Grindle Files Complaint Against Assemblyman Tran

Peggy Lowe over at The OCRegister’s Total Buzz is reporting:

Grindle files complaint against Van Tran

dinanguyen.jpgOC’s campaign finance watchdog Shirley Grindle has filed a formal complaint with the DA and the state attorney general’s office claiming that Assemblyman Van Tran’s campaign donation to Dina Nguyen was, in fact, an in-kind contribution and not an independent expenditure, as he reported.Grindle studied two mailers from the First District campaign and says they share many similarities, “namely identical photographs, identical letterheads for “Vietnam Business Association” and “Vietnam Business Alliance” and similar language…”  

Read Grindle’s complaint by clicking Here.

I expect there to be more complaints after Tuesday’s primary election. I know I have a lot more on Hoa Van Tran. For me, there is just no point in beating a politically dying horse the day before the election.

24 Comments

  1. I spoke to Hoa Van Tran after last Tuesday’s DPOC meeting and asked him about the over-contribution by VHN-TV. He was totally confused, not knowing at all what I was talking about.

    Considering that Hoa has not been control of anything else in his campaign, I wasn’t surprised to see that he was ignorant of things in his own financial reports, even though his is really short.

  2. Vern,

    Chris the “Janny” was in such a hurry to shill for Janet that he misspelled “Grindle”.

    Why a Long Beach resident like “Janny” Prevatt worries about who should represent me on the BOS is a mystery to me. Isn’t there a candidate over there that he can sling mud at?

  3. Vern,

    Thanks for catching that typo. As you may know, typing is ny second language.

    Sean, go rip down some signs for Edgardo or something. When you have something intelligent to say, I’m sure someone will notice.

  4. Sean, Seriously man, no need to keep going after Chris. There’s no mystery here, he works for the County so he has a very real interest in the race. I didn’t hear anyone on this site complaining about Chris’ wanting to get Tom Umberg elected in the special election for the 1st S.D. And if he was pimping for Hoa I suspect you wouldn’t raise a peep about a Long Beach blogger hammering for Hoa. Even if Chris did not work for the County he’s got every right to make his contribution to the campaign.

    I don’t agree with a number of Chris’ conclusions and observations in this race and I’ve communicated my opinions on this blog. But he’s got every right to express them. As so do you of course. I’m just hoping that people in the same blogpen can step back and depersonalize theattacks. Go ahead and attack Janet. Let Chris attack Dina and Hoa. Leave the personal zinger sidearms at the door.

    And by the way, I am not singling you out. You’ve been the subject of some rather personal crapola thrown your way. It is just that we’re almost to the end of the primary line and I’m hoping that if there is a run off that we can avoid some of the personal slams. And if Janet gets 50%
    moving on.

  5. Chris– Not that I expected you to brush off that zinger from Sean like your hero Barack would but may I respectfully suggest you also follow the advice I gave Sean in the second half of my comment.

  6. And Chris when you have something inflammatory to say I am sure the OCEA will notice. Oh that’s right they already did.

  7. Thanks Jubal, for putting us back on topic.

    So how about those coordinated IE’s? Makes you wonder if Van Tran’s staffer on leave is receiving instructions from him, or simply communicating the campaign needs back to him.

    Still wondering how that staffer is being paid while on leave from Tran’s Assembly staff.

  8. Chris:

    I don’t think Shirley has a leg to stand on. IE’s commonly take photos from candidate campaign materials — either scanning it or getting it off the campaign website. How else are they to get it without “coordinating”? Do you ever wonder why campaign websites often have a page of stock campaign shots?

    I haven’t seen the Van Tran mailer, but if it is similar to the Van Tran radio ad, it’s not an IE. The radio ad makes no mention of Dina or of the election. It’s a response to an attack on Tran by Janet.

    And i didn’t see a Bias Disclosure at the beginning of this post.

  9. Matt, we have all a documented liberal bias. We don’t hide behind nom de plumes (yes, I know it’s French…I must be an elitist).

  10. I’m poking fun at Chris’ new-found crusade against blog bias, Dan.

    And you all get a red badge of courage for not “hiding” behind a nom du plum (does that mean “Deep Throat” was a coward?). Then again, using one’s own name is no guarantee of accuracy or objectivity.

  11. and I was poking fun back.

