Congrats to my younger brother!

He's the 2nd brother in the family of 4 brothers and a sister. I'm the oldest and he is the only one to brave law and politics. Congats Van. Now you have to ask Gov. Arnold to smoke cigars in the Quad w/ me one of these day!
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2004/11/03/sections/news/news/article_297709.php

If can't see link. username: henrytran ; pasword: sonydoc

 

^^ htran, we can't see the link.... user and pasword required

 

username: henrytran; password: sonydoc

let me know if this work. Henry

 

Link works.

Congrats to you and your family, an American success story.

 

Congrats man- thats AWESOME!

 

Congrads!

 

congratulations htran........

 

Congratulations Htran. Best of luck to your brother Van.

Dom

 

Great story, Henry.

 

Henry,
This is great news - congratulations to your brother and your family.
It's not often that you get to make history!!

Byron

 

Please pass our congratulations on to your brother... That is a wonderful accomplishment, and I am happy for him and for your entire family.

 

An exceptional success story.

Assuming you came to America with him when you were young, then both of you are exactly the kind of role models I want my children to emulate. You each have worked hard and have a lot to show for it.

THAT is the American dream, and Americans don't need a big government to help them achieve it. They just need a government to stay out of their way while they work to achieve it.

 

Tell him congrats Henry.
Brian

 

Thanks for all your Kind remarks guys! All of us are product of public schools, and I think we came out allright. My parents never pushed us, Dad encouraged us to tried our best in whatever we do and I have to say: Hard Work, Persistent, Discipline.. are key traits in any sucessfull endeavour.

Now, Van have to fullfill his promised to me that once he got elected- Get to smoke cigars with Gov. Arnold in the State Capital Garden... Of all the campaign contributions to him, I could have got myself another F-car ...hehehe...at least he can return the favor now. Henry

 

Congratulations!

 

Wow, superb!

Here's the article:

ORANGE COUNTY: Tran makes election history
He's the first Vietnamese American elected to a legislature and one of six new O.C. legislators.

By JOHN GITTELSOHN
The Orange County Register

Orange County voters elected one new senator and five new Assembly members Tuesday, including the first Vietnamese American ever sent to a state Legislature.

The victory of Van Tran, 40, an attorney who came to the United States as a refugee at age 10, was celebrated across Orange County's Little Saigon, the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam. In election coverage, Vietnamese-language newspapers ranked the story second to the presidential race.

Tran was elated with the results but said he is already discovering what he called "the burden of office." He spent Tuesday shuttling between campaign parties accompanied by two Garden Grove police officers.

"It's the commies," he said. "I've received threats. It's the burden of being first."

Tran, who becomes the first Asian American to represent Orange County in Sacramento, was elected to the Garden Grove City Council in 2000, where he has helped promote a pro-business climate in the city.

"We are very proud of him," said Kieu Chinh, a Vietnamese American actress from Garden Grove. "We consider that we are now American citizens. He is not working for Vietnamese only, but for all kinds of Americans."

Tran is best known for championing anti-communist concerns, sponsoring ordinances to recognize the flag of the former South Vietnam as the official Vietnamese flag in the city and to make Garden Grove a "communist-free zone."

Tran organized an aggressive voter-registration and get-out-the-vote drive in the Vietnamese community, boosting Republican registration by 15,000 in his Assembly district. The effort has led party officials to tout him as a potential 2006 candidate for the state Senate seat now held by Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana, or the congressional seat of Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Anaheim.

One of five children of a Vietnamese English professor and a dentist, Tran came to the United States knowing only two words of English: "OK" and "Salem," as in the brand of cigarettes. He entered politics against the wishes of his parents, who wanted their son to be a dentist or doctor.

"If you're a doctor or a dentist, you can only help one person at a time," he said. "If I write a law, I can move society."

Another Assembly newcomer will be returning to the Legislature after a 10-year absence. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, served in the Assembly from 1990 to 1994, leaving to run unsuccessfully for state insurance commissioner.

Umberg won his Assembly seat despite being absent because he was called to Army Reserve duty as a prosecutor in Guantan amo Bay, Cuba, where about 550 detainees from the war on terror are facing military trials.

Reached by phone in Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday before the election results, Umberg said he was looking forward to being home by Christmas, which means he would miss the new legislative session's Dec. 6 start. Umberg said he could not discuss either his political views or his role as a prosecutor, other than to say he belongs to a team engaged in a current hearing.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that attorneys in Guantanamo were debating the legitimacy of proceedings against an Australian man accused of serving with theTaliban in Afghanistan.

"I'm authorized to talk about present weather conditions, which are hot and humid, but I can't discuss the forecast," he joked.

He said he planned to celebrate his victory by donning a T-shirt that says "Once a girlie man, always a girlie man," a sign that he has no plans to kowtow to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

None of the Orange County seats changed party hands or was even closely contested.

Several candidates used their campaign funds to support other candidates or initiatives. Second-term Assembly man Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, gave $50,000 from his campaign to help defeat Proposition 66, the initiative to reform the state's "three strikes" law.

Chuck DeVore, an aerospace executive from Irvine, spent more than $400,000 to win the Republican Primary for the 70th Assembly seat, but only $50,000 in the general election.

DeVore replaced Republican John Campbell, who was elected to a Senate seat from Irvine.

Another Assembly newcomer is Mimi Walters, a Laguna Niguel investment broker and mother of four.

The fifth new Assembly member is Diamond Bar City Councilman Bob Huff.

 

Yes. Major kudos to your brother and your family. We just had a Vietnamese-American here in Houston defeat a big-time Republican blow hard. Right on!

Dale

ps I'm a Republican.

 

Chuc mung - Congratulations!!!

 

Henry, congratulations!

Can he get Arnie to drive a support Hummer on our next drive?

 

Awesome! Congratulations!

So, when can we expect a Ferrarichat plug in a speech?

 

Right now, I live in Garden Grove, so he's now my rep, huh!

What an exciting day, to realize how far someone can go in a lifetime.

- Julie

 

Tran's Step Up to Assembly Is a Community's Giant Leap
The Garden Grove Republican's victory is a source of pride to Vietnamese Americans.
By Mai Tran and Jean O. Pasco
Times Staff Writers

November 4, 2004

A sense of arrival rippled along the avenues of Little Saigon on Wednesday as newly elected Republican Assemblyman Van Tran placed a bouquet of pink carnations at the foot of the Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster.

He lighted incense and placed it inside an urn with a statue of an American and a South Vietnamese soldier — a symbol of lasting friendship between the countries — rearing up behind him.

"I'm a product of the Vietnam War," said Tran, 40. "I want to look back and appreciate where I've been."

The day after the Garden Grove councilman became the highest-ranking Vietnamese American in elective office in California, Tran strolled through the community where he began his political career two decades ago as an intern for Rep. Robert K. Dornan, a fiery conservative and staunch anticommunist.

Tran's victory — a lopsided win over his Democratic rival in the 68th Assembly District — is seen as a milestone and was celebrated by Vietnamese Americans from San Jose to Houston.

"This marks the mainstreaming, or the political arrival, of the Vietnamese community," said political consultant David Ellis of Newport Beach.

But in serving the volatile Vietnamese American community, Tran has stepped into a tricky job.

Strong feelings about communism still grip Little Saigon, as past leaders have discovered. Tony Lam, a Westminster restaurant owner and the first Vietnamese immigrant elected to that town's City Council, became persona non grata when rumors spread that he'd taken a Vietnamese general on a tour of the community. The former premier of South Vietnam, a fierce critic of the communist regime, was derided earlier this year when he returned to his hometown of Hanoi as a tourist.

On Tuesday, when he arrived at the state Republican victory party in Newport Beach, Tran was accompanied by four plainclothes Garden Grove police officers. The escort was provided, Tran said, after he'd received two threatening phone calls.

Tran said he was targeted because of his stance on pro-democracy and human rights issues in Vietnam and now, his ability to speak against communism in a larger forum.

Tran said he wasn't worried. "I can take care of myself," he said.

Garden Grove police said no crime report was taken because there was no specific threat. "We just wanted to make sure he was safe because he felt he was in harm's way," Garden Grove Police Lt. Mike Handfield said of the police escort.

It wasn't the first time Tran had been threatened. Last year, someone ordered an obituary for him in a Vietnamese language newspaper, prompting him to get a gun.

"That's the burden of pubic life, and I'm aware of it," Tran said.

On Wednesday, Tran was the talk of Little Saigon, the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam.

"This is a very, very big deal for us," said Jacqueline Phan, 62, of Westminster. "I'm so happy for him and so proud for the Vietnamese people. There's finally a Vietnamese voice to represent us."

Tran's win was featured on the front page of a local Vietnamese-language newspaper, underneath coverage of President Bush's reelection. "This is the first opportunity to have a role in changing the important issues affecting the Vietnamese community in nearly 30 years," a reporter wrote in Viet Bao, one of the largest Vietnamese-language newspapers in the community.

"This is a dream come true," said Ky Ngo, a longtime community activist who has known Tran for 20 years. "He is the ultimate symbol of anticommunism."

Tran attracted attention from Vietnamese-language media from San Jose to Houston to Virginia. The largest concentrations of Vietnamese emigres outside California live in Texas, Seattle and Arlington, Va. — all places Tran held fundraisers on his way to collecting about $800,000 for his campaign.

Hung Duy Hoang, 42, an attorney and activist in Houston, said the Vietnamese American community there was celebrating, even though Tran offered them no direct political might.

"He is a freedom fighter, and that is why we support him," Hoang said. "We fled the country and settled in various places, but we are connected because we all have a belief that we are all fighting for Vietnam."

Supporters said Tran is their hope to promote a communist-free Vietnam through government channels, not just through the boisterous protests that have symbolized the community's activism. The mere display of a Vietnamese flag in a video store in 1999 prompted a 53-day demonstration that drew a squad of riot police.

Tran served as a liaison between the police and protesters during the demonstrations. Afterward, he launched a voter registration drive.

A year later, Tran, an attorney whose family fled Saigon as it fell in 1975, won election to the Garden Grove City Council. Only six Vietnamese Americans currently serve on city councils and school boards, including four in California. Nationwide, about 160 Asian Americans serve in state legislatures, with seven in Congress, according to the National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac.

Tran's high profile in the community as a staunch anticommunist will probably be enhanced in the Assembly as he votes on more mainstream issues that affect a larger group of voters, Ellis said.

"I think that's a generational issue that becomes less important," he said. "First immigrants are very passionate, just like Miami's Cuban exiles who fled Castro in 1959. But Van Tran is more than one issue. He's paid his dues with the party and he's a real star for the party. He's America."

The real evidence of Tran's success may be a keepsake from the Republican National Convention in New York — a calendar designed to highlight the party's commitment to civil rights and diversity. Secretary of State Colin Powell is pictured. So is Abraham Lincoln, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Tran.


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Quite an accomplishment. Congratulations!

 

Awesome! Congrats!

 

Congrats
Erik