BREAKING NEWS: At 9:15 p.m. with 7 of 25 precincts and the absentee votes counted, it looks like San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen is headed towards victory in the hard-fought recall election. The San Jose Police Officers Association headquarters on North Fourth Street in San Jose is packed with supporters, and the parking lot is thick with TV trucks with extended antennae. People are speaking loudly in Vietnamese on cell phones. Assessor Larry Stone is smiling. Councilwoman Nancy Pyle says “call it” and claims it’s a “mathematical impossibility” for the recall to overcome the nearly 9 point lead that Nguyen has. She is 858 votes ahead, with 9740 votes counted.
Just this afternoon everyone was saying she was dead in the water…
If the recall fails, and Madison Nguyen keeps her seat, she will have pulled off an incredible upset ... albeit against, uh, herself.
Nguyen is expected to make a speech any minute now, calling for unity and appealing to the community to forget about differences. We’ll keep you posted as the night unfolds.
Great news! Will those whimpering panty-waists move on to something substantive now?
Thanks to the Yes on Recall folks for wasting $500,000 of our money. Great investment in D7 and the rest of the City. Are you going to hold bake sales now to raise funds to repay the City?
Madison Nguyen should do the following things:
1. Lose Chuck Reed’s cell phone number. I know you want to cheer him up from his chronic depression, but if there was anyone really responsible for this mess, it was Chuck and his buddy, Victor Ajlouny.
2. Labor and the local Democratic Party helped in more ways than one. They are truly the best friends any candidate could have.
3. Find someone in the recall campaign and try to set up a dialog.
4. Congratulations, Madison, you and I have never been friends, but I respect your standing in the community, your courage, and your tenacity. Much success to you,
congrats to MN for staring down the thugs in D7, but i must confess whenever I see the CHamber of Commerce, Big Labor, and the city’s political establishment agree on something I:
Reach for my wallet.
In any case, I was wondering if we could defray the costs of the special election by applying for some Stimulus Funds: it seems to me that the recall election fits the criteria of ‘shovel-ready’ because it was shoveling so much….
You get the idea
Great use of funds…
One more precinct in. She picked up a quarter point. Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins grabbed the mike first and is planting a flag on the moon for Labor, with a capital “L.”
Now the Chamber of Commerce’s turn. Pat Dando at the microphone. She mentioned Phaedra by name. It’s a business-labor lovefest!
Pat’s still talking but there’s so much noise, no one can hear her. Everybody’s in a raucous, celebratory mood. No hunger strikers here. Lots of skewered, roasted meats, rice-paper eggrolls, pepperoni pizza…
Just rest the clock to reflect the correct time. Oops, we were on daylight savings time. Correct posting times will show now.
Democratic boss Steve Preminger spoke, then someone who spoke in Vietnamese. Radio station owner Bob Kieve just introduced Madison Nguyen. She’s speaking now. “Thank you so much!” Applause.
“We did it!” Madison screams. She just disclosed her weight at 95 pounds. People were saying she’s looking a little thin. Hard to hear her over all the noise.
She said something about “working together.” Now she’s acknowledging people.
This is a great victory for the people of San Jose. It’s unfortunate this election had to take place at all but at least it ended the right way.
Major props to Labor, Mayor Chuck, and the Chamber for being on the right side of this and going all out.
Bryan Do and Barry Do will be licking their war wounds for the next few months.
Congratulations Madison!! Now, back to work.
Tina
#10-Mayor Reed,
If that really is you, I’d like to ask that you personally make every effort to take the lead in reaching out to and start healing this community, and the City of San Jose. This entire sad affair could have been avoided had Councilmember Nguyen, the Council, and you worked with this community from start to finish on this project in an effort to create a win/win. That type of collaboration would have shown D7 citizens respect, and good faith, something that was sorely lacking in how this situation was handled from the get go.
It is easy for you to say it is time to move on while enjoying the fruit of victory, but I encourage you to sit down and take a good hard look at the shortcomings on the part of the City in this situation. No one is blameless in this, despite what many of you are thinking. And remember, if our economy wasn’t as bad as it is now, the outcome of this recall election could have been very different.
I have posted two articles that I hope you and your fellow victors will read. I hope you, the Council, and Madison can learn from your mistakes, and make a sincere effort in making peace with this community. And finally, my hope is that you, as our Mayor, will never allow something like this to happen again.
http://www.saigonfilms.com/tiengdanweekly/littlesaigon/madison_closingremarks_only.htm
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_11830942
I am delighted that the voters of Council District 7 have spoken and defeated the recall election.
I am looking forward to Councilmember Madison Nguyen’s continued service on the City Council. She has done an excellent job of representing the interests of the people of her district.
