One thing that is becoming increasingly apparent is that Supervisor Janet Nguyen is having a problem communicating. No I am not talking her English language skills, rather I am referring to her ability to send and receive communications. Whether it is the sending of emails or the receiving of phones messages, Janet and her campaign are having a heck of time doing either.
Today over on the Total Buzz Register writer Martin Wicksol wrote two articles about the upcoming AARP 1st District Supervisors Debate scheduled for May 20th. In the first article Wicksol explained how on April 1st the event organizer David Vill sent out invitations to all three candidates and had only got confirmations from Hoa Van Tran and Dina Nguyen. Janet was no en casa, he had not her a peep from her or her campaign about her attendance at the event.
When word of Wicksol’s article made its way to Janet and her handlers she was quick to respond. According to Wicksol’s second article Janet made the claim that she has never gotten a phone call, a message or an invitation concerning the event. Janet makes these claims despite the fact that Vill “was very clear about his three calls to her. One was a message left on her cell phone, one was a message left on her office voice mail and the third was a message left with an office staffer. And there was an invitation mailed to her.”
Vill was so shocked a Janet’s denial about receiving the phone calls or the invitation that he hand delivered the invitation himself to her campaign office and made a worker there sign for the package. So Janet can’t deny getting an invitation now.
When asked by Wicksol if she would be attending the debate Janet said, “I’ll have to look at my calendar.”
Does any of this sound eerily familiar to anyone? Remember when I sent an email to Janet and when she did not respond I posted this satirical response with the now infamous middle finger picture? It was then and only then that Janet actually responded to me and did so via her friend Phil Bacerra and Chris Prevatt.
If you remember the reason Janet claimed that I had not received her email because my email server would not accept her email and it kept bouncing back, this despite the fact that she was responding to the same email address that I sent it from. Also my phone was included in the email and despite the fact that she claimed to have been trying to get ahold of me she contacted Phil Bacerra and ignored my number.
I had no reason to doubt her claims but Wicksol’s posts of today and Vill’s claims sure make it a little harder to buy. It seems Janet’s tools of communication only work after she has been shamed.
Mr. Vill if you’d like you can borrow my middle finger picture if you’d like to explain Janet’s response to your invitation to your fellow AARP members.
Sean I saw the email and it even had the email showing it was bounced back…… I think it’s also funny this candidate forum is on a Tuesday the day of the Board of Supervisors meeting so she can’t go anway
I am sure she can cut out of the BOS meeting early if it goes past noon, so she can attend the debate.
so what does this say about the county’s IT staff? Or systems? Or is Janet just bagging it?
Give me a break, if she bounces from the meeting early you’re all going to hit her for missing out on the meeting and leaving early! Anyways, the closed session items come up after the regular meeting, you expect her to miss those? You guys are going to hit her either way, so don’t try to be all high and mighty. And get your facts straight it’s a candidate forum, not a debate.
Give Me a Break has a point people. How stupid do you need to be to schedule a Supervisor Candidate Forum for a time when the incumbent is in, or may still be in, the damn Baord of Supes. meeting.
The issue here is not that Supervisor Nguyen cannot go. The issue is why cannot she seem to find things out until after they go public and people get pissed off.
It would have been rather simple for her campaign to check to see if a Supes. meeting was scheduled for that day. Then a reasonable response would have been “The Superviosr has a Board meeting at that time, but would consider participation in an evening or late afternoon forum.” But no, we get her claims that she didn’t know about it and didn’t get the invitation.
In the case of Sean’s email getting bounced back, it isn’t like he didn’t include his phone number. If the email response to one of her constituents is bounced back, her staff could have called.
Maybe we should have the board give her another “Outreach Office” and staff to do nothing but follow up on her constituant communications. Clearly, eight is not enough for Janet.
Why should Supervisor Nguyen engage in ANY debates with her opponents? She does not owe them that publicity and they don’t deserve it.
My advice to the Supervisor, ignore the debates and ignore Dina and Hoa. Soon enough they will lose badly and go away!
Art — is Janet taking up your advice on this? If yes, Janet should come out and say it.
Art —
Why wouldn’t Janet debate the issues of the day and make her case directly to the voters? Is she afraid of losing a debate to either Dina or Hoa?
Every candidate should be able to debate their opponent in every race. Janet should welcome the debate. If you’re advising her not too, it can only mean that she would underperform.
Dan,
As a PR flack you know full well that these debates are of no value to Janet. You are just using this lame opportunity to slam her.
Would you expect Loretta to debate Rosie? Or Jose Solorio to debate Cam Mangels? I doubt it.
Gotta agree with Art on this one. I don’t think janet is afraid of losing a debate to Dina or Hoa—she seemed to do just fine against Dina in the GOP endorsement process and most debates are pretty fluffy, few are Lincoln-Douglass.
As the front runner she has no incentive to debate.
I don’t know why anyone refers to these as “debates.” They’re candidate forums. But anyway:
I’ve attended a lot of these candidate forums, and I’ve very frequently made up my mind whom to vote for based on what I’ve heard there. It’s true there’s no advantage to the frontrunner to show up, but frankly I usually vote against anyone who doesn’t appear. I think it’s rude and presumptuous for a candidate to fail to come to a forum. For an incumbent, it’s a great opportunity to get in front of constituents who you wouldn’t otherwise get to see.
OTOH, I’ve been involved in organizing a couple of candidate forums, and IMO there’s no excuse for failing to contact each of the candidates. If a candidate doesn’t get word, it’s the organizer’s fault. Period.
The League of Women Voters sends out registered letters to all candidates. When I did it my method was to email/call, email/call, email/call repeatedly until I reached someone who could give me an authoritative answer. IMO if an organizer fails to reach a candidate s/he should have to declare an independent expenditure against that candidate. There’s absolutely no excuse for it.
I don’t know Janet and I don’t live in her district, but I guarantee it wouldn’t take me more than 3 calls to find someone who has her cell phone number. She’s not in the Witness Protection Program. It just ain’t that difficult.
Pedroza, it doesn’t seem right for me to criticize you on THIS blog, but I will look for a chance to argue on the Juice – are you really advising Janet not to debate her opponents? (Assuming you have that much influence with her.) I think that’s just wrong, and against all the principles of free speech and freewheeling argument that I thought the Orange Juice stood for. Don’t you think Janet can hold her own against Hoa and Dina?
One thing I’ve always said in favor of crazy Dana Rohrabacher – he has always had the cojones to debate his challengers, when Ed Royce, John Campbell and Loretta Sanchez wouldn’t.
If nothing else, watching Janet, Hoa and Dina debate in English should be a laff riot for us English speakers!
Janet doesn’t have enough of a record as supervisor not to debate. This undying devotion to Janet makes me wonder why Art
“Janet doesn’t have enough of a record as supervisor not to debate.”
Hoa and Dina don’t have much of a record either. Why waste time debating two yahoos who have zero votes to their name?
My point exactly. A debate puts it all out there for the voters