Vietnamese Media Gauge Fallout from Campaign Scare Letter

A scandal surrounding O.C. congressional candidate Tan Nguyen and a scare letter mailed to Latino immigrants has some Vietnamese in California on edge

By Andrew Lam, New America Media

SAN FRANCISCO - Oct 20, 2006 - "Does one rotten apple spoil the whole basket?" asks Hai Phan, editor of the Westminster, Calif.-based Viet Bao daily. Phan and other Vietnamese journalists are closely following revelations that an intimidating mailer aimed at Latinos in Southern California is linked to the campaign of a Vietnamese congressional candidate.

Will the scandal, they ask, taint other Vietnamese candidates in the November elections?

The mud-smeared trail leads to Tan Nguyen, the GOP challenger to Democrat Loretta Sanchez for the congressional seat in Orange County. Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant, has acknowledged his campaign's involvement in the mailing of 14,000 Spanish-language flyers to Latino immigrants. Nguyen says he had no knowledge of the mailing, which he says was orchestrated by a campaign worker he has since fired. The flyers warned immigrants that they could be imprisoned or deported if they vote on Nov. 7.

In truth, immigrants who become U.S. citizens are eligible to vote.

"It's brilliant in its stupidity," notes De Tran, former publisher of the now-defunct Viet Merc and currently head of Vtimes, a weekly Vietnamese-language paper in San Jose. But, Tran quickly adds, "Tan Nguyen is just one candidate of many now. There are really smart, young people who are running their campaigns the right way." In fact, Tran has participated in a fund-raising dinner for John Quoc Duong, a former presidential appointee in the Bush administration, who is now running for mayor of Irvine. "Duong's young and savvy and knows all about networking," Tran says.

Aside from Duong, 14 other Vietnamese Americans are running for office in California in the Nov. 7 election -- an unprecedented number for a 31-year-old community whose history was defined by their initial emigration to America as refugees at the end of the Vietnam War. For years, Tony Lam, a former city councilman in Westminster, Calif., was the lone figure representing Vietnamese American political aspirations.

"Over the years I watched Vietnamese Americans turn from being naïve (about U.S. politics) into savvy candidates who know all about coalition building," De Tran says. He cites Madison Nguyen, 30, a city councilwoman in San Jose, as a prime example. "She's re-elected to a full term. She reaches out to Hispanics, blacks." Van Tran, 41, a California assemblyman, is another trailblazer seeking re-election this November.

But now many Vietnamese Americans worry that the scandal surrounding Tan Nguyen has sullied the image of a community still in need of a greater political voice -- and allies. Duc Ha, who runs the Oneviet.com Web site, minces no words: "The Vietnamese community is in shock and very upset about this scandal. The friendly relationship they have put all efforts to build with the Hispanic communities in California and elsewhere since setting foot in the U.S. is now shattered."

De Tran adds that he's taken aback by the irony of it all. "A Vietnamese boatperson who's running for elective office and allegedly sending out flyers to tell other immigrants not to vote. Where's the logic in that?"

Tom Vu, editor of BN Magazine in Sacramento, calls the scandal "an unfortunate event that harkens back to the Jim Crow laws that kept black Americans from voting through intimidation. That said, I don't think this will cast a negative light on Vietnamese American elected officials, or those aspiring to elected office. All groups involved are viewing this as a candidate losing in the polls and trying a tactic to boost his chances."

Still, some Vietnamese are asking whether a particularly nasty style of campaigning in Little Saigon has broken through to the mainstream.

"The Vietnamese call it 'Bolsa Culture' and I'm not surprised with the development," says Duc Ha on OneViet.com. "We have seen nasty campaigns in the past, in Orange County and up in San Jose. But it's been in Vietnamese, and only the Vietnamese understand the language on radio and print media.

"Now it's focused on undocumented immigrants, with flyers in Spanish, and that's horrible," Ha says.

Ky Phong Tran, who writes for the youth section of Nguoi Viet, says he's not sure if the scandal is typical of Little Saigon politics or simply politics in general. "I do know that in the mid to late 1990s there was plenty of mud-slinging between Vietnamese radio programs, so much so that a judge had to warn the stations about slander and libel repeatedly. Tan's effort seems to be in that vein. He is responsible whether he sent the flyer or not because his staff represents him."

On Oct. 20, California Department of Justice agents searched Tan Nguyen's campaign office. State and federal officials say they're investigating whether the mailing violated election or civil rights laws.

Phu Bui, who writes for Viet Bao and talawas.com, says before the scandal he thought Tan Nguyen posed a serious challenge to incumbent Loretta Sanchez. "Even though he was not supported by his Republican Party, he was supported by many Vietnamese in Orange County," Bui says.

Today, Bui says he is holding on to the hope that Nguyen had nothing to do with the mass mailing. "I think his campaign was deliberately sabotaged," Bui says. "Still, he has lost his chance for being a winner in November."

Other Readings of Interest @ AAV

• Analysis: Big Politics in Little Saigon
  By Andrew Lam, New America Media
  The scandal surrounding Vietnamese-American congressional candidate Tan Nguyen and a scare letter mailed to Latino immigrants has placed Little Saigon in the middle of a political storm -- but that may be the price of entering American politics.
• From Fish Sauce to Salsa: N.O. Vietnamese Adapt to Influx of Latinos
  By Sara Catania, New America Media
  After Katrina, the city's Latino population grew as other ethnic populations shrank. The close-knit Vietnamese community is learning to navigate cultural and linguistic differences with their new neighbors.

Andrew Lam is a NAM editor and author of "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora" (Heyday Books, 2005), which recently won a PEN/Beyond Margins Award.