice agents. I cursed myself for forgetting my camera (although Mike Lawson from TheLiberalOC was there with his, so you can probably get some good shots there today).

So, no chance to grill Tan on what the hell he was thinking, and several other questions on my mind.

It was quite a crowd there, though. I think the entire staff of the OC Weekly was there. I met Mike Lawson from TheLiberalOC.com in person for the first time, as well as Democratic Party of Orange County executive director Mike Levin. DPOC Chairman Frank Barbaro arrived, no doubt ecstatic at the raft of reporters there to drink up his thoughts on the matter.My fellow Blogpenner Quang X. Pham was on hand, as was the intrepid Norberto Santana from the OCR. There were two sign-wielding fringe Left protestors. I'd say at least half the crowd were media and bloggers.

Barbaro: "This Is Going To Help Elect Lou Correa"

This is from today's OC Register story on the Tan Nguyen scandal:

But Barbaro said that rather than hurt Democratic and Hispanic turnout, it could provide a boost. While Sanchez was already predicted to win easily, turnout will play a key role in the competitive match for state Senate between Democrat Lou Correa and Republican Lynn Daucher.

"The anger here is amazing," Barbaro said. "People are mobilizing. This is going to help elect Lou Correa."

While we now know Tan Nguyen is responsible for the letters, Barbarpo's comment makes it clear those who'd been theorizing it was a Democratic dirty trick were making an entirely reasonable  guess. That theory was based on the saem conclusion Barbaro comes to: the ultimate effect of the letter would be to boost Latino Democrat turnout by igniting Latino Democrat outrage. The Democrat dirty trick theory was obviously wrong, but nonetheless reasonable speculation.

Then again, Barbaro and the dirty-trick theorizers could turn out to be wrong about the ultimate consequence of the letter, as Lou Correa frets in the same article:

Correa wasn't so sure.

"I'm getting phone calls from voters saying they're afraid to vote," he said.

I'm not sure what to think about what the ultimate effect will be. I am almost certain that if Lynn Daucher ekes out a narrow win in the 34th, a lot of Democrats will immdiately blame the Tan Nguyen letter and seek to delegitimize a Daucher victory.

What's Next For Tan?

Yesterday I was talking with a veteran OC politico friend about the Tan imbroglio and what the Republicrat opportunist could expect in the near future.

As my friend put it, "Tan is going to be fried."

We agreed the authorities are going to cuff Tan (as the OCR story points out) and make an example by throwing the book at him. It's also likely a number of letter recipients, finding themselves intimidated to the point where only a large cash award will make them feel un-intimidated, will band together and file a lawsuit against the wealthy Mr. Nguyen.

In short, Tan Nguyen is staring at incarceration and financial ruin. I'm sure he wishes he'd never moved from San Marcos into OC in search of a congressional seat.

Milking The Outrage...

Sorry for this lengthy post, but follows is a letter from Benny Diaz, a candidate for Garden Grove City Council and a second letter from the OC Democratic Party. It seems that some politicos have no limit to either their opportunism or their shame. (BTW, I cut and pasted this from an e-mail I received so any spelling or grammar errors are original.)
_________________________________________________________________

Dear friends:

Today the OC Register & The Los Angeles Times are saying that it was the Republican Candidate Mr. Tan Nguyen that person that send the hate mail to me, my wife and 14,000 other Latino voters. Woooo!

Thank you to our efforts and persistence appears that the California State Attorney General is going to announce officially the name of the GOP candidate who wanted to deprive our community to exercise our right to vote.

Scott Baugh Says Tan Was Involved With Mailer

From Total Buzz:

Earlier I wrote about Tan Nguyen denying involvement with the controversial mailer. I just got off the phone with county GOP Chairman Scott Baugh, who says otherwise.

"I've learned that Mr. Nguyen was involved in expediting that mailer," Baugh said. "I've had conversations with the attorney general and folks involved with the mail house. He called the mail house himself and told them to expedite the mailing."

Baugh says his earlier statement calling for Nguyen to drop out of the race has grown in its urgency.

"If we (in the GOP) run across a bad actor, we have to do what we can and move swiftly to deal with it," he said.

You can read the whole post here.

Tan Was Brooding About Illegal Immigrant Voting Weeks Ago

An odd line from Tan Nguyen's press release caught my eye:

I have met personally with the head of the Orange County Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, who described an instyance where an illegal voter was recently deported.

I called Neal and asked him what Tan was talking about.

"I have no idea what he is talking about," said Neal.

"He came in six or eight weeks ago and met with me and Brett Rowley [the ROV's communications/outreach guy] for about 15 minutes. He was worried about illegal immigrants voting in the upcoming election and wanted to know what we were doing to prevent that. He mentioned the Dornan-Sanchez race and said how there was illegal immigrant voting fraud during that election."

"We explained to him how the registration and voting process worked, that it is essentially an honor system. He wasn't very happy with that, and moved on."

Tan Nguyen Says It Was A Staffer

Martin Wisckol at Total Buzz posted this:

Just got a press release from Tan Nguyen, who is suspected of mailing a controversial letter to Democratic voters. Nguyen said it was done via an employee without his knowledge. My story will be going up on the Register homepage -- click below to read it now.

Oh sure, that's totally believable. A staffer was able to put together a 14,000 mailer while keeping Tan Nguyen completely in the dark.

Stop embarrassing yourself with the Sgt. Schultz act, Tan.

UPDATE: I went through Tan's FEC reports last night and saw only one person listed as a paid staffer -- a San Diegan named Ryan Flynn. After reading Tan's "she did it!" press release, I went through his most recent FEC report again to see if this mysterious female staffer has a name. 

According to the report, Ryan Flynn is the Tan Nguyen for Congress campaign's only paid staffer.

So, unless there's a campaign staffer whose compensation isn't being reported, does that mean an unpaid volunteer orchestrated this 14,000 piece mailing while managing to keep Nguyen completely in the dark.