Hoa Tran keeps DPOC endorsement

Hoa Van Tran (above, with staffer Kimchi Nguyen to his left) got off scot-free tonight when the Democratic Part of Orange County’s central committee voted not to rescind its endorsement of the only Democratic supervisorial candidate.

The meeting took place at a union hall in Orange, and who sat in the corner of the parking lot checking people who enter it, but two policemen in a squad car. No doubt related to the temporary restraining order against Hoa’s campaign manager Edgardo Reynoso for trying to run a woman off the freeway.

The decision was arrived at after three votes on three alternative motions. The first motion sought to take the whole thing off agenda, and was voted down after a tie-break by the chair Frank Barbaro.

That the DPOC narrowly tried to stick its head in the sand reflected the difficult political position it found itself in, and was a good predictor of the votes that came next.

The second motion, an alternative made by Gila Jones, called for the endorsement to be rescinded. A number of people spoke pro and con, including Misha Houser the staffer accused (probably falsely, considering all the evidence) by former treasurer Phu Do Nguyen (he of the erroneous financial reporting, pictured with Hoa and Frank Barbaro) of various wrongdoings.

Hoa spoke too, but ran a wide circle around the issues at hand and merely repeated his campaign platform. He also demonstrated a love of the verb “to embrace” when he repeated several times, “I embrace everyone in my campaign,” “I embrace people of all races,” “I embrace immigrants,” etc.

On a direct question from the audience, Hoa disputed that he knowingly hired gang members, claiming that he wouldn’t know what the “young activists” that he brought in would do after they left the campaign office.

Asked what if anything Hoa Van Tran did after Misha Houser brought the harassment to his attention, Hoa refused to discuss personnel matter, but Phu took the podium and pretty much stated to everyone that he’s the boss, and that he didn’t believe Misha Houser.

However, the argument that apparently carried the day was that it would harm the Democratic Party if it was seen to be eating its own, especially a Vietnamese-American.

The motion to rescind the endorsement failed on a 28-17 vote.

From there, the DPOC central committee went to the original motion by Steve Young (pictured), candidate for U.S. Congress facing John Campbell in the Fall. That motion would not rescind the endorsement, but would require Hoa to demonstrate 4 items: (i) accurately and timely file financial reports; (ii) create unhostile environment and protect workers; (iii) not affiliate with known gang members; (iv) assert control of his campaign.

That soft-pedal motion was then further watered down by amendment, that would require those same 4 items of all candidates. Which means zip, zero, no action by DPOC addressed to Hoa Van Tran.

All in all a successful evening for Hoa. Now if he would take care of the problems with his financial disclosures.

How did this happen you may ask? Imagine yourself as the DPOC, five or ten years from now. Which question do you think is easier to answer, between ”Why did you not disassociate yourself from Hoa Van Tran” and “Why did you dump a Vietnamese candidate”?

It was a politically well-calculated move, that the DPOC just made.