janet nguyen wins re-election

Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen, once thought vulnerable to losing her seat because of political enemies and first-term troubles, won re-election Tuesday night, defeating two Vietnamese American candidates, Dina Nguyen and Hoa Van Tran: Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen wins reelection.

On Tuesday, Nguyen easily won a full term on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, turning aside Tran's efforts to derail her campaign and defeating two Vietnamese American candidates.

But the redbaiting and mudslinging between two of the community's leading politicians, Tran and Nguyen, has become a sign of discord in America's largest Vietnamese community. The two Republicans -- she the youngest supervisor in county history, he the highest-ranking Vietnamese American officeholder in the nation -- have drawn Vietnamese voters into two camps.

"Before, when there was only one Vietnamese on the ballot, it was an easy thing to decide who to vote for," said Khoi Ta, a former staffer for Rep. Loretta Sanchez who follows Little Saigon politics. "Being Vietnamese was the tie that [bound] everyone together, but now voters have a choice."

To other political observers, the competition and the political factions in the Vietnamese community are a sign of maturity that has followed other ethnic groups as they have gained political strength.

It was a hard-fought battle, and the campaign apparently got pretty ugly, with all sorts of mudslinging and accusations of Communist symphathizing coming from all sides. But it appears that Janet Nguyen has come out on top: Mudslinging in Orange County's Vietnamese political community leaves mark.