Pajamas Media: "Something Stinks in California's 47th Congressional District

by the Left Coast Rebel

Last night I wrapped up an article for Pajamas Media on California's CD-47. I focused on a funny bit of news related to the Van Tran campaign, here's the opener:

Away from the face-off between the two candidates, something smells as bad as trash-truck juice on a Death Valley summer day in California’s 47th.

In search of the olfactory offense, I point the reader to a Van Tran mailer masquerading as a fragrance sampler, making its way to the mail boxes of likely voters in Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Anaheim.

Don’t judge this book by its cover; it’s no ordinary fragrance sampler:

Note that the mailer says: “Open for a Free Sample Fragrance of: Loretta, The Scent of Washington.

You have to read the rest to see what happens when the mailer is opened! Later on in the piece I describe Van Tran campaign HQ, it's a pretty neat story:

The folks in the Van Tran campaign were a pleasant bunch. After meeting them I could sense that they are having fun (easily evidenced by the humorous mailer too), working hard, and ready to win. At the same time, I gathered that they were perfectly able and willing to go back to normal life if the election doesn’t go their way on Tuesday.

Central command for Van Tran is set up in a foreclosed Blockbuster building in Garden Grove, a city of 175,000 in northern Orange County. The building was essentially stripped of most things that one would associate with the past life of movie rentals such as shelving and other interior structures. Although the sign had been removed, the outline of the letters B-L-O-C-K-B-U-S-T-E-R were still clearly discernible on the building’s stucco exterior.

It was somewhat dirty inside, a proverbial makeshift campaign war room with folding tables set up for walk-in volunteer phone bank folks. Van Tran signs were strewn graciously and haphazardly across the walls, and there was a constant buzz of activity. The accommodations were functional but not flashy.

Please read the rest, comment, Facebook 'like' it and pass it along to friends - especially those of you that live in California. And please, above all, support Van Tran and other conservative candidates in the closing days of the 2010 midterm election.

Nothing short of the future of the nation is at stake.

Loretta Sanchez on Open Borders (She's For Them!)

Verum Serum has put together an excellent video on why Loretta Sanchez should not have anything at all to do with enforcing border security:



Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel

Van Tran for Congress: New Van Tran Ad

by the Left Coast Rebel

The race for California 47th congressional district this week has been a ghost town in comparison to the Whitman/Nannygate bombshell. However, Donald Douglas at American Power came across a real gem, it's a new, effective ad from the Van Tran Campaign.

Loretta Sanchez, stop ducking debates:

It is great and especially effective that they spliced in the audio from Loretta Sanchez's Chief of Staff claiming a Sanchez favorite - that she couldn't seem to find the time to debate Van Tran. I came across this facet quite a bit while researching the race. Funny too that they used the Hefner/Playboy Mansion angle just like I did in my PJM piece!

Bonus Video: "Loretta Sanchez, Race Baiter":

Van Tran for Congress

Cross posted to Left Coast Rebel.

California's 47th Congressional District Candidate, Van Tran

by the Left Coast Rebel

I found some great background information and more details on Orange County, California's 47th Congressional district Van Tran. As explained here recently, Van Tran (pictured left) faces six term Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. Loretta Sanchez has come under fire recently for telling Spanish-only Univision that "The Vietnamese and the Republicans are trying to take away this seat from us."

An introduction to Orange County Republican Van Tran from the Orange County Register:

Born in Saigon, South Vietnam, in 1964, Mr. Tran and his family were evacuated by U.S. forces shortly before the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. His childhood experience with oppressive regimes, he said, made him a conservative, and he is running for Congress to protect those values. "Having been a product of the Vietnam government, where the regime was dictatorial and oppressive, I understand the need for less government regulation," he said. "Encroachment of government on virtually every aspect of American life has inspired me to run for Congress."

Mr. Tran said the role of government is to empower the American people, to empower the family, to empower small businesses. The 47th is a very blue-collar district, so the biggest issues for voters are jobs and the economy. Mr. Tran said he would address those issues by reducing restrictions on small business and cutting taxes. "As a state assemblyman I have worked to make it easier for small businesses to hire, gotten rid of regulations and fee structures. ... That is what I would do at the federal level."

He opposes the original federal stimulus package – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – because he said it is full of pork and imposed more debt and other burdens on the economy than opportunity for job creators. Policies like the stimulus shift the debt to future generations and by supporting them we are "mortgaging the future of our country." He said, "We can't throw money at a recession to fix it."

Mr. Tran said the 47th District is a perfect example of the failings of government stimulus spending because jobs promised for the district have not materialized. Mr. Tran similarly opposes the government bailouts and the Obamacare health care reform program.

Van Tran certainly could be a rising star in the Republican party. Visit his website here. Check out more coverage of the race at Left Coast Rebel.