“I am happy to support Van Tran in his race for Congress,” the press release quotes Quang Pham as saying. “Van’s focus on creating jobs and balancing the federal budget is exactly what we need in Congress. Van has been an historic leader in the local Vietnamese community, working for over twenty years to register voters, educate them about the importance of voting and making sure their voices are heard. I wish him well.”

“I am honored and humbled to receive Quang Pham’s endorsement for my race against Loretta Sanchez,” the press release quotes Tran. “As a long-time friend and Republican team player, Quang’s endorsement shows that collectively, we are committed to defeat Loretta Sanchez. He understands the opportunity we have this year. I cannot understate how important it is for us to come together at this time, and I am really looking forward to working with Quang as we focus on taking back the 47th District.”

Quang Pham is a successful business owner, decorated Marine veteran, and author of “A Sense of Duty: Our Journey from Vietnam to America.” The book came out with a paperback edition last month.

The primary election will take place on June 8. The other two candidates in the Republican field are Tan Nguyen, the GOP’s 2006 nominee for the same race, and Katherine Smith, a member of the Anaheim Unified school board.

If anything, the press release shows that GOP leaders, from the local to the national level, are just simply relieved that they were able to avert what could be a bloody primary contest between Pham and Assemblyman Van Tran.

It also appears that the leadership decided to step in after poll numbers predicted an extremely close and costly race. Said Rep. Ed Royce (in whose office Tran used to intern): “According to recent polling, Quang Pham would have been competitive in the primary election.”

Click on the jump to read more.

In a phone call with the Bolsavik this morning, Quang X. Pham said he wanted to concentrate on his family and business. “I have a great business opportunity and found out I couldn’t devote 100% to both (the business and the campaign.”

Pham also blamed the shifting dynamics of the race, citing negative attacks being circulated around the listservs. He asked rhetorically, “Is the goal to win a seat in Congress, or to tear apart each other?”

A press release will be sent out soon, he said.

The OC Weekly (here) has the story about how Assemblyman Van Tran squeaked by first-time candidate Quang X. Pham for the California Republican Assembly endorsement for the CD47 race. He did it by having his chief of staff – a resident of Sacramento – vote out of the Stanton chapter.

If it weren’t for the carpetbagger, there would have been no endorsements.

The Weekly quoted Tim Whitacre, the group’s parliamentarian, as saying CRA bylaws allow a member to join “any branch he wants to join regardless of where he lives.”

So there you have it. Party activists sanction carpetbagging. That’s why it’s no big deal.

Personally, the Bolsavik believes there’s a method behind this madness – that there’s a reason for allowing carpetbagging. Unlike the GOP as a whole, the CRA is the conservative wing of it. The party as whole may want to win races above all; the CRA may be unwilling to sacrifice ideology for the sake of victory.

If you want to win races, you may want to make sure the people voting on endorsements reflect the local electorate.

But, if you want to enforce a viewpoint, geography will have to take a back seat. Allowing activists to cast ballots where votes are needed is one way to prevent any one particular chapter from veering too far off the ideological line.

Assemblyman Van Tran, known for his fundraising prowess, pulled in a modest $91,809, according to his campaign disclosure here. This apparently smaller-than-expected amount, however, may be due more to the vagaries of the calendar: The previous quarter, he amassed a whopping $253,921.

What’s a little more surprising, is that political neophyte Quang X. Pham also showed he’s no light-weight. (Report here.) With his first fundraiser taking place in mid August, Pham still took in $63,858 in contributions, and lent his campaign $62,500.

Both campaigns easily dwarf the last Viet to challenge Sanchez. In the 2006 elections, Tan D. Nguyen took in a total of just $116,345.43 in contributions for the entire election cycle.

Tran and Pham, however, still need to do a lot of work to catch up with the incumbent. Rep. Loretta Sanchez is sitting on a war chest of $769,010.75 (report here) of which $134,838.40 were raised this past quarter.

Which they are. Tran told the Bolsavik, for his Nguoi Viet story here in Vietnamese, that he plans to raise and spend between $1 and $1.5 million for the general elections. “We’re on target to meet that goal,” Tran said.

Tran appears to dismiss the challenge posed by Pham, saying, “We won’t spend much on the primary.”

This appearance of indifference may or may not be warranted. Pham told the Bolsavik he’s looking to spend “$500,000 for the primaries and $1.5 million for the general.”

Practically everyone who’s previously contributed to Van Tran is contributing now. Also among the list of contributors is Long Kim Pham, the OC School Board member who ran against, and lost spectacularly to, Tran in 2006. Pham, who recently accused a Sacramento Catholic church of communist leanings, gave Tran $1,250.

Convicted and self-proclaimed “overworked” Westminster City Councilman Andy Quach, on the other hand, got paid by Tran. Quach received $4,000 – $2,000 per quarter – for “fundraising advice.”

