Some local Vietnamese folks are already lobbying San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed to bypass a special election, and appoint someone to fill Councilmember Madison Nguyen‘s seat, should she be recalled on March 3. Barry Hung Do, an anti-Nguyen community activist, says he met with Reed back in December hoping to talk him into appointing someone to the embattled councilmember’s seat rather than spending money on a special election.
Do says this is the course of action preferred by the community he represents, provided that the appointee is someone who is “reasonable.” Does “reasonable” mean only someone who will go along with the renaming of the “Little Saigon” Business District, the issue that mobilized Do and his supporters? “It should be someone who can work with both sides,” Do says, “not a crony from Madison.”
Naturally, Do already has some people in mind that he and his colleagues would like to see take over Nguyen’s seat. Do wouldn’t name names, but several sources have dropped the name Khoa Nguyen (not related to Madison), who happens to work in the mayor’s office. Khoa Nguyen, who is also a trustee on the Franklin-McKinley School Board, says that since the recall hasn’t even happened, it would be premature to speculate, but he has no intentions at this time to run. Sounds reasonable.
Reasonable. Reasonable like a hunger strike or a smear campaign over the name of a shopping mall.
Mr. Reed would do well to leave the seat vacant until next election, should emotion win over reason itself in the recall. Mr. Do should just be thankful that Mr. Reed himself is reasonable, and doesn’t take personal offense or umbrage at all of the unwarranted abuse he’s had to deal with already.
No, no, no and a thousand times no!
I have written numerous post on the Lantern critical of Madison Nguyen and have supported attempts at seeking, by petition, a democratic solution to, what I believed, was her irresponsible action. BUT THIS IS WHERE I GET OFF THE RIVERBOAT. Why are these people like Barry Do any better, especially if they paid Ajlouny to play both sides. Sorry, this really sinks it for me. This is where I begin to support Madison Nguyen as an ELECTED representative, because there is no legal bar to her running in that special election, and they know it.
I am, with respect to giving the recall an honest assessment, outa here!
No more supportive posts. I favor NO ON RECALL.
Thank you, Mr. Rowen, for your honest assessment.
San Jose’s political power elite versus the ambitious political elite from the vietnamese community.
Sometimes power becomes more important than the reason one sought power in the first place. We’ve seen that with both Republicans and Democrats in Washington D.C.
Locally, money and influence flocks to incumbents and establishment candidates, and even with “sunshine laws” I think there has to be some influence around land use matters that goes with the thousands of dollars developers give. Its almost a two-tiered democratic system where you have to muddle through a frustrating system if you’re a common man or breeze through if you’re well connected and wealthy.
Sometimes people pursue power without even the pretense of a good cause or drive to public service. It becomes an entitlement to give voice to the ethnic communities who have not been represented before. I’ve been well represented by elected leaders of all races in the past and don’t personally feel I have to see a face like mine to be truly represented.
If the recall passes, the people should be able to choose anyone they want to replace the incumbent removed. This move to avoid a special election is perhaps a realization on the part of pro-recall activists that they might win the political purity battle but lose the war for advancing the vietnamese-american community into more power and influence in the mainstream.
You can’t be a dove on israel, soft on castro or anti-abortion to rise to high national office with most of the special interest currents in our nation right now. These litmus tests are idiotic and simplify complex and “changing” issues, but give us knee-jerk representation that doesn’t want to offend vocal factions.
We’ve brought the worst of national politics to San Jose with this recall mess. I, however, support the process and hope the residents in the district take the time to vote with a considered position on their current representative.
After this is over, like the proposal for a State Constitutional Convention, I think its time to take another look at San Jose’s political system. The district system combined with term limits has combined to give us very poor results as leaders focus on the election cycle and the next job their running for after 8 years over the long term interests of the city. Strong ties to the community are less important than large amounts of cash from developers or other special interest blocks who are backing a proxy in office.
And for a lighter tone, I think a good election is great entertainment and good for re-engaging the electorate in the issues, so I don’t buy the arguement that we need to save a few thousand and can’t afford special elections.
Which one is it, Fly? The Khoa Nguyen in the Mayor’s office who is a school board member in Franklin-McKinley School District or the Khoa Nguyen who doesn’t work in the Mayor’s office but is a member on the Berryessa School Board?
Didn’t an editor over there question how a Berryessa School Board member could run for council in District 7?
