3 Vietnamese Make History as O.C. Candidates

WESTMINSTER —  Three members of Orange County’s burgeoning Vietnamese community--the largest outside of Vietnam--will make history in November when their names appear on American ballots.

Tony Lam, 56, and Jimmy Tong Nguyen, 45, are among six candidates seeking a seat on the Westminster City Council next month. And in Santa Ana, Vietnamese-American Henry Le is making a run for that City Council. They are the first Vietnamese to seek public office in Orange County, and perhaps the nation, community leaders say.

Their candidacies have motivated the Vietnamese community to become more involved in the local political process, leaders say.

“The whole community is involved,” said Kim Nguyen, a member of the Vietnamese Students Assn. of Southern California. “Everywhere people are talking about it, everyone is excited. For the first time people feel they can eventually help the community, and it has inspired younger people to think about going into politics too.”

Some estimate that the size of the Orange County Vietnamese community--born of the mass immigration that began in the mid-1970s at the end of the Vietnam War--has grown to 100,000, although 1990 census figures place the population at closer to 72,000. Nevertheless, the Vietnamese are the largest Asian ethnic group in Orange County, ballooning 271% since 1980, census figures show.

Both Lam, a Westminster resident for 15 years, and Nguyen, a resident for two years, have launched full-fledged campaigns, going door-to-door, shaking hands, running phone banks, mailing flyers, posting signs and encouraging people to register to vote. Lam’s organizers alone claim to have registered about 2,000 new Vietnamese voters.

Lam’s six children, who range in age from 19 to 30, have hammered “Vote for Tony Lam” street signs around the Westminster’s Little Saigon community.

Nguyen has walked precincts with his 11-year-old daughter and his wife, while campaign workers wrapped 10,000 little American flags inside political mailers. The candidate also insists that the volunteers who distribute leaflets with him on Saturdays wear uniforms of white T-shirts and red, white and blue banners across their chests.

“It’s the American way of doing things,” he explained.

More than 20% of the 78,000 residents of Westminster are of Vietnamese descent. Local organizations, which estimate that only about 3% of them were registered to vote in June, say that number has at least doubled with the introduction of Vietnamese candidates.

But the prospect of a Vietnamese-American in government, a cause for celebration in Little Saigon, has been tempered somewhat by the fact that the men are running against each other, possibly ensuring their defeat.

“It’s unfortunate that both are running for the same seat; the Vietnamese will be split because of this,” said Chuyen Nguyen, former general secretary of the Vietnamese of Southern California Council. “It’s tough, because it’s the first time Vietnamese-Americans are going out and trying to participate in the system. But no Vietnamese organization will endorse either one--it’s an awkward situation.”

Dr. Co Pham, chairman of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, agrees. “I don’t know why the two are running against each other,” he said. “They are both good candidates, and they know what’s going on, but both running could hurt both of them.”

Lam and Nguyen agree they should not both be running, but each says he did not expect the other to not run, or at least run for one of two other open seats.

“Tony Lam gave me the idea of running for City Council,” said Nguyen, who thought Lam would run for one of the other two seats. “I had a vision of running for Senate in the future, and Tony convinced me to run first in Westminster. I don’t know why he decided to run. . . . There is no doubt it will hurt both of us.”

But Lam said that he had been considering the idea for three years, and that Nguyen had promised not to run if he did.

“I was very angry; I felt he went behind my back,” he said. “It is inconsistent, and not in line with being a gentleman.”

Henry Le, running for the Santa Ana City Council, recently moved to that city from Westminster specifically to avoid running against other Vietnamese, he said. While he applauds the arrival of Vietnamese into local politics, he said, two candidates running against each other could reflect badly on the community.

“It shows there is no communication and no planning, and it creates weaknesses for the Vietnamese community,” he said.

If any of the candidates win, it will mark the first time any Vietnamese-American has held an elected office in the United States, according to a spokesman for the Asian Pacific American Municipal Officials, a constituency group of the National League of Cities.

Nguyen and Lam both came to the United States in 1975, along with thousands of other political refugees from Southeast Asia.

In Vietnam, Lam worked for the United States Agency for International Development, and later became an industrialist and owner of construction and processing plants. In the United States, he began his new life as an insurance agent, and later became co-owner and operator of three restaurants in Little Saigon. He is on the board of trustees of Humana Hospital, and is a former board member of the Orange County Community Council and president of the Orange County Vietnamese-American Chamber of Commerce. He has been married 31 years and has three sons, three daughters and two grandchildren.

“I am still thankful that I am safe and sound here,” Lam said. “I am thankful that my children can go through the educational system here and earn a good living. This is the only country that gave us the opportunity to rebuild life after we lost practically everything.”

Lam, who like Nguyen and Le is a Republican, has been endorsed by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who is also honorary chairman of his campaign. He also has the endorsement of the Westminster Police Officers Assn., Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) and Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

Nguyen was a member of the South Vietnamese military in Vietnam before he escaped with his girlfriend, leaving his parents and relatives behind and settling in New Orleans. He married the girlfriend in 1978, and in 1980 graduated from the police academy. He became a deputy sheriff, assigned to the Vietnamese community there.

Nguyen moved to Orange County in 1990, where he acts as a consultant to Asian-American businesses that are getting started.

The other candidates for the two-year seat sought by Nguyen and Lam are Norman Lawson, a landlord and stage technician; Margie L. Rice, a school board trustee; Helena K. Rutkowski, a personnel commissioner, and Loretta A. Walker, a local businesswoman and homemaker.

That seat was vacated midterm by Councilwoman Joy L. Neugebauer, who is running for mayor. Two four-year seats also are on the ballot.