Janet Nguyen

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Janet Nguyen
Janet Nguyen
Orange County Supervisor from the 1st District
Incumbent
Assumed office 
March 27, 2007
Born May 1, 1976
Saigon, Vietnam
Political party Republican
Spouse Tom Bonikowski
Profession Politician

Janet Q. Nguyen (born May 1, 1976) is the county supervisor from the First District of Orange County, California. She won her seat following a historic special election where two Vietnamese-American candidates received half of the votes cast in a field of 10, separated from each other by only 7 votes. She was sworn in on March 27, 2007, after a lengthy court battle. She won a full, four-year term in 2008 in another historic election when all three major candidates were Vietnamese Americans.

She is the youngest person to be elected to the board of supervisors, the first woman to be elected from the First District, and the first Vietnamese-American county supervisor in the United States. Prior to her election to the Board of Supervisors, she served as a city council member for the City of Garden Grove.

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[edit] Personal life

Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam. Her family joined millions of others in becoming boat people when she was five, coming to California in 1981. They first lived in San Bernardino, but settled in Garden Grove in 1990. She attended the University of California, Irvine, at first to become an obstetrician but later majored in political science after she was inspired by then-Supervisor Bill Steiner.[1] She is married to Tom Bonikowski.

[edit] Special Election 2007

The election of Supervisor Lou Correa to the California State Senate in the 2006 election left his supervisorial seat vacant. Ten candidates filed for the seat in the February 6, 2007 special election, including three Vietnamese Americans, who are all Republicans. While the 1st District Supervisorial seat is officially non-partisan, the leading candidate was California State Assemblyman Tom Umberg (who had just left office two months before), a Democrat who had the full support of the labor unions. While the Republican Party did not endorse a candidate, most party leaders were backing Carlos Bustamante.

With three Vietnamese-American candidates, the large Vietnamese-American community who comprise a quarter of registered voters in the First District was galvanized. Janet Nguyen's main opponent, Garden Grove Unified School District Trustee Trung Nguyen, had the support of State Assemblyman Van Tran, who had helped Janet Nguyen get elected to the Garden Grove City Council in 2004. Issues that the candidates discussed included illegal immigration, one that county supervisors do not have the authority to affect. The debate was more heated within the Vietnamese-American community, with accusations flying back and forth between the two Nguyen camps. Trung Nguyen was insulted as a "fob" while Janet Nguyen was criticized for not being fluent in Vietnamese. Janet Nguyen was criticized for not marrying a Vietnamese man; this particular criticism came mostly from the older Vietnamese generation. Pundits speculated that the three Vietnamese-American candidates would split the Vietnamese-American vote, allowing Umberg to easily win election.

With high absentee voter turnout among the Vietnamese-American community, it became clear on election night that Janet Nguyen and Trung Nguyen were leading. Umberg and Bustamante were in third and fourth place, respectively, and quickly conceded defeat. At the end of the night, Janet Nguyen was leading by 52 votes. When all the votes are counted on the following day, however, Trung Nguyen was leading by seven votes. Janet Nguyen requested a recount, and the final result was 10,919 votes for Janet Nguyen and 10,912 votes for Trung Nguyen. Janet Nguyen was certified the winner.

However, Trung Nguyen's lawyers filed lawsuit challenging the recount, alleging that the Registrar of Voters improperly voided votes for him and awarded votes to Janet Nguyen in the recount. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to postpone inaugurating Janet Nguyen. On March 26, she was named the winner, winning by just 3 votes. She would be sworn in on the following day.

[edit] 2008 election

While special elections for Orange County Supervisor are decided by plurality vote, regular elections for Orange County Supervisor are decided by majority vote. Should no candidate capture a majority of the vote, then the top two candidates advance to a run-off election.

In light of the closeness of her initial election in 2007, it was widely expected that Nguyen would be forced into a November 2008 run-off election. However, Nguyen won 56.6% of the vote in the June 2008 election, avoiding a November run-off. Garden Grove Councilmember Dina Nguyen, a fellow Republican, won only 27.7% of the vote while Democratic activist Hoa Van Tran won 15.7% of the vote.

[edit] Electoral history

  • 2007 Orange County Board of Supervisors, 1st District
    • Janet Nguyen (R), 10,919 - 24.1%
    • Trung Nguyen (R), 10,912 - 24.1%
    • Tom Umberg (D), 9,725 - 21.4%
    • Carlos Bustamante (R), 7,460 - 16.5%
    • Mark Rosen (D), 2,181 - 4.8%
    • Brett Elliott Franklin (R), 1,739 - 3.8%
    • Kermit Marsh (R), 1,335 - 2.9%
    • Larry Phan (R), 417 - 0.9%
    • Lupe Moreno (R), 383 - 0.8%
    • Benny Diaz (D), 273 - 0.6%
  • 2008 Orange County Board of Supervisors, 1st District
    • Janet Nguyen (R), 21,350 - 56.6%
    • Dina Nguyen (R), 10,465 - 27.7%
    • Hoa Van Tran (D), 5,928 - 15.7%

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dana Parsons. "She's in second place, but don't count her out", Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-03-01. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Lou Correa		 Orange County Supervisor
1st District
2007 – present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Van Tran		 Garden Grove City Councilmember
2004–2007		 Succeeded by
Steve Jones