Now that the recall is over, I hope that the community will join together, put this matter behind us, and turn attention to addressing the critical issues facing District 7 and our city.
Final tally:
NO 55.39% 6,502
YES 44.61% 5,237
Voters in District 7, in a high turnout election, reject the recall by greater than a 10 point margin and more the 1250 votes.
38.17% of the district’s 30,777 voters participated — more than in Nguyen’s past races. The election reportedly cost half a million dollars.
kathleen: Please explain this comment from your post:
if our economy wasn’t as bad as it is now, the outcome of this recall election could have been very different.
…and how you know this.
your pal, RGD
#17- RG Dad,
Before I answer your question, I want to clarify a few things; I did not support the recall because I think getting her out next year would have been smarter. There are some incredible leaders in D7 that have worked very hard in the community for years, who have much more experience in not only working with people, but who understand the needs of our City as a whole.
Secondly, I have no personal axe to grind with Madison. I don’t know her well enough to like or dislike her. My opinion of her comes solely from her actions in Council Meetings, comments she’s made in the media, and from a few conversations I’ve had with her.
And finally, I do not agree that this recall election was unwarranted, unfair, or a waste of time. I honestly think our representatives need to be held accountable for their actions. When they make us promises during their campaigns, take our money to get them elected, and then betray us by ignoring our wishes in favor of special interest groups; we need to send them a message loud and clear that that is not acceptable on any level. That is exactly what this Vietnamese community did. I say BRAVO to them because if I were Madison winning by some mere 1,300 plus votes, I’d have to rethink my chance of winning another term next year, and it would certainly make me re-evaluate my behavior towards these people. People by the way who put her into office in the first place.
Having said that, to get to your query. My personal opinion is based on a lot of facts and personal info I’ve been privy to. Besides the two quotes from the Merc story below, and the many blogs I’ve read with people saying they are voting no on the recall because our economy and budget is in deep trouble, and because I spoke with Vietnamese folks who hate Madison but were too concerned over the cost of the election in these dire economic times to support the recall, and because I’ve watched the media cite the cost of the campaign over the reason for the recall election, and because I’ve seen polls saying just that, I firmly believe in a much better economy, she would be out on her butt.
“Nguyen’s campaign consistently argued the estimated $503,129 cost of the special election to recall a council member who already faces re-election next year was a waste of money, coming to about $40 a vote. Had the recall been successful, it probably would have cost the public another $1 million to replace her in a June election and almost certain November runoff.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11838397
“We sent the right message that this was wasteful, unfair, unwarranted,” Nguyen said.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11838397
Secondly, if Madison doesn’t stop making arrogant statements like the one above, and doesn’t do anything past providing lip service about her wanting to heal this issue with this very powerful community, she may just lose next years election. Her arrogance, her stubbornness, and her sheer inexperience in politics got her into this mess, and that is were she’ll stay until she wakes up and makes some changes in the way she deals with this issue. Her supporters aren’t doing her any favors by turning a blind eye to her part in this mess.
Everyone can keep blaming and bashing the Vietnamese community for this entire situation, but the fact is that Madison and Madison alone created this mess, and cost we tax payers over a half million dollars for this election.
Revisionist history doesn’t change the fact that prior to protests, and the hunger strike, Madison got so stubborn at one point that she absolutely refused to discuss this or work with these folks at all.
I was at many Council Meetings and saw how hard these folks tried to resolve this, and how eventually they got so frustrated with her that they became angry enough to fight back.
Even Pete Constant, one of Madison’s most ardent supporters against the recall refused to ignore the tax payer funded survey that showed the majority of D7 citizens wanted the name Little Saigon, not any of the other choices on the survey. That in and of its self is proof positive to me that Madison had no intention of following the City’s process and respecting the outcome.
#17 – Rose Garden Dad:
Picture it this way: It is 5 years ago. Jobs are plentiful, you are able to make a good living, the economy is doing well, and the City budget is not in the media every day because it has a huge deficit to reconcile. You are being asked to vote on an issue, like this recall, that you don’t really care about. Now fast-forward 5 years. You are out of a job or you are worried about layoffs. Money is tight. You are worried about how you are going to provide for your family. The media is reporting daily on the City’s budget deficit, and what City services will be drastically cut. On top of that, you are being asked to vote on the recall for a Council Person you don’t really care about. But you see that Taxpayers are going to be held responsible for the possibility of 2 special elections that will run into millions. How likely are you to get out and vote on this issue now, as opposed to voting on this issue 5 years ago? A good campaign strategist uses smokescreens, like cost to the taxpayers, to avoid dealing with the real issue of the recall election. Special interest groups, like Labor and the Chamber, join in with the Media, in beating the recall by putting in their own money and influence to divert the issue by talking about the cost of the election. What is the likelihood that after all this rhetoric, you would focus on the real issue or purpose of the recall, as opposed to the cost of the election?