    Deep Throat has been outed, and I’d say he might have been killed if his name was released back in the day

  12. Jubal:

    There are 3 things that Van’s mailer can be:

    a) In-kind contribution to Dina

    b) IE

    c) Van’s own campaign for himself which happens to benefit Dina

    I don’t know which mailer Grindle was complaining about, but if it’s the same one as I posted here: http://bolsavik.com/?p=235

    then it’s not (a) and probably not even (b) IE (which according to Grindle is unlawful too) but it is (c) a campaign piece by and for Van Tran himself.

    Question then: Is it ok for an office-holder to use government letterhead in his own campaign material?

  13. There is word that there are mailers that got sent to Santa Ana. If this is true then Van is in trouble

  14. The mailer was totally legal and I’m sure Tran checked with legal council before he sent it. Janet opened herself up to this when she sent out mail attacking Assemblyman Tran in Vietnamese. At that point election law says that Tran is able to send out mail defending himself from the attack to voters likely to have received the first mailer.

    As far as Shirley Grindle is concerned, she has no credibility after she failed to lodge any complaint against Janet during her 54 day illegal legal defense fund fiasco. The photographs, identical letterheads for “Vietnam Business Association” and “Vietnam Business Alliance” and similar language asserting Janet Nguyen’s alleged “communist leanings” all come from “the Coalition Against Resolution 36” organization, who have been putting this all over the Vietnamese news for weeks now.

    Shirley Grindle has no idea what she is talking about. This will result in the same thing that her complaint against Trung Nguyen did – NOTHING. She should stop wasting taxpayer resources and stop smearing our hardworking Republican Assemblyman.

    As Jubal pointed out, Total Buzz gave a run-down last week on the controversy about Sup. Nguyen and this Eric Le fellow.
    The claim gained momentum thanks to a letter that circulated on Vietnamese American listservs and then printed as an Op Ed in the Nguoi Viet Daily News last week. The letter was signed by Anh Son Tran, Tung Xuan Nguyen and Nhon Ky Phan, leaders of the protest of another paper, Viet Weekly.

    The letter questions Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s connection with a man called Eric Le, who is supposedly president of the Vietnam Business Association. The little-known VBA organized the controversial reception for Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet at the St. Regis Resort in Dana Point last June, where thousands of Vietnamese Americans gathered to protest the communist leader. Le is said to have connections with the communist government.

    The letter further alleges that Janet Nguyen knew about the president’s visit before the community did and that she hid the president’s itinerary from the Little Saigon community. The letter also questions whether the supervisor is in some way connected to the Nguoi Viet protesters and whether Nguyen’s advisor, Nick Le Cong, is related to Eric Le because their Vietnamese names share common last and middle names “Le Cong.” The Register was not able to obtain a complete translation of the letter, only a summary.

    You can read the whole Red County article at:
    http://www.redcounty.com/orange-county/2008/06/janet-holds-presser-on-red-all/

  15. Dave Everret is at it again shilling for his boss, the first half of Dave “Tran Supporter” Everrets post is verbatim off of total buzz. Dave, you wouldn’t be defending him on here unless he was afraid of something, would you?

  16. If it was not apparent to all that this race was all about Van Tran, well it is now! A strong showing by Janet will have to be seen as a repudidation of trannism in the 1st district. Also does not bode well if Van Tran is looking to Lou or Lorretta’s seat(s).

  17. Bolsavik:

    Those are not the only possibilities. If Janet publicly attacked Van Tran, it is perfectly legitimate for him to fire back. As far as I can determine, he didn’t mention Dina Nguyen, he didn’t mention the election, and didn’t urge anyone to vote any particular way.

    Grindle has no idea what she is doing on this one.

    Has the concept of free political speech been lost on everyone?

  18. And that letter you link to is not on official letterhead. Read the print at the bottom. Legislators have been doing this for years and years. It’s perfectyl legal.

  19. Jubal… yes van can defend himself in a letter but the back still attacks Janet and calls her a communist. Van was the first one to make this absurd accusation and went on the Radio Himself. Is paid guy that he paid 3000 dollars from his campaign account has been on the Radio for 4 weeks doing the same. The press conference revealed his ties and he admitted it saying he doesn’t control those guys. But Janet controls Eric Le. Also van mailed outside the district in Santa Ana I didn’t know the 68th included Santa Ana.

  20. Thug – so how does ANY of what you said make this an in-kind to the Dina campaign? Ya’ll need to read up on campaign law.

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