As I posted earlier, Hoa Van Tran received the endorsement of the Democratic Party of Orange County on Monday night. A win is a win, even if it is by 4 votes. As some of you may recall, I posted on Monday regarding Hoa Van Tran’s mailer with the photo of Sal Tinajero. The post, titled Hoa Van Tran-Desperately Implying Endorsements, pointed out how the mailer falsely implied the endorsement of Santa Ana Councilman Sal Tinajero.
I had hoped that calling Hoa out on this blatant faking of an endorsement would help him recognize that the actions of his campaign were simply NOT COOL. I was wrong.
At the Central Committee meeting in the Q&A Tran said “I’m a member of OCEA” (Orange County Employees Association). For the record, Mr. Tran WAS a member of OCEA when he worked for the County of Orange, but he is not now a member, since he no longer works for the County. Maybe the tense of present and past was simply lost in translation.
Mr. Tran was then asked if he had received any union endorsements. He responded that while he had not received any formal union endorsements, he had spoken recently to the County Domestic Workers Union and they liked his speech and what he had to say. Can someone please tell Mr. Tran, that liking a speech and getting an endorsement are two different things?
Again congratulations to Mr. Tran on his endorsement. I only wonder if, given the looming questions about his linkage to Dina Nguyen, it would have occurred had the members of the Central Committee seen this picture from this webpage promoting Dina Nguyen for Garden Grove City Council?
And while I hate to admit it, Jubal over at Red County is on to something with the picture below.
No wonder why the Democratic party of OC has not been able to get the Vietnamese American votes, they simply do not understand the Vietnamese American. The Vietnamese American are not that partisan, they care about issues more than party. Hoa Van Tran is a lawyer, and vice president of the Vietnemase American Bar Association, while Dina is a board member with many other democratic person like judge Nguyen’s daughter on the board. Just being a lawyer and taking picture together do not mean endorsement like your article point out. On this point, Chris, you are a hoppocrite.
Looking at Janet ‘s financial records, how many democrats were giving money to her? So instead of giving money, standing together reflect that Hoa Van Tran endorsed Dina? So if Sanchez and Lou Correa taking picture together with Arnold means they endorse the governor? The picture show that Hoa is a politician who can listen and do not fear to engage his opponent. There is also the president of the human rights organization for Vietnam on the picture and a devout democrat too.
If what Chris said is right, then Hoa must avoid any picture with the four other supervisors if he got elected. This narrow mind ‘s attitude is what get the democratic party to become a loser in the Vietnamese American community while they truly represent the Vietnamese American ‘s values and needs.
Chris, you got to wake up and smell the rose, be a little more sensible and broad minded.
The Vietnamese American are not that partisan, they care about issues more than party
Contrary to your assertion, the Democratic Party understands this very well. It’s discussed constantly. Obviously you know nothing about the Democratic Party.
Just being a lawyer and taking picture together do not mean endorsement like your article point out.
Not to you, perhaps, but in political circles it’s understood that you don’t put a local politician’s picture on your mailer unless you have their permission to do so. What Hoa’s campaign did is considered very bad manners in politics. If Hoa wins, he will have a lot of fences to mend.
Gila, et al,
Sal didn’t have a problem with Hoa putting his picture on the mailer, so why do you?
It is true that Sal has not endorsed Hoa, but he was not upset about the mailer. This sounds like it is more of an issue for Melahat and others at the county party then it is an issue for anyone else.
Certains factions in the local party went nuts and ran screaming to Sal. He explained what went happened and moved on. Why doesn’t everybody else? He didn’t put any of your pictures on the mailer.
I have to agree that this is making mountains out of mole hills.
MANY elected officials have told candidates that they cannot endorse for whatever reason, but “if you happen to have a photo with me, there’s not much I can do.” WINK, WINK.
And some take it even further – “Here’s a list of the public events I’ll be attending this week.” NUDGE, NUDGE.
Perhaps Hoa Van Tran’s campaign will get a sternly worded letter in a few weeks from Sal’s campaign, asking him to not continue using the photo. Perhaps not.
I’ve seen it happen DOZENS of times.
Now if the caption had read “Hoa Van Tran has the support of Santa Ana Councilman Sal Tinajero,” he would be guilty of attempting to mislead.
Sean– I don’t have a big problem with the picture, although Gila is correct that its bad form. I don’t have a big problem with it because Sal doesn’t, because its done not infrequently by candidates and it was not a hit piece. I think people’s problems with Hoa deal with his campaign coordinator, the odor coming from his campaign reports and those who think that Hoa benefits Dina who benefits Van Tran and Van Tran is the greatest strategic threat to the OC Dems, not Janet. But notwithstanding these concerns, Hoa got the Dem endorsement. So be happy! Life is good.
Did I say I have a problem with it? No, I did not. What I said was that it’s considered bad form.
“Certain factions” in the DPOC may have been upset about the mailer, and they may have run screaming to someone. But if this happened it’s news to me.
FWIW, I voted last night to endorse Hoa and I made no attempt to influence anyone else’s vote.
Kudos to Brandon,
In an election, a candidate needs to run to win. Look at Hillary and Obama, they are not angels. So why suddenly Hoa has to be a gentleman to loose out to Janet, who has no qualm to run a disguised campaign, or Dina.