A turnabout for Vietnamese candidates

In Orange County’s Little Saigon, Tuesday’s election didn’t go quite as planned: The winning streak of Vietnamese American candidates in recent county and municipal ballots was snapped.

Voters in central Orange County failed to deliver Vietnamese American candidates to the city councils of Westminster and Garden Grove, and of the handful of Vietnamese American candidates to compete for public office in Orange County, only two incumbents won.

Before Tuesday, it was anticipated that Vietnamese American officials would increase their ranks, with the possibility of garnering the first Vietnamese-majority city council in the nation.

But after the numbers in Tuesday’s election were tallied, there were actually fewer elected Vietnamese officials left standing. Trung Nguyen, who nearly became a county supervisor a year ago, could not even score a fifth-place finish for a Garden Grove council seat.

Does the poor showing of Vietnamese American candidates signify a drop in the political currency that the ethnic community earned over the last few years?

Political observers say no. But they do believe the election is a sign that Vietnamese American candidates need to retool their strategies and cater to more than the Vietnamese voter base.

Others say the mudslinging between Vietnamese American candidates has created rifts in the Vietnamese community and turned off voters, both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese.

In the Garden Grove City Council race, Trung Nguyen and Andrew Do ran a vitriolic campaign against each other in negative mailers. Linh Ho, a third Vietnamese candidate in the crowded field of challengers, also fell well out of the money.

“The Vietnamese political strength is still there, but only if we are united,” said Lan Nguyen, a Garden Grove school board member. “If we are divided, we cannot do anything. We just cancel each other out.”

In neighboring Westminster, Truong Diep, the sole Vietnamese American candidate for City Council on the ballot, failed to gain enough votes to win a seat in a city where Vietnamese Americans make up a significant chunk of registered voters.

It seemed to be a setback compared with the last few elections, when Vietnamese American candidates won high profile countywide races, showing the growing clout of ethnic voters in central Orange County.

In a 2007 special election for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors, two little-known Vietnamese candidates took nearly half the votes in a field of better-known politicians.

In the 2008 election for the same seat, all three of the candidates were Vietnamese Americans.

Political observers said it was probably easier for Vietnamese American politicians to win races during low-turnout contests, such as the special supervisors race in 2007. But an election such as Tuesday’s contest, featuring a presidential contest and high-interest state ballot measures, easily diluted the Vietnamese vote, said Linda Vo, chairwoman of the UC Irvine Asian American studies department.

“The focus before was that Vietnamese American candidates could win just with the Vietnamese vote,” Vo said.

She said that strategy of relying on the ethnic vote works mostly in smaller elections. In general elections, when turnout is robust, Vietnamese American candidates need to develop strategies to appeal more to non-Vietnamese voters, she said.

“It’s always a steeper hill to climb in a general election for an ethnic candidate to have enough resources to reach out beyond the candidate’s ethnic community,” said Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove), who is one of the highest-ranking Vietnamese American politicians in the country.

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my-thuan.tran@latimes.com