Seven days after taking the fundraising lead, raising $120,000 at the end of 2011, in the newly drawn central Orange County 72nd Assembly District contest, Westminster City Councilman, and state renowned triple-dipper, Tyler Diep announced he was dropping out of the race. He did so in a statement published in the Vietnamese language publication Người Việt.
According to the new OC Political blog:
This comes on the heels of Los Alamitos Councilman Troy Edgar jumping into the race after switching from the 47th Congressional District earlier today. He stated that there was no pressure put on him by any other candidate or political entity to drop out of the race. You can expect to see him endorsing Troy Edgar in the very near future I would guess.
For us here at LiberalOC this is sad news. We were looking forward to recalling the antics of, one of former Assemblyman Van Tran’s chief enforcers, Tyler Diep. Those stories include:
Redistricting Unhinges Westminster’s Tyler Diep
Tyler “Triple” Diep Learned His Tricks From Van Tran
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LluIA4haG4k&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Click the image above to listen to Tyler Diep Unplugged
I’m guessing that Diep’s claim that there were too many Vietnamese in the race is a distraction. Given the recent bribery guilty plea of his associate John Tran, a former Rosemead mayor and city councilman, it could be he didn’t like the attention that guilt by association might bring to his campaign. Somehow it looks like Diep missed this photo shoot with his former boss and mentor Van Tran and other Vietnamese elected officials. But politics in Orange County’s Little Saigon is for the most part, a “family business” run by Van Tran.
