Ready for Sacramento

Alicia Robinson

Since winning the March 2 primary, Republican 68th Assembly District

candidate Van Tran has found himself in the midst of a media frenzy,

but he said it hasn’t turned his head.

Though he’s not taking anything for granted, Tran is considered a

shoo-in against perennial Democratic candidate Al Snook in November.

As potentially the highest-ranking Vietnamese American elected

official in the country, Tran has been sought by the media, giving

interviews to the BBC, Radio Free Asia, the Voice of America and

other international media outlets.

“The publicity is nice, but all of this, I realize, is fleeting

and temporary, so I don’t take it too seriously,” he said.

While Tran is proud of his heritage, his goal as a public servant

is to do well for all his constituents, he said.

“With this so-called precedent-setting election, for me, I think

it’s important for the public to know that there’s an immigrant

community that’s trying its best to assimilate and to contribute to

this country,” he said. “As a community, we’re just living the legacy

of what this country’s all about as a nation of immigrants.”

As a political group, Asian Americans don’t have particularly high

voter participation, so Tran had to build broad support to win the

election, UC Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca said.

“A whole lot of people in that district voted for him who probably

aren’t Vietnamese and probably aren’t Asian,” he said.

He has been an attorney for 10 years, but Tran said he’s always

been interested in politics and public service. He has served on the

Garden Grove City Council since 2000.

Even while Tran was a college student at UC Irvine, he was

politically involved and worked for Bob Dornan, who was then a

congressman, Petracca said.

“This is somebody who’s had politics on his mind and in his heart

for some time,” Petracca said.

In the two weeks since the primary, Tran has gotten phone calls

from both the Vietnamese community and those who want to reach out to

it asking him to be an intermediary, he said.

As a city councilman, Tran has been a good representative of the

Vietnamese American community, making sure it has members on various

city boards and commissions, Garden Grove Mayor Bruce Broadwater

said.

Tran is a good listener, but he proved his mettle by voting for a

housing project that some residents said was too high in density,

Broadwater said.

“It’s something for a council person to stand up and face a huge

amount of people and look them in the eye and vote the other way,” he

said.

If he is elected in November, Tran plans to continue working for

the issues he campaigned on, such as workers compensation reform and

reducing government waste.

In taking over for 68th District Assemblyman Ken Maddox, Tran

would continue Garden Grove’s representation in Sacramento.

Broadwater expects Tran would be accessible to constituents, and

getting a legislator’s ear is often half the battle, he said.

“I think he’ll represent us well,” Broadwater said. “One thing’s

for sure, his door will be open to anybody and everybody.”

In the Assembly, Tran said, he’ll just be one member of the

minority party, so he’ll miss the daily interaction with constituents

and more direct results that he achieved as a city councilman.

But he’ll make up for it in hard work. He would give up his law

practice if elected, he said.

“I’m going to devote my entire time, if not overtime, to the state

Assembly service,” he said.