Free Republic

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his challenger, Phil Angelides, seeking to reach the state's fastest-growing group of voters, have jumped into a fight over threatening letters sent to 14,000 Latinos in an Orange County congressional district here. The GOP governor, who took to the streets of this Latino bastion over the weekend, called the actions attributed to the campaign of Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen a "hate crime." [...] The Orange County scandal reflected the Republican Party's "culture of intimidation when it comes to voting," Angelides charged. "That's why George Bush is president today -- because they wiped people off the...

Greetings: You are being sent this letter because you were recently registered to vote. If you are a citizen of the United States, we ask that you participate in the democratic process of voting. You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time and you will be deported for voting without having a right to do so. [...] Sincerely, Sergio Ramirez This letter was sent to some 14,000 foreign-born registered Democrats with Spanish surnames in the 47th Congressional...

Scroll down to "Tan Nguyen's Campaign Song," click and listen. This is a better version than one posted on Freerepublic earlier.

Tan has hundreds of the "Stop Illegal Immigration" signs which he is giving away. You can put a stake in the back and use them as a yard sign or hold them at rallies. So come by and volunteer and pick up some signs for future rallies. Meet at: Tan Nguyen for Congress Headquarters 12955 Main St. Garden Grove, CA 92840 Phone: (714) 530-1612 Tues, Wed, and Thurs, meet at 5:00 pm and start walking at 5:30 pm Sat and Sun, meet at 9:30 am, start walking at 10:00 am. (coffee, juice and donuts provided)

Who’s Fueling The Racial Hatred? -- Tan Nguyen speech, Oct. 28, Garden Grove California I don’t know for sure who’s behind the hysteria…who’s fueling the racial hatred…who’s dividing the community…but Ms. Sanchez’s fingerprints are all over this. I don’t know if my opponent had a hand in urging the raid on my office. But, on October 20, the O.C. Register reported that Ms. Sanchez had PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of the Attorney General’s intention to seek arrests. I don’t know for sure whether that newspaper article was correct. However, I do know that Ms. Sanchez speaks Spanish. Ms. Sanchez must have known...

Stand by Our Tan - recorded in Garden Grove, California at Tan Nguyen rally, Oct. 28, 2006.Go Tan Go!

I DON'T KNOW what was more disturbing, the lame attempt to suppress immigrant voter turnout in California's 47th Congressional District or the breathless reporting and hyper-indignation that followed it. Editorialists called the incident "despicable." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger labeled it "racist" and a "hate crime." The chairman of the Orange County Republican Party called it "grotesque and obnoxious." You'd think they were all talking about a lynching, or at least a cross-burning. But no, it was a rather pedantic letter sent to fewer than 14,000 foreign-born Democrats with Spanish surnames in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim. It didn't matter that...

If she weren't running for secretary of state, Debra Bowen might consider Santa Cruz native Bruce McPherson the best fit for the job. As state senators, both traveled to Iceland to study geothermal energy; when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed McPherson to fill the secretary of state post last year, Bowen was part of the unanimous vote that confirmed him. "I consider him a friend," said Bowen, D-Redondo Beach. "When the governor nominated Bruce, I told him that I thought he was the second best person for the job." This November, Bowen hopes voters will agree with her. Bowen and McPherson,...

A singer, a pastor, Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese expatriates turned out Saturday to cheer beleaguered congressional candidate Tan Nguyen as he continued to defend a letter his campaign sent to Hispanic voters warning immigrants against voting in the Nov. 7 election. Minutemen, painters and political independents lined Garden Grove's historic Main Street with yellow and green Tan Nguyen signs.

Interesting to note *Loretta Sanchez' office produced the initial, incorrect translation. When asked about it, she smiled and said "oops." *Loretta Sanchez' office was give a heads up of the raid on Tan's office so it could be photographed.* Although nothing incriminating has been found, state police refuse to return the computers, which have important campaign information on them.

In the midst of all the controversy surrounding Tan Nguyen and his notorious letter to Hispanics, how many people actually read the “offending” letter? My guess is darn few. The letter in question has been translated into English and is reproduced below. Dear ----------, You are receiving this letter because you have recently registered to vote. If you are a U.S. Citizen, I urge you to participate in the democratic process of voting. Be advised that if your residence in the United States is illegal or if you are an emigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that...

