First District Political Play of the Week

New Update on the flip (page 2)

In the political fish bowl that is the First District Supervisor’s contest this has been a fun week.

Hoa Van Tran, the only Democrat in the race narrowly (4 votes) won the endorsement of the Democratic Party of Orange County. Then we had Bolsavik publishing his interview with Hoa Van Tran’s campaign manager Edgardo Reynoso. Edgardo ran interference for Hoa who had set up the appointment but forgot to tell his master, Reynoso. The interview was a hilarious example of campaign spin. I do have to credit Reynoso. On spin, he does seem to be a master. But my favorite part was the last part of the interview.

When the confusion cleared up, Hoa was asked, “You heard all the answers, was there anything you’d like to add?” He said, “No, no. Everything’s good. If you have other questions, I can answer them.” 

Reynoso’s spin does get better though.  in the beginning of the interview he responded to the issue of the photo of Hoa and Sal Tinajero that was included in a mailing. From the Bolsavik interview:

Reynoso addressed specifically the conversation related by Chris Prevatt on TheLiberalOC.com. According to Prevatt here, the Tran campaign used Santa Ana Councilman Sal Tinajero’s photo in its mailer without asking Sal first, and only sought permission the night before the mailers were to go out. Sal Tinajero, it should be noted, has not endorsed Hoa’s candidacy.

But Reynoso rejected that version. “That’s hearsay. You can’t base a story on hearsay.” According to Reynoso, “We told Sal the day the picture was taken.”

“You told Sal you’d use the picture in a mailer?”

“Yes. We did.”

“On the day the picture was taken?”

“Yes.”

I did check with the person who actually took the photo of Hoa and Sal. The photographer stated that Mr. Reynoso “LIED!… he (Sal) was NOT asked if it could be used! Sal was asked by Reynoso “if they could talk about an endorsement,” in the future.

UPDATE: I did receive a response from Sal Tinajero. He confirmed that he had not been asked in advance of the printing of the mailer or at the time the photo was taken for permission to  use the photo in a mailer. Sal added though; “At the end of the day I didn’t mind because he is the only Dem in the field.”

If anyone hasn’t already noticed, Sal is the class act in this situation. Thanks Sal.

Of course, I’m sure Reynoso will call this “hearsay” as well.

The next was the failure of Janet Nguyen to respond to a request to debate her opponents in the First District at a forum scheduled by the AARP in Garden Grove. Apparently, Janet Nguyen never responded to the request with a yes or no (claims she never got it) so the organizer contacted Martin at Total Buzz. Granted the forum is scheduled for the same time as closed session on a Tuesday Board of Supervisor’s meeting, but not responding appears to be rather bad form.

But the Political Play (and mistake) of the Week goes to the Dina Nguyen for Supervisor campaign team. Councilwoman Nguyen’s first mailer, to Viet only voters, dropped in the district on Friday.

Prominently on the front of the mailer is the campaign website address. Someone failed to proof the mailer and it went out with the address listed as www.dinaforsuppervisor.com. Well, some quick thinking genius bought the misspelled address and has forwarded it to a Gay Asian porn site.

Spelling errors in a campaign mailer; not all that unusual.

Spelling errors in your website address; unique.

Someone purchasing the misspelled domain and linking it to a porn site; PRICELESS!