Squeaking through a tight(-ish) race, Assemblyman Van Tran decided to shore up his support base in the Vietnamese community by pulling an Obama, saturating the Viet airwaves and newspapers over an entire weekend last week.
The spot ad was played on every single Viet radio program, repeating every 5 minutes or so. You turn on your dial to whichever frequency has Vietnamese on it, you blink and there you hear it again.
The same ad was placed in newspapers including Van’s favorite, Nguoi Viet. Click here for a photo of the ad in full.
The ad is a thank-you letter to people who helped Van in his political success. Strangely enough (but very routine for Van Tran), the politicking started with “Dear Religious Leaders.”
Anyway, so the thank-you letter claims that “according to reports by the Registrar of Voters, more than 75% of Vietnamese-American voters from both parties trusted us (meaning Van) in the last election.”
Really? Is Van Tran saying the U.S. is just like Vietnam – where voting is not secret? Is Van Tran accusing the Registrar of Voters of violating ballot secrecy?
Is Van Tran accusing Neal Kelley of tracking how voters voted by race?
And is Van Tran accusing Kelley of being partisan and releasing voting data to his camp before counting is completed and before publishing the Statement of Votes?
There are, of course, ways to derive race-specific voting by matching demographic data with voting results – perhaps enhanced by exit polling and such – but those calculations would not be done by the Registrar.
What’s more revealing about Van’s claim of overwhelming support within the Vietnamese community, though, is that the higher that number is, the lower it means Van’s support in the non-Viet community.
According to the 2000 census as reflected in the official Assembly statistics, Asian registered voters made up 18.3% of Van Tran’s 68th district. That was before Van Tran’s massive and highly successful voter registration drive within the Viet community that propelled him into the Assembly in 2004.
Of the Asian voters in the 68, it is commonly assumed that Vietnamese make up anywhere between 3/4 and 4/5 of them. So, if the number of Asians is still 18.3%, Viets account for somewhere between 13.7% and 14.6%. So, let’s say 14%.
If 14% of the voters are Vietnamese (the number is probably higher now because of Tran’s 2004 voter registration drive), then what Tran is saying is that Viets contributed 10.5% of the votes for him and 3.5% of the votes for challenger Ken Arnold.
As of today, Tran was leading Arnold by 54.2% to 45.8%.
If Van’s 75% claim is correct, that means non-Viets voted 54.2 – 10.5 = 43.8 for Tran and 45.8 – 3.5 = 42.3 for Arnold.
In other words, Van is conceding that he barely got a majority support among non-Viet voters in a district where Republicans outnumber Democrats by 45-35.
All those years toiling on behalf of big business and gun-owner interests, and that’s the thanks he’s got?
Why on earth did you think that comment was aiming @ Nip Family? He wasn’t talking to me, remember? Concentrate, would you !
@ Nip Family Member: I delete abusive comments whenver I feel like it. Not all the time, not even-handedly, just whenever I feel like it.
Just know this: If your comment is not abusive, it will not be deleted.
Mr. Bolsavik,
With much sadness and disappointment I wish to express my strong objection to your inflammatory article, which is full of innuendos and deficient of facts. Making a mountain out of a mole hill, your article was intended to incite rather to inform.
By letting this senseless brawl to continue for such a long time, you also failed miserably as a forum moderator.
Please do not turn this forum into a uncivilized wrestling match.
Bolsabitch,
To follow your thinking about censoring and deletion, then half of your posts and 2/3 of the blogs would have been deleted. If you are unfair, fine, but at least be consistent. Try to be unfair to everyone, includingng yourself.
I completely agree with you, Country First. Bolsavik, as moderator of this blog, sets the tone and content for the infomration distributed on here. He has done a terrible job and a disservice to the blogging community.
Most of his posts, like you said, are of rumours and unchecked hearsay, which prompted the level of responses and the back-and-forth that the posts deserve. It’s a real shame.
Now I understand why Bolsavik got fired from Nguoi Viet. If he runs the blog likes he runs the NV Daily, management did the right thing by sending him away.
All of his posts are half truths and selective facts. That’s the problem with Bolsavik. I am not falling for that.
Blah, blah, blah, complain . . . complain . . . complain . . . if you don’t like it , take a hike ! Or better yet create your own blog then you could write whatever the sh** you want .
Hey Fan,
Hey stupid, how about me writing #$it on this blog, AND complain at the same time. I hate this blog and I will continue to bitch on it. Why $%it in my own house when I can do that at Bolsavik’s. You get it?! Stupid as stupid can be.
You loved it ! Just admit it, don’t be ashamed of it . . . and another thing, if you still want to be in this blog then you’re not dumb so quit calling yourself that.
Nip Family Member, Balance Control, Dumb Fan and other complainers,
I’m trying to enjoy my espresso this Monday morning before I head into some tough negotiations for my company, so the first thing I don’t want to read is a bunch of physically stunted guys whining about how the Bolsavik took away their ability to rant stupidity. Boo hoo.
You whiners and losers depress me. Stop posting late at night, and get a life (a productive one that is). If you actually actually socialized and opened your mouths to verbalize in your real life, may be you wouldn’t need this site to socialize and communicate.
Now I can get back to my espresso.
Bolsa Cute Bitch,
Throw me a gang sign , bitch. I know you are in Santana giving services on the 5th Floor, bitch. Remember, no blogging attacking residents in a government building.
Expreso huh. Careful, there may be hamseers’ droppings in there. Drink it anyway. You deserve every droppings. Gotta jet, bitch. Throw me a sign later.
Why leave now? Did your morning shift as a telemarketer just ended?
Anyway, thanks for the compliment, cuz I’m the baddest bitch you’ll ever know.
Hey Bolsa de BK’d Girl, you need to go see your bank teller…… they say your customer’s check has been bounced $25 for inadequate service.
Andrew Do just called…. he said his balloon had a leak, check with your doctor.