HELL NO TAN WON'T GO FREEDOM OF SPEECH RALLY The rally will be at Tan's office and he will be at the rally! "I am not going to quit this race and I am going to win this race," Nguyen told reporters called to his campaign headquarters for a press conference. Orange County Register DATE SATURDAY OCTOBER 28 TIME 12Noon LOCATION Meet at: Tan Nguyen for Congress Headquarters 12955 Main St. Garden Grove, CA 92840 Phone: (714) 530-1612 This is on the corner of Historic Main and Garden Grove Blvd

State investigators have searched the home of a Los Angeles Police Department officer they believe played a key role in mailing out thousands of racially charged letters to Latino voters in an Orange County congressional district this month. The officer has been identified as Mark Nhan Nguyen, 32, a three-year veteran of the force who works as a collision investigator in South Los Angeles, according to sources familiar with an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general into the letter and whether the mailing violated any laws.

A Republican congressional candidate whose campaign was linked to an intimidating letter sent to Hispanic voters said Tuesday he would not quit the race if he is charged with a crime. The state Department of Justice has opened a voting rights investigation into the letter sent to certain Democratic voters in Orange County. The letter, written in Spanish, warned: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time." William Braniff, Nguyen's campaign attorney, said a volunteer drafted an...

NEWS RELEASE CALIFORNIA SECRETARY OF STATE Bruce McPherson FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, October 25, 2006 California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson and Major Latino Organizations Send Official Election Letter Refuting Orange County Intimidation LetterLetter sent to all 14,000 recipients of previous letter SACRAMENTO, CA - Secretary of State Bruce McPherson announced today that his office and Latino organizations sent an official election information letter to all of the recipients of the voter intimidation letter sent to 14,000 voters last week. The official election information letter, in English and Spanish, was mailed by the Secretary of State’s Office in collaboration with...

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) -- A Republican congressional candidate whose campaign is being investigated for sending intimidating letters to Hispanic voters lashed out at his Democratic rival, saying she was fueling the uproar over the mailings. Tan Nguyen on Sunday rejected calls to drop out of the race to unseat longtime Rep. Loretta Sanchez, and implied the popular congresswoman was behind the probes into the letters warning immigrants they could be deported or jailed for voting in next month's election. "There has been no crime committed so why is there a criminal investigation three weeks prior to a very important...

A Republican congressional candidate whose campaign was linked to an intimidating letter sent to Hispanic voters said Tuesday he would not quit the race if he is charged with a crime. ADVERTISEMENT "If you're innocent and somebody charges you, would you give up? No, you've got to fight," said Tan Nguyen, who is seeking to unseat five-term Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez (news, bio, voting record) in California's 47th Congressional District. "Innocent people can be persecuted," he told The Associated Press. The state Department of Justice has opened a voting rights investigation into the letter sent to certain Democratic voters in...

The current political landscape is littered with backpedaling politicians who are succumbing to backbreaking attacks from the Left. In this environment it is good to find the occasional conservative who has the backbone to speak the truth instead of running for the high grass at the first sign of attack. Two leaders deserve special recognition for being particularly strong in the backbone department. California Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen is a Vietnamese immigrant who has made immigration the centerpiece of his campaign for the House. Over the weekend his campaign office, his residence, and the residence of one of his...

... "I am not going to quit this race and I am going to win this race," Nguyen told reporters called to his campaign headquarters for a press conference. .... Campaign spokesman Bill Braniff conceded someone close to the campaign, in fact, wrote the letter, which was later translated to Spanish and sent out. "I acknowledge that somebody connected with the campaign did draft it," said Braniff, adding that the translation of the text had altered its original intent to address only people who were not citizens and thus ineligible to vote. Braniff said an initial English-language draft of the...

Gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides and fellow Democrats on Monday blasted a Republican congressional candidate's campaign for sending out a mailing that has triggered an investigation into whether it was an effort to intimidate Hispanic voters in Orange County. Rallying on the steps of a courthouse, Angelides said the county registrar of voters must inform voters who received letters from the Tan Nguyen campaign that they do have the right to cast ballots. "This letter that Tan Nguyen's campaign has sent to Americans to intimidate them and try to take the right to vote cannot and will not stand," said Angelides,...

At a chaotic sidewalk news conference Sunday, Orange County congressional candidate Tan Nguyen defended a letter his campaign sent to 14,000 registered voters that warned in Spanish that immigrants could be jailed or deported for voting. "There has been no crime committed, so why is there a criminal investigation three weeks prior to a very important election?" asked Nguyen outside his campaign office in Garden Grove. It was his first public appearance since the controversy erupted last week. "What is going on? Who is fueling this investigation?" Nguyen, a Republican challenging Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez in the 47th District, said...

Tan Nguyen -- Fat, White, Rich, Anti-Immigrant Racist? Written by Doc Farmer Monday, October 23, 2006 ChronWatch.com Well, you can certainly tell that we're getting close to an election. Claims, counterclaims, ads about a candidate's record which are called "attack" ads (gee, telling the truth is an attack?), heated arguments, high-profile congressional leaders going into hiding, photos of candidates in bed with a cigarette and a handsome farm animal (with the emphasis on the evils of smoking, apparently), etc. Folks get pretty sick of it pretty fast and, like parents in August who pray for Christmas to just get over...

In a press conference Sunday, Republican 47th District congressional candidate Tan Nguyen said he will not abandon his bid for a seat in Congress. Agents raided Nguyen's campaign offices last week in connection with a probe into a letter sent to Hispanic voters claiming it is illegal for immigrants to vote. Nguyen said he has done nothing illegal and did not send the letter. A criminal investigation is under way, NBC4 reported. An Orange County Republican party official called on Nguyen Thursday to withdraw from his race against Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, because of the letter.

* * * * Listen to the JOHN AND KEN SHOW 3pm - 7pm Mon - Friday http://www.johnandkenshow.com/ John and Ken have an idea - work to elect Tan for Congress to send a message to Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez http://www.lorettasanchez.house.gov/ TAN ARTICLE - letter sent immigrants http://ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1325512.php VOLUNTEER & VOTE FOR TAN Join Tan Nguyen and volunteers as they walk our neighborhoods to register voters. http://65.45.193.26:8026/cms/acct/tan4congress/main/ Meet at: Tan Nguyen for Congress Headquarters 12955 Main St. Garden Grove, CA 92840 Phone: (714) 530-1612 Tues, Wed, and Thurs, meet at 5:00 pm and start walking at 5:30 pm Sat and Sun,...

The Republican congressional candidate whose campaign was linked to an intimidating letter to Hispanic voters promised Sunday to stay in the race despite pressure to withdraw. "I'm innocent. There's no way in hell I'm going to withdraw," Tan Nguyen told reporters at his campaign headquarters. "I'm not going to quit this race; I'm going to win this race." Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant trying to unseat popular Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, last week blamed an unidentified female staffer for sending out 14,000 letters warning immigrants they could be deported or jailed for voting in next month's election. The mailings have sparked...

News media converged on Tan Nguyen's Garden Grove campaign office Friday expecting to hear from the Republican congressional candidate about a mailer sent out this week warning immigrants against voting in the November election. Instead, the media horde got a front-row seat to a half-dozen agents from the state Attorney General's Office serving search warrants and combing through Nguyen's office. Officers confiscated three computer hard drives, checked for fingerprints, leafed through files and interviewed Nguyen's attorney. Agents also searched Nguyen's Santa Ana home and a campaign worker's Anaheim home. Despite burgeoning state and federal probes into the flier, Nguyen's attorney...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, calling an intimidating letter sent to thousands of Hispanic voters "a hate crime," said Saturday the Republican candidate whose campaign it was linked to should quit the race if he had anything to do with it. "I think this is one of the worst letters that anyone could send out. And I think those kind of tactics are illegal and it is a hate crime," Schwarzenegger said. During a re-election campaign swing through Southern California on Saturday, Schwarzenegger met with a Hispanic business group in Orange County, where the mailing has infuriated Latino...