The hefty amount of money means the race promises to be exciting. Already, however, Tran’s failure to reach six figures in the third quarter was noted by some Washington pundits.

The Hill, a political newsletter covering Congress, in a story here lumps Tran in the category of “hyped challengers” that “didn’t do much with their third quarters.”

The Politico web site, which was the first to break the story that the national GOP was recruiting Tran to run, in a post here calls Tran one of the ”disappointing House recruits” and warns about him becoming “part of the next crop of flops.”

Such focus on a single quarter may seem a bit unfair; after all, on a two-quarter basis, Tran roped in more than $344k.

Nonetheless, this sort of derogatives may very well hurt Tran with contributions by nationwide PACs and other fat cats when they parcel out pieces and parts to the lower house’s candidates around the country.

And so are met the expectations of two men considered most likely to run for Congress. Prior to Pham contacting Wisckol, Assemblyman Van Tran had already announced his intention (here). Tran and Pham are the two Viets most observers have expected to run for federal office.

The two men, however, took different routes there. While Tran was being the good political soldier, working his way up the GOP ladder, Pham was in the military, flying combat aircrafts and writing about it. While Tran half-heartedly ran a solo law practice, biding his time for political glory, Pham ran his own pharmaceutical marketing company.

In the Viet community, Pham is celebrated as a particularly articulate bilingual speaker who proudly wears on his sleeve both his military service in the U.S. and his heritage as the son of a South Vietnamese military officer. Both elements figured prominently in Pham’s book A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey. He has his own web site here.

Outside of the circle of the more attentive observers, however, Pham does not have a lot of name recognition. Of the people who do know of him, however, most have known for a long time that Pham harbors dreams of being a Congressman. As reported on this site here, last year Pham attended an exclusive bipartisan seminar intended to prepare candidates for Congressional race.

Since Pham is registered “decline-to-state” but has conservative/libertarian/free market/strong defense tendencies, most people have not expected him to fight an incumbent Republican. Most bets have been on Loretta Sanchez’s seat.

Most observers, however, did not expect Pham to run in 2010. Tran’s announcement has apparently forced Pham’s hands and prompted him to run now rather than later.

In 2000, when McCain braved the controversy over his use of an anti-Asian racial epithet and came to Little Saigon, it was Pham who introduced him to the crowd. That’s Pham in this YouTube video, starting at around 1:38. Away from the stage, though, some unfortunate events happened at that rally; read more here.

Which raises, of course, the question: What kind of elected office is he shooting for?

As reported by AsianWeek here, “Three Republicans, two Democrats and one independent met with prominent APA elected officials, leaders of Congress, APA community leaders and political operatives whose expertise included speech-making, fundraising and Internet strategies.” The event is run by the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

The “one independent” would be Quang X. Pham. The ninth annual APAICS seminar also featured workshops on key issues such as immigration, voting, the 2010 Census and the current mortgage crisis.

Quang X. Pham is celebrated in the Vietnamese community as a particularly articulate bilingual speaker who proudly wears on his sleeve both his military service in the U.S. and his heritage as the son of a South Vietnamese military officer. Both elements figured prominently in Pham’s book A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey.

With his military background, Quang X. Pham was asked to introduce Presidential candidate John McCain when the latter held a campaign rally in Little Saigon, in 2000. That’s Pham in this YouTube video, starting at around 1:38. Away from the stage, though, some unfortunate events happened at that rally; read more here.

The “C” in APAICS stands for “Congressional,” and it has been generally considered a good place to prepare an APA candidate for a House of Representatives race. Prominent among other attendees at this year’s seminar is Assemblyman Ted Lieu, the former military prosecutor and Democrat representing the Torrance-Venice coastal area. Lieu is widely believed to have his eyes set on inheriting Congresswoman Jane Harman‘s seat should she move on and up. Harman, the chairwoman of the House Intelligence subcommittee, has recently been mentioned as a potential Obama pick for National Intelligence Director.

So, would that be a natural conclusion to say that Pham is aiming at U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s seat?

The Bolsavik’s note to self: Next time you see Quang X. Pham at an event, ask him.

The Vietnamese-Americans honored by ABAOC are: Master Ce Hang Truong, a Buddhist monk and lecturer and founder of Compassionate Services Society; Judge John Nho Trong Nguyen (who a year ago was just Judge Nho Trong Nguyen), Superior Court of Orange County; Quang X. Pham, Founder and CEO of Lathian Health, Marine Corps pilot and author of “A Sense of Duty”; Jack Toan, a community volunteer who also supports other activities through his work at the Wells Fargo Foundation; Michael Quang Nguyen, UCI student and community volunteer.

Full announcement:

http://www.abaoc.org/Events/upcoming_details.php?eventID=20115

JubilASIAN of Heritage 2008