I dedicate this diary to a Vietnamese-Jewish college buddy of mine. Perhaps one day we'll get him elected (netroots canidate , of course)
Today's story is brought to you courtesy of Tribune Co's version of the LA TIMES. Also, you could mosey over to Calitics, which has posted more in-depth, local viewpoints on the situation.
It's an interesting story about the intersection of politics and race. What better stage for such a show than California, the most diverse state in the USA. (new yorkers, I'd make exception for y'all, but you'd probably be too rude to do the same for us, so there!)
This story is not about last year's controversy involving Tan Nguyen, but here's a link from a dkos diary in that time period.
The byline of the ordeal almost sounds like a Daily Show skit- an election decided by a seven-ballot differential whose two top vote-getters shared the
same last name. However, in this case, the last name is "Nguyen", and it happens to be one of the most commont Vietnamese surnames out there. But what's suprising here is the location-Orange County, CA. It is well known that California is a melting pot that is home to quite a few immigrants, but the size and political power of Vietnamese-Americans was a shock in the suburban, white OC. In a race for the seat on the OC Board of Supervisors that tallied around 46,000 votes, Trung Nguyen defeated Janet Nguyen by a mere seven ballots. The loser of this 1st district election has already requested a recount.
Only a paragraph into the article, we're blessed with some analysis from a wing of the conservative movement that argues the merits of being a Republican minority:
The strong showing by two Vietnamese candidates is further indication that the stereotype of Orange County as an all-white, wealthy, image-conscious community is not accurate, said John J. Pitney Jr., a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College. He called the county "wonderfully pluralistic."
"It's not playing by the usual playbook, which is: Minorities tend to vote Democratic," he said. "This is not your father's Orange County."
It's not your father's OC, really? True, Santa Ana is more industrial than 'Laguna Beach'. Your rich white dad/uncle lives on the beach, not in this district. As we shall see, the 'minorities' in this district go to great lengths to pander to reactionaries and racists. Many political junkies were introduced to the overt racism in Orange County politics during November '06 during the Tan Nguyen scandal, which involved racist mailings being sent to Mexican voters warning illegal immigrants that voting was an offense punishable by incarceration. That campaign went on to lose its race, of course, and gain national notoriety. But it exhibited a racist element in the Socal Vietnamese community, one that sought to exploit racial tensions for political gain. Yet, according to this CMC prof, the politics of the county are "wonderfully pluralistic." Hm...I wonder what textbook he's been assigning to students lately. Granted, CMC is the proud(and only one out of five) college in the Claremont College Consortium that espouses Conservative principles. Yes, they do exist.....a Conservative Liberal-Arts College(in L.A. no less!). Those guys cheer on any signs of non-Caucasians voting for Rethuglicans, especially now that the Black and Latino vote is swinging even further away from the right than every before. Anyway, I digress....
There are a few interesting key points to be made about the 1st District, which includes cities like Santa Ana and Garden Grove, and is about evenly split between R's and D's. Latinos make up a third of registered voters(and who knows how many more unregistered voters) whereas the Vietnamese immigrant population only makes up about a quarter of the registered voter list. But despite their relatively smaller voting bloc, the Vietnamese community have helped elect 10 Vietnamese-Americans to school boards, city councils, etc. In the Supervisor election, absentee voting makes up 75% of the vote, and the Vietnamese canidates used absentee voting to their advantage, collectively capturing half of all absentee votes. The weak turnout(22%) did not help the Democratic canidate, a former Clinton official who came in third.
The article contains another nugget of wisdom from our conservative friend: "Ethnic voting is a long-established pattern in American politics," Pitney said. "As the Vietnamese community has matured, it's logical they'd exercise their voting strength."
Well, sure. And by that logic the Republic party has bled away so much of the Latino/Black vote that it's relegated itself to the trashbin of history and discared any future political relevance. Maybe Pitney is counting on a 'surge' of votes from the Asian community, coupled with Cuban-American Republicans, to carry the R's forward in 2010 and beyond. If history is our guide, the party of R's will probably stick to what's worked best most recently: fraud and voter disenfranchisement.
So what was the secret of Trung Nyugen's success? Is it just his ethnicity? The answer must be no, because he came within 8 votes of losing to another Nguyen. Is it his honesty and depth of character? Most likely not, given this:
The campaign had its gaffes, such as the doctored photo in an ad for Trung Nguyen in two Vietnamese-language daily newspapers. Nguyen's head was superimposed on another man's body to make it appear he was standing near Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I could say something here, but why should I interrupt that funny little thought bubbling up in your cranium already? It really is too much. Or is it?
Janet Nguyen's campaign sent out literature in Vietnamese touting support from "Republicans who dislike Mexicans," although members of her campaign said they meant to refer only to illegal immigrants.
There isn't too much positive spin that I can put on the Republican victory in this district, although I should point out that the Trung Nguyen campaign claims to have contacted absentee voters at least six times each. This shows that, despite some ethical deficiencies, the focused 'micro-targeting' methods Trung used were effective. The article states that the establishment Democratic canidate did not target absentee voters as much, although the low turnout was inevitable. The lesson learned here is that the methods of Moveon(call for change) and others in November 06 to reach out to individual voters are proven. While most of us come to this site to focus on national politics, it's that afterthought (kos stresses this though) about local politics that always comes to mind. Any way we can increase the involvement of the masses, lets do it.