Van Tran

The candidate lineup for a key state Senate election this year narrowed Tuesday when Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) dropped out of the race for the 34th District seat representing North County. Tran had been touted by conservatives as an alternative to Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher (R-Brea), who supports abortion rights and some tax increases for schools.

The wife of Orange County Assemblyman Van Tran, invisible on her husband's campaign website and largely absent from his public appearances, has found herself thrust into the center of his reelection campaign because of a criminal record just now gaining attention. His wife, Cyndi Nguyen, pleaded no contest to three misdemeanors in 2004 and was sentenced to three years' probation for helping to concoct bogus medical bills at her paralegal office in Sacramento.

If Lynn Daucher clings to her narrow lead and wins back a state Senate seat for the Republican Party, the Orange County woman may owe it to a group of Vietnamese American leaders and consultants. The group, known in inner circles as "Team Tran" because of its association with Assemblyman Van Tran, wrote letters to voters and engaged in a furious campaign on Vietnamese radio and television stations on Daucher's behalf.

Running late, Van Tran hustled out of his office, quickly turned the corner and passed up a row of office doors before realizing he was headed the wrong way. Red floor? Wrong chamber. The red, he reminded himself, belonged to senators. Tran, the new Assembly member from Garden Grove, made his way around the Capitol until he found the green tiles, which would lead to the Assembly chamber. But familiarizing himself with his new surroundings is the least of his worries.

The growing political and economic muscle of the nation's Vietnamese community is on display in two Orange County elections, in which a pair of candidates -- including one who is expected to become California's first Vietnamese American state legislator -- has attracted nearly $1 million in contributions. Most of that money has gone to Van Tran, a Garden Grove councilman running as a Republican for a seat in the Assembly.

Van Tran, a Garden Grove city councilman who received political support from around the nation, held a commanding lead Tuesday night in his bid to become the nation's first Vietnamese American elected to a state legislature. In election returns for the 68th Assembly District, Tran, a Republican, was well ahead of his Democratic challenger, Al Snook, a businessman and perennial candidate who raised about $2,650 in donations.

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.