It is a welcome site to read Blair Whitney’s postings. Blair, Anthony Drummond, and a couple of others are among the last great student activists and leaders that did good work at San Jose State. Sadly for over a decade, the administration at San Jose State, particularly the incompetent Vice President of Student Affairs Verrill Phillips have worked to “dumb down” student activism. Phillips opposed the effort to register Tower Hall, once part of the largest reinforced concrete building in the world, as a national landmark because SAN JOSE STATE Vice President Phillips said publicly, “I do not want the STATE to have anything to do with this university.”
Sadly, there has not been an effective student leader on that campus in any capacity for over ten years. At our Santa Clara City Council meeting, a popinjay named Jordan screamed out (violating the laws about meeting conduct), “BLESS YOU, JAMIE MCLEOD, YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE ON THAT COUNCIL THAT HAS AN ETHICS!” These silly popinjays that act like milk monitors at SJSU which is what the current president and hapless VP of Student Affairs want out of their student leaders,demonstrate that people like Blair and Anthony are sorley missed for their good sense, leadership, and public knowledge. Good that Blair is making a difference here at San Jose Inside.
So the recall folks get bashed for “wasting” city money (up to $1.5M, according to some sources), then get bashed for wanting to avoid wasting money. The recall election is a given, the follow on elections are not. I believe that the community is justified in asking the mayor to appoint a replacement.
IF the recall succeeds, there would have to be at least one more election, more likely, two. By the time the voters in D7 elect a new representative, the reelection campaign will begin. Any candidate would have to raise money for three (maybe 4) elections within a year and a half. Is that reasonable? Having first hand experience at it, I can say that is not something I would relish.
Pat,
Those are all excellent points on why the recall itself is flawed. All of this snowballed over how to spend $100K in city-funded signage. Its proponents don’t care about money—they care about power, just as Blair Whitney alludes.
‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’.—Freud, (or one of his detractors), warning us against overemphasizing symbolism
Yeah, sure. If Barry Do was so interested in saving the city’s money, he wouldn’t have driven this recall in the first place and would have been patient enough to wait until 2010 when Madison is up for Re-election.
As for Khoa Nguyen, he’s new to the School Board here. Met him once and he seems to be a descent guy who did win in what I consider was a major upset. I would say he’s not quite experienced enough for City Council. Plus (not that most people care about this anymore) I think it would be in bad taste for Reed to appoint someone who doesn’t currently live in District 7. There are plenty of qualified people already there who could fill the seat. In either case the Recall is a bad idea anyways and I encourage anyone in D7 reading this to vote no.
Anyone who has ever talked to Barry knows he is not too bright. And if you talk to enough Vietnamese, you know that he’s not respected in the community. Most of them think that Barry is fond of kissing a certain body part of Chuck Reed and anyone with a bit of power.
The truth as we all know is that it really is Chuck Reed who wants to bring Khoa Nguyen in because with Khoa as a councilmember, Reed would finally have “working majority”.
Thus, I have to question the writer in making Barry meeting with Chuck an issue, particularly when Barry is not part of the Recall effort.
#8 Pat: I must respectfully disagree.
If the Little Saigon supporters really favor a democratic process, as they have repeatedly claimed, how can they support having the city council APPOINT a replacement representative?
Remember, this is the same city council that opposed Little Saigon and whose members strongly oppose the recall. What are the chances that this council would appoint a pro-Little Saigon Vietnamese American?
If the recall succeeds, and I doubt that it will, the likely result is the D7 Vietnamese will lose their strongest advocate at City Hall. Remember it was Nguyen who first proposed honoring Vietnamese contributions with a business district, fought to bring new retail development and jobs, and raised the profile of the local Vietnamese community.
The same cannot be said of Barry Do, Ly Tong or any of the Little Saigon protesters. In fact I am hard pressed to think of ANYTHING constructive those two have done for SJ’s Vietnamese community. Thanks to the Little Saigon bosses, San Jose’s Vietnamese community has gone from an emerging political force (under Nguyen) to being perceived as a group that can’t hang a few street banners without bellicose protests, hunger strikes and a recall!
Ironically, your entire second paragraph makes a very compelling case AGAINST the recall: With the regular election cycle on the horizon why bother with an expensive recall?
Make no mistake, Pat. This recall is bad for San Jose and especially bad for it’s Vietnamese-American community.
I have to agree with Pat. We all should applaud the Recall for trying to save the city money. Why bash them when they are proposing that we want in the first place.
As for why they want to recall madison, it is far more than just about the naming of a business district nor about how to spend $100,000. It is about their sense of integrity and fairