Tan Nguyen's BIG mess on the Orange County voter intimidation letter

[dajoki]

California Progress Report
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/10/different_stori.html

October 23, 2006.

Different Stories on the Orange County Voter Intimidation Letter
By Andrew Davey
Student, University of San Diego

<<snip>>

This letter stated:
“You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant , voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time, and you will be deported for voting without having a right to do so.”And:“At the same time, you are advised that the government of the United States is installing a new computer system to verify the names of all new registered voters that vote in the October and November elections. Anti-immigration organizations can ask for information from this new voting system.”

As you can see, Tan Nguyen was trying to mislead naturalized US citizens who were recently registered to vote in to thinking that if these new Americans actually exercised their legal right to vote, that they could still be imprisoned and/or deported. This is a clear violation of federal election law, and this has already placed Tan Nguyen’s campaign into deep legal turmoil.

<<snip>>

This planned “press conference” had devolved into a complete fiasco, with all of us wondering what the heck happened to Tan Nguyen… How was it that the candidate was not at his office an hour before the scheduled press event, which also just happened to be the time that state agents arrived in Garden Grove? Apparently, neither could he be found at his home, where additional state agents had gone to search for evidence. Oh, and how was it that Tan’s personal criminal defense attorney, David Weichert, was conveniently at the campaign office at the time of the state police raid? Hmmm, this sounds like someone tipped off Tan. Well perhaps Tan evaded an embarrassing situation, but he nevertheless became the most ridiculed candidate in the entire county.

Well, just when it looked like Tan was going down in flames… I got a wild surprise! After being condemned by both the Democratic and Republican parties, Tan called a press conference today, and he actually showed up this time! After being called upon by OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh to resign, Tan Nguyen just announced that he will still be running against incumbent Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove). Tan stated that "there is no crime committed", and that "all the Democrats, as well as Scott Baugh, the Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, made a rush to judgment.” Later at this press conference, Bill Braniff, attorney for Tan Nguyen for Congress campaign, claimed that the campaign engaged in a legal activity by sending out the now-infamous "Immigrants can't vote" letter. He also claimed that Tan did not personally approve of the letter, yet he never explained how the campaign had obtained an English version of the letter. In addition, Braniff never let us know who exactly was behind the letter. All in all, this press conference of Tan’s was simply a futile attempt to spin his horrid voter intimidation scandal.

h, and I must close this report with Tan’s new spin on the “Immigrants can’t vote” letter. When reporters began to connect the dots that Tan Nguyen’s campaign sent the letter, Tan denied any involvement. Now, he’s saying that someone with the campaign obtained a copy of the letter in English, and the letter originally stated that:“…If you are here illegally or are just a resident with a green card, you should be advised that voting in any Federal Election is a crime and may result in imprisonment, and WILL result in deportation.”

Now, Tan is saying that this certain someone involved with the campaign (never specified as a paid worker or a volunteer) mistranslated this letter into stating that if “you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime”. However he originally stated that he had no prior knowledge of this letter, and that this was all the fault of one female staffer (which was a bald-faced lie, because he never had a female staffer). Also, Tan never explained why this letter was written on California Coalition for Immigration Reform letterhead. Tan could have gotten Barbara Coe and her cohorts in deep legal trouble that they actually were not a part of this time! Yep, Tan could very well end up “telling it like it is”… from jail!

[wtmusic]

1. Heh. Republicans. Just hand them a rope or a shovel

and let them do the work.

[Mind_your_head]

2. Yep n/t

[dajoki]

3. Yeah, like I said before...

If we can't win this one, I give up!!

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. This thing could really fuck up the state senate seat for Lou Correa.

That would suck.

[dajoki]

5. Not familiar...

Fill me in, if you can. Thanks.

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. Lou is running a tight race in that same district. He is counting on

the hispanic vote.

[dajoki]

10. Oh, I see, thank you!!

[Cha]

6. Stupid republiCONS in the

bush era..I'm sure they weren't always such thieves and liars en masse?

[jrandom421]

7. No more delicious irony

This district used to be the private fiefdom of "B-1" Bob Dornan, till Sanchez beat his ass and ran him out.

[Elidor]

9. More from Josh at TPM

The reason he changed his mind, Nguyen's lawyer explained, was that the letter hadn't actually sought to suppress the votes of legal immigrants. All this hubbub, his lawyer reasoned, was due to the inaccurate translation of a key word in the letter:

Former U.S. Atty. William Braniff, a lawyer for Nguyen's campaign, said Sunday that the controversy was caused by the news media and others who inferred that the word emigrado, or immigrant, included U.S. citizens. In fact, Braniff said, emigrado in the letter merely referred to U.S. immigrants who have legal status but not citizenship — and thus do not have the right to vote.
That ruse might have worked, if Los Angeles didn't have several million fluent Spanish speakers. The Times blew their story:

The word "means anyone who comes from elsewhere," said Octavio Pescador, a visiting social science professor at UCLA who is an expert on Latino culture. "It doesn't mean that a person only possesses legal residency. It has no legal connotation."

To make matters worse for Nguyen, the Times also reports that he personally bought the list of voter names -- a list narrowly tailored to include only registered Democrats in his district with Spanish surnames who were born outside the United States. The head of the local Republican party even says that Nguyen even called the mail house that produced the piece and asked that it be expedited.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001861.php

Personally, I think Tan is about to turn a whiter shade of pale. :evilgrin: