Quayle to Join Pursuit of Vietnamese Vote

After stepping out of a naturalization ceremony, one of the first sights a new Vietnamese-American citizen in Orange County will likely see is a Republican voter registration table.

County Republicans sent the first Vietnamese-American delegate to their party’s national convention in 1988. And the GOP has opened a campaign office in Westminster’s Little Saigon during every election since 1984.

Today, Vice President Dan Quayle will continue the party’s aggressive effort to win the political hearts of the county’s rapidly growing Southeast Asian community.

Quayle is scheduled to attend the opening of the Asian-American Republican Headquarters in Westminster, where leaders of the Vietnamese and Korean communities will launch voter registration efforts for the Nov. 6 election.

Quayle will be joined by California’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Pete Wilson, who helped open the same headquarters during his successful 1988 U.S. Senate campaign.

“We have been very conscious in terms of outreach to the Asian community for some years, knowing the Asian population is growing,” said county Republican Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes. “We think the Southeast Asian community has a very strong potential for growing its ranks within the Republican Party.”

Unlike other parts of California, the Asian community in Orange County is made up largely of Vietnamese and Koreans. There are about 120,000 Vietnamese-Americans in Orange County, the largest concentration of Vietnamese outside their native country. And just blocks away is the nation’s second-largest Korean community with about 80,000 residents.

Orange County Republicans detected a sympathy for their politics among the newly arrived Vietnamese shortly after the community began to grow in the early 1980s. Many refugees were attracted to the hard-line anti-communist politics of President Reagan and later, to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

But even with its rapid growth, the Asian population still represents barely 6% of Dornan’s congressional district and an even smaller portion of the registered voters.

Ky Ngo, the Vietnamese delegate to the 1988 Republican convention, said of his community’s GOP bent: “We know more than 95% vote Republican.

“The reason most people register Republican is that it is strongly anti-communist,” he said. “We are the Vietnamese refugees, we escaped communists, we escaped from oppression.”

Much of the Republican effort is an investment in the future, as the county’s Asian community grows. For this election, however, the GOP is aiming at the closely fought reelection of Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) who represents the area.

Democrats have also launched a registration drive in the Vietnamese community on behalf of Pringle’s opponent, Tom Umberg. Umberg’s campaign manager, George Urch, said they have three Vietnamese-speaking workers assigned to register voters.

QUAYLE’S ITINERARY

Here is Vice President Dan Quayle’s itinerary for his Orange County tour today.

11:40 a.m.: He will arrive at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station aboard Air Force II and give brief remarks to Marines.

12:30 p.m.: Quayle will attend a private fund-raising luncheon in Newport Beach, sponsored by the state and county Republican Party organizations. Sponsors expect about 70 people to attend at a cost of $1,000 per couple.

1 p.m.: He will attend a meeting of Orange County Republican leaders.

2:10 p.m.: The vice president will arrive in Westminster for the opening of the Asian American Republican Headquarters. He will be joined by Sen. Pete Wilson, Republican nominee for governor, and Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), who is seeking reelection.

3:10 p.m. Quayle will depart from El Toro and fly to Los Angeles to attend an evening fund-raiser for state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor.