madison nguyen survives recall effort

Oh snap. San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, the target of a fierce recall effort by angry opponents in the Vietnamese American community, survived and triumphed on Tuesday night when the votes were counted in her favor: San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen survives bitter recall attempt.

The bitter battle to recall her stemmed from last year's epic debate over the renaming of San Jose's Vietnamese business district, a fight that caused a huge rift within the city's large Vietnamese community, alienated other residents and dominated local politics for months.

News of Nguyen's triumph came soon after the polls closed at 8:00pm on Tuesday. With 9,500 votes cast in the weeks before Election Day, all precincts reporting and fewer than 1,200 late and provisional ballts left to tally, when all was said and done, voters had favored the Councilwoman by a wide 55 percent to 45 percent.

It looks like Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, the city's first Vietnamese American council member, ain't going nowhere just yet. This seems to be the end of the "Little Saigon" saga... but what does it now mean for San Jose's Vietnamese American community, and the rift this whole saga has caused?