Race to replace termed out Assemblyman Van Tran heating up

Birds of a feather?  Nutty Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and GOP State Assembly candidate Allan Mansoor

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The race to replace termed out State Assemblyman Van Tran, in the 69th Assembly District, is heating up.  My pajaritos are chirping that Garden Grove City Councilman Andrew Do won’t be running after all.  But Orange County Board of Education member Long Pham is running – and he has been known to spend a lot of money on his campaigns.

But the GOP favorite will be Costa Mesa Councilman Allan Mansoor.  Predictably, he is already getting ripped by the locals.  The award-winning “Bubbling Cauldron” blog posted a very long and comprehensive post about Mansoor in April of this year.  Here are a few excerpts:

Mansoor is no slam dunk for the 68th Assembly seat. Even though he’s been the darling of the Orange County Republican Party hierarchy ever since he decided to mount an anti-immigrant campaign in Costa Mesa, the constituency he would represent in the 68th has a much broader ethnic diversity.

An Orange County Deputy Sheriff in his “day job”, Mansoor has demonstrated an inflexibility and cultural bias through his actions over the past almost 7 years. He became a national poster boy for the anti-immigrant sentiment that swept across the country a couple years ago. His smiling face was all over the media, where his mantra gave folks all over the country the impression that Costa Mesa was a haven of redneck bigots, intent on running every brown face out of town.

So strong was his presence in that movement that he was anointed an honorary “Minuteman” by the Grand Pooba of the Minuteman Project organization, Jim Gilchrist, who also became a major player in Mansoor’s run for re-election. He, and other frothing Minuteman activists stood before the Costa Mesa City Council meeting after meeting, praising Mansoor’s “brave” stand. Wackos from Alta Loma, Upland and other parts of the hinterland trekked to Costa Mesa to support Mansoor’s philosophy.

Never mind the Republicans.  Last year unknown Democrat Ken Arnold gave Tran quite a scare.  Imagine what Democratic Costa Mesa Council Member Katrina Foley could do?  I think she could win!  She woujld almost certainly have defeated Tran last year.  I hope she runs.  I would bet the bank on her!

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"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.