Condemnation of an intimidating mailer from congressional candidate Tan Nguyen's campaign swelled Thursday, as state investigators continued interviews in the county and the U.S. Justice Department joined the probe. State Attorney General Bill Lockyer told Nguyen's opponent, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, that details should become clearer in the next few days and that his office "would be making arrests," Sanchez said. Nguyen, a Republican, said Thursday that a campaign worker helped put out the letter without his knowledge and that she had been fired. He called the letter, which targeted immigrant voters, "flawed and ill-conceived." But Orange County Republican...

10-19) 18:14 PDT Garden Grove, Calif. (AP) -- Orange County Republican leaders on Thursday called for the withdrawal of a GOP congressional candidate who has acknowledged that his campaign sent a letter threatening Hispanic immigrant voters. County Republican Chairman Scott Baugh told The Associated Press that the party's executive committee voted unanimously to ask candidate Tan D. Nguyen to pull out. Nguyen's attorney said Thursday night his client has no intention of quitting. Earlier Thursday, Nguyen told The Associated Press he has fired a campaign staffer who may have been the source of the letter that falsely told Hispanics immigrants...

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - Orange County Republican leaders on Thursday called for the withdrawal of a GOP congressional candidate they believe sent a letter threatening Hispanic immigrant voters with arrest. Tan D. Nguyen denied knowing anything about the letter in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press but said he fired a campaign staffer who may have been responsible for it. County Republican Chairman Scott Baugh, however, said that after speaking with state investigators and the company that distributed the mailer, he believes Nguyen had direct knowledge of "obnoxious and reprehensible" letter. He told the AP that the party's executive...

The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time." In fact, immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens can vote. The two newspapers reported state investigators had found the location where the letters were printed and mailed to an estimated 14,000 Democratic voters in central Orange County. The Los Angeles Times, citing an unnamed source, said authorities had interviewed Nguyen at his office. Nguyen did not return messages left by The Associated...

This is a follow-up to the story of Hispanics in Orange County having received a supposed voter suppression letter. In this post I'm going to: present evidence that the letter was sent by an illegal immigration supporter...discuss how Arnold Schwarzenegger has been politically emasculated and how his handlers don't have the U.S.'s best interests at heart...illustrate a PIIPP that the AP has fashioned from the story (no, really)...and, discuss those hacks who promulgated this story and who have shown that - even with what we know now - they have little journalistic integrity and that their future reports should not...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The state attorney general's office is investigating a letter received by some Southern California Hispanics that says it is a crime for immigrants to vote and tells them they could be jailed or deported if they go to the polls next month. "It's a very malicious and degrading letter. It's to pull Latinos down and make them afraid," said Benny Diaz, who is running for City Council in Garden Grove. He said his wife and five other people he knows had received the letter. The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advised that if...

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer has launched what he calls an "aggressive" investigation into a mysterious mailer sent to Latino voters in Orange County warning them it's illegal for immigrants to vote. The mailer – sent on letterhead from the California Coalition for Immigration Reform – warns voters in Spanish that those who do vote could end up in jail. It also says federal officials are keeping a searchable database – available to anti-illegal immigration groups – that tracks people casting votes. "It's clear intimidation," said John Trasvina, interim president and general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and...

SANTA ANA--State investigators have linked a Republican campaign to letters sent to thousands of Southern California Hispanics warning them they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month, a spokesman for the attorney general said Wednesday. The investigation appeared to be focused on the campaign of Tan D. Nguyen, a Republican challenger to Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, according to the Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register. Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, declined to identify the campaign, citing the ongoing investigation. "We believe it's linked to a particular Republican campaign,"...

The Tan Nguyen for Congress Campaign is organizing precinct walks every weekend until the General Election on November 7th. We will be walking the precincts starting this Saturday and Sunday at 10:00am. This is the year that Loretta CAN be beat, but we need your help in getting Tan's message out to the voters of the 47th District. If you are unable to make it this weekend, please come another weekend (only 13 weekends left) and "Lend Tan a Hand." Refreshments and T-Shirts will be provided at the campaign office 12955 Main Street, Garden Grove, CA 92840) prior to the...