Perennial candidate Long Pham (seated on the right, with Fr. Thanh Nguyen) is on the quest for another public office, inaugurating his campaign office today in the same building on Bolsa in Little Saigon that houses Dina Nguyen‘s campaign.
This time, Pham is running for OC Board of Education, Area 1. He is seeking to unseat four-term incumbent Felix Rocha.
Pham, a Republican and one-time supporter of Van Tran, has been running for one thing or another for at least a decade. In 1998, he ran for Congress and was trounced by incumbent Dana Rohrabacher in the primary, 77% to 8% (another candidate received 15% of the vote).
In 2006, when Van Tran announced that he would run for State Senate, Pham announced his candidacy for the Assembly. So did Janet Nguyen. But then Van Tran changed his mind and ran for re-election. Janet withdrew and ran for OC Supervisor. Pham told Van Tran he would consider withdrawing, but then didn’t. He was beaten in predictably lopsided manner.
You can tell the man is not afraid of losing.
Lately, Pham has also been a constant presence at numerous protests, the most infamous of which is the “Tommy Ngo‘s belt” protest in July 2007.
Who’s Tommy Ngo and what about his belt?
Tommy Ngo is a Vietnamese-American singer, and his belt is accused of being a commie. Tommy Ngo had a belt whose buckle read “LOVE” with a star in the ”O”. On a concert poster, that ”O” looks a little bit like red with a yellow star. (Sorry, the Bolsavik doesn’t have any larger picture.)
The flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is red with a yellow star.
So – you guessed it. People came out in droves to protest. Television news on VHN-TV ran an 8-minute-plus report of the protest (bottom, in Vietnamese), and pictures in this entry are taken from that report.
Long Pham appears several times in the video (at 1:25, 1:58, 3:25) ragging on the concert promoters for their communist leanings.
Oh, and look who else was there: Trung Nguyen the former supervisorial candidate turned serial litigant, at 4:42.
The Bolsavik was not there but according to what Trung Nguyen said to VHN-TV in this video, he appeared to have played some kind of intermediary or liaison role to go speak to the promoters.
And the belt? Here’s the belt. It’s on the video at 7:50.
Yep, you can see – the star is white. According to a source who shops more than the Bolsavik does, this type of belt can be found at Macy’s- hence the star. The Bolsavik has no idea if it’s true, but doesn’t think it matters one way or another.
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(Note: Video is in Vietnamese. If video does not appear above, go directly to YouTube here.)
Long Pham on the payroll for Janet Nguyen. She is paying him with cash donations to her campaign. Believe it.
@Linda: Wow, you do see Janet Nguyen around every corner. Really now, what’s she got to gain by that?
Janet Nguyen is with a lot of people, dirty deals money laundering for vote buying through Nick LeCong, don’t you know that by now? She will buy votes to win. Why do you think she’s building Freedom Bridge and giving money to Little Saigon?
Guess Long Pham is now “working” behind the scenes with Janet Nguyen, Le Cong Tam, Andrew Do. Guess why Long Pham was meeting with Janet Nguyen and husband at the Registrar of Voters last month, said the Red County blog. Pay more people to do secret dirty work.
His job at Southern California Edison isn’t enough for paying bills. Haha, good joke.
Don’t waste your vote. Both fake candidates. Their corruption spread in Little Saigon.
Little Saigon know Long Pham cannot win election. He could not beat Van Tran. Even if you live in Newport Beach cannot win election. Maybe Long Pham can take the place of Le Cong Tam on Janet Nguyen’s staff.
Still doesn’t make any sense to me. How does Long Pham running for OC Board of Education either help Janet Nguyen or hurt Van Tran?
No matter what color their skin is, all politicians are dirty!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
The Tommy Ngô’s belt buckle protest was a “weird” assembly of all “anti-commie forces” in Little Saigon. It looks like sharks smelling blood. I am sending you the photos of all “famous” participants for your readers to see. It’s amazing and hilarious!
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You Californians are crazy. I guess you all are going to protest the start in Heineken beer too? Now I know why there’s always a fight at the club. Can never have too many Viets in one place without a fight.