Van Tran, a NRCC Contender without the right stuff.

I came across the following story from Dena Bunis of the Orange County Register about Van Tran‘s rise with the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to the status of “Contender.”

Tran moves up in national GOP program

Just days after winning a three-way primary in the 47th Congressional District, Assemblyman Van Tran has moved up one more rung on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Young Guns program, bringing him one step closer to getting financial support from the party in his bid to unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez.

“What’s encouraging is that now that we are finished with the primary it will be a head to head election between me and my Democratic opponent,’’ Tran said. “The race is much clearer on the part of Republican supporters. So we are seeing a lot of encouraging signs in terms of donor interest as well as the general level of interest on the part of the voters. I have four and a half months to run this race and get my message out to the people and I’ll do everything possible and necessary to make sure my message is heard.”

So what is that message? Well on election night Tran said…

“The people of California deserve to be proud of their member of Congress, and right now they are not,” said Van Tran. “Loretta Sanchez has done little for Orange County in her 14 years in Washington. In fact, Loretta Sanchez’s singular legislative achievement in 14 years in Washington is one bill, HR 1366, that renamed a post office in Santa Ana. For her 1 bill she was paid nearly $2.4 million over her 14 years as our member of Congress. Her ineffectiveness is embarrassing and offensive; the people of Orange County deserve better.”

For a small “g” government Republican Van Tran sure puts an interesting spin on things. He tries to paint Congresswoman Sanchez as an ineffective member of Congress while ignoring his own dismal record of doing absolutely nothing for his Assembly district. Even on his own campaign website Van Tran cannot point to one single accomplishment that he can be credited with for his time in the Assembly. 

But Van Tran has pocketed more than $137,000 in tax-free, tax payer funded per diem to cover his out of district living expenses while in Sacramento. The problem is that he lives permanently in a 2,658 -square-foot, three car garage home in Sacramento with his wife and two children. He claims to still live at home with his parents in for the purpose of showing a residence in his Assembly district.

But if that were not embarassing or offensive enough, back in August last year, Tran was almost arrested for interfering in the DUI investigation of his protege and fundraiser Westminster City Councilman Andy Quach.

When I asked Andrew Stone at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee what he thought of the announcement that Tran had risen to the level of NRCC “Contender” he said; “With Van Tran’s long record of hypocrisy and avoidance of the tough questions, just like his national Republican backers, it’s no wonder he’s moved up the NRCC chain.”

Bottom line, no matter how much the NRCC crows about Van Tran, the truth does not back up his fiction. Van Tran simply hasn’t got the “Right Stuff.”