Special Election 2007
The election of Supervisor Lou Correa to the California State Senate in the 2006 election left his supervisorial seat vacant. Ten candidates filed for the seat in the February 6, 2007 special election, including three Vietnamese Americans, who were all Republicans. While the 1st District Supervisorial seat is officially non-partisan, the leading candidate was California State Assemblyman Tom Umberg (who had just left office two months before), a Democrat who had the full support of the labor unions. While the Republican Party did not officially endorse a candidate, most party leaders were backing Carlos Bustamante.
With three Vietnamese-American candidates, the large Vietnamese-American community who comprise a quarter of registered voters in the First District was galvanized. Janet Nguyen's main opponent, Garden Grove Unified School District Trustee Trung Nguyen, had the support of State Assemblyman Van Tran. Issues that the candidates discussed included illegal immigration to the United States, one that county supervisors do not have the authority to affect.
The debate was more heated within the Vietnamese-American community, with accusations flying back and forth between the two Nguyen camps. Trung Nguyen was insulted as a "fob" and his campaign photoshopped Trung Nguyen in a photo next to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger while Janet Nguyen was criticized for not being fluent in Vietnamese. Pundits speculated that the three Vietnamese-American candidates would split the Vietnamese-American vote, allowing Umberg to easily win the election.
With high absentee voter turnout among the Vietnamese-American community, it became clear on election night that Janet Nguyen and Trung Nguyen were leading. Umberg and Bustamante were in third and fourth place, respectively, and quickly conceded defeat. At the end of the night, Janet Nguyen was leading by 52 votes. When all the votes were counted on the following day, however, Trung Nguyen was leading by seven votes. Janet Nguyen requested a recount, and the final result was 10,919 votes for Janet Nguyen and 10,912 votes for Trung Nguyen. Janet Nguyen was certified the winner.
However, Trung Nguyen's lawyers filed lawsuit challenging the recount, alleging that the Registrar of Voters improperly voided votes for him and awarded votes to Janet Nguyen in the recount. The Board of Supervisors postpone inaugurating Janet Nguyen pending the lawsuit. On March 26, she was named the winner, winning by just 3 votes. She was sworn into office on March 27, 2007.
After losing the lawsuit in the Orange County Superior Court, Trung Nguyen's lawyers filed an appeal to the California District Court of Appeals. The District Court of Appeals ruled against Trung Nguyen and upheld the Superior Court's decision. Refusing to stop there, Trung Nguyen's lawyers filed an appeal to the California Supreme Court. The California Supreme Court denied to hear the appeal.
Read more about this topic: Janet Nguyen
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