From what I am seeing from the Mercury News and other sources that is exactly the argument Madison’s Campaign made to the voters of District 7. You have to admit, it was a brilliant campaign strategy on the part of Madison’s Campaign.
I don’t buy it. I doubt the economy had much to do with the outcome at all. Most folks saw this for what it was—an attempt to hijack a council seat. If you don’t like an elected official, for whatever reason, vote against them in the next election. Recall should be used only in the most egregious situations and this did not rise to that level and that’s why the recall failed.
Certainly people were disturbed at the waste of money for the election and further disturbed about the potential for even more wasted money if there was another election, but I doubt that was a deciding factor.
In the end, common sense prevailed. It was not necessarily a vindication of Madison but it was a repudiation of the recall proponents and their bullying and intimidating tactics.
#20-Voter,
“It was not necessarily a vindication of Madison..”
I think you better tell her that because she and her supporters think it is.
>> Kathleen: “Madison and Madison alone created this mess, and cost we tax payers over a half million dollars for this election.”
The first half of that sentence is a warranted opinion, but Madison certainly didn’t arrange to have herself recalled and should not be blamed for the half million dollar expense.
I can, have, and will blame the Recall Madison committee for that city expense—particularly because, as you say, they could have waited to vote her out in 2010.
If anything, I congratulate her on campaigning hard enough to save the city another million.
#22-Kenny,
You are certainly entitled to believe that, I however disagree. Had she acted in good faith from the start and respected the results of the tax payer funded survey, and had our Mayor grabbed the rings before things got out of hand once she didn’t, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation in the first place. (You can say what you want about Cindy Chavez but she is a definite consensus builder, and I can say with certainty that if Cindy were Mayor, this whole issue would have been resolved behind closed doors in committee.)
Kenny, I was wondering if you could help me understand something. I’ve been a mediator for some 25 years. When I look at a situation/conflict, I tend to look at all sides and then mainly the facts. I honestly don’t understand why very few people on this blog are even acknowledging Madison’s part in creating this whole mess; rather they just focus on the money aspect, and the behavior of the Little Saigon folks. Is it because the Little Saigon folks reacted so harshly to her betrayal that it fogged up her behavior in this, or what? I’m being sincere here, so please give me an honest assessment on this because I just don’t get this one sided viewpoint.
What a colossal, colossal waste of our money.
Kenny,
Thanks for your honesty.
You said, “By way of disclosure, I’m more upset at how party B treated the Mayor than anything else that happened.”
May I ask what you mean by that?
Well, I’ll start by saying I have no mediator experience. My chosen profession, actually, is to create, maintain, and promote brand bias.
In short, I am biased. The only claim I will lay to being equivocal is that I am a strategist by heart and so necessarily consider the COST of an action as well as its BENEFIT.
Madison did have a hand in causing distress in her district. And where you can blame one party for causing distress, I hardly see the benefit in blaming party A for the chosen reaction of party B. We have a phrase for this: “Blaming the victim.”
So I have a huge problem with how party B reacted. But we can definitely agree that party A caused agitation. No question.
By way of disclosure, I’m more upset at how party B treated the Mayor than anything else that happened.
Let’s get real here. For all those who doesn’t understand the Vietnamese community, this recall was an attempt by a bunch of idiotic bitter Vietnamese people who wants to brand every single vietnamese as traitor that won’t foolishly hate the current vietnamese communist party like they do. There is currently 2 political generation of vietnamese. One are these old folks who talk about the war and their lost everyday to the point of being consume by their hatred of the communist and in is turning oppressive just like the communists themselves. the second is the younger generation that wants to move on, heal the past and work to improve the future.
Whether Madison Nguyen wanted to name the place Vietnam Town Business District b/c she wants the Vietnamese community to be inclusive and welcoming to other non-vietnamese or whether she chose that name to favor her supporter Lap Tang who has a similar business Vietnam Town are both acceptable within the law. It was up to her and the city councilmembers to decide on the name. Yes she did ask the community for their suggestions but it doesnt mean she had to choose the most vocal choice from a couple of hundred or maybe even less that show up at the meeting out of nearly 100,000 residents in the district. Personally i think she probably chose it to both favor Lap Tang and b/c it was a more fitting name in diverse district. The name little saigon in an area where 43% is Mexican 28% vietnamese and some 13% white make us vietnamese look like a bunch of non-inclusive jackasses who only cares about our own culture and have no regard and respect for the rest of America.