The board is complete. The healing process begins. The unity starts now.- Ryan Gene on Orange Juice
Mr. Nguyen ran a good race, but he should put an end to any more legal action. The county should wish Ms. Nguyen the best as she becomes the first Vietnamese-American county supervisor.- Today's OC Register Editorial
Mr. Nguyen, the only way to save face now, if that is even possible, is to accept your defeat gracefully and fade off into the shadows of history.- Chris Prevatt on The Liberal OC
Want to see how Orange County feels about this hard-fought election coming to an end? Well, follow me after the flip for more...
Here's more of today's Register editorial. Now keep in mind that I rarely ever agree with The Register's editorial page. This is one of those rare occasions:
Mr. Nguyen's attorneys argue that the recount was done improperly because the Registrar of Voters manually recounted the absentee ballots, but chose a quick download of the electronic ballots cast on Election Day. They called that gaming the system, but Judge Michael Brenner tossed out Mr. Nguyen's claim that the recount was illegal, arguing that it was done in a logical manner and compliant. [...]
Any time a race is won by a handful of votes, it's a heartbreaker. Supporters of Mr. Nguyen argue that more voters intended to vote for him, but ultimately had their votes disqualified because they followed the campaign's instructions and checked the last spot on the ballot. That spot actually was the place for write-in candidates. But the purpose of campaign law is not to find out who was the winner in some cosmic sense, but to follow a fair, deliberative, consistent and legal process to determine the winner. That appears to have been accomplished through a series of challenges and counterchallenges.
Mr. Nguyen ran a good race, but he should put an end to any more legal action. The county should wish Ms. Nguyen the best as she becomes the first Vietnamese-American county supervisor.
Here's more of what Chris Prevatt has to say at The Liberal OC. Now remember that this is a progressive local blog, and that Chris (like me) backed Umberg for Supervisor:
Janet Nguyen was sworn in yesterday as the first Vietnamese-American elected Supervisor in Orange County and the youngest as well. This election has been a roller coaster ride for both Janet and Trung Nguyen. Both candidates have held the lead at different points in time.
Both candidates have also been accused of promoting anti-Latino sentiments, Trung Nguyen pretending to be a border guard, and Janet Nguyen calling on Vietnamese voters to vote for her with this comment “She also has votes from other ethnic communities, women, seniors, Republicans who do not like Mexicans”.
Now is the time for healing and repair. Janet Nguyen needs to reach out to the Latino community and demonstrate that she is not the racist that her comment to the Vietnamese community portrays.
It is also time for Trung Nguyen to accept defeat at the hands of a woman. Mr. Nguyen, the only way to save face now, if that is even possible, is to accept your defeat gracefully and fade off into the shadows of history.
And btw, here's what Chris has to say about the whole Bush v. Gore comparison:
In Gore vs. Bush, Gore moved on once the court ruled. Also, I believe it was Bush who appealed to the Supreme Court. I see that as Bush not moving on rather than Gore.
As far as the determination of Legislative Counsel goes, ot [sic] has no legal weight. I also do not believe there would be any change if the VVPAT’s were to be reviewed. The 1 percent review showed no errors in the electronic tallies.
The only reason Darth Schroeder raised the issue was in effort to invalidate the reount [sic]. His objection had nothing to do with an accurate counting of the votes. Team Trung did not ask for the VVPAT’s to be audited. They just wanted the original tally to stand unchanged.
Team Trung needs to move on, challenge Janet in 2008 if they want, but give the recount a rest.
Here's more of what Ryan Gene has to say at Orange Juice. Sure, he's a Republican... But he's a good guy who sometimes makes some very good points:
"Wow, what a journey!" Those were the first words spoken by newly seated Supervisor Janet Nguyen, as she addressed a standing room only forum this morning. Janet's inaugural speech also spread thanks to her loving family, her friends, supporters, and mentors former-Supervisors Bill Steiner and Cynthia Coad.
She also addressed the sizable Vietnamese observers in the room in Vietnamese, which drew applause.
The real spotlight today though, at least that I felt, was the talk of unity.
A sentiment shared this morning by Janet, and pretty much everyone in attendance including Chris Norby, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, and state senator Lou Correa, both of whom gave notable speeches on the topic. Lou left right after the swearing-in ceremony to fly back up to Sacramento and present some bills in the Senate. [...]
Other notable electeds in attendance were Santa Ana councilmembers Carlos Bustamante and Michele Martinez, Garden Grove mayor Bill Dalton, Orange councilman Jon Dimitru, Westminster mayor Margie Rice, SAUSD trustee Rob Richardson, and county treasurer Chriss Street. [...]
Now that she's in, Janet will quickly begin to put her staff together and hit the ground running. I can see from the OC Gov. website that her name is now listed among the other four supervisors.
The board is complete. The healing process begins. The unity starts now.
So what do I think? Well, I think that this thing needs to come to an end. Trung Nguyen, Mike Schroeder, and Van Tran need to let it go. Central OC is already suffering from not having anyone to serve us at the county level for so long, so why should we delay any longer?
Now I wasn’t all that happy last month when Umberg lost, but I moved on. It’s time for Schroeder and Tran to do the same. They have exercised their legal right to challenge the election, and that legal process has now been exhausted. The court has ruled that Janet won fair and square, and now Janet's new colleagues agree. It's time for everyone to move on.
Janet won. Janet’s in. It’s time to move on.
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