Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Tyler Diep Quits the Race for State Assembly

As has been rumored since last week in Little Saigon,  Tyler Diep officially announced his intention to quit the race for 72nd Assembly District.  This is a newly drawn district where Asian American voters will be a deciding factor in the race.   His reason - " A new tactical change and also the situation is not favorable".     He felt that since there are 2 other Vietnamese-American candidates in the race, he does not want to be in a three-way battle vying for the Vietnamese-American votes.

This is quite strange for somebody who was supposedly the strongest candidate with the support of well known Republican leaders and also his amazing ability to raise money.  Within 2 months of his announcement to run, he has raised over $130,000. 

The other two Vietnamese- American candidates so far could hardly raise any money.  One of them is a perenial candidate for state assemblyman for the last 10 years,  Long Pham.   He is considered to be a joke within Little Saigon and has decided to take out a $100,000 loan instead of trying to go about raising money.

What even more puzzling why he was so unsure of himself is that  he has the personal support of the editor-in-chief of Nguoi Viet Daily News.   Matter of fact,  Nguoi Viet Daily News has indirectly promoting his campaign by giving him extensive media exposure for the last 2 months.   This is the largest newspaper in town and still quite influential.

So Tyler must know something that everybody in Little Saigon knows,  Van Tran and his cohorts are not well liked within the Vietnamese-American voters in Little Saigon.   He does not have a Vietnamese-American base since the voters rather vote for a political jokester like Long Pham than him.

Anyway, the winner in this new landscape is Do Vinh, the democratic candidate and the husband of Dina Nguyen, the one time supervisor candidate against Janet Nguyen.

What is next for Tyler,  the rumor is that he will be running  for mayor against Tri Ta.    What would even be more interesting is to see if Andy Quach would test the water and also run for the mayoral seat in 2012?  He and Tyle Diep have a big fallout recently because of their personal business competition against each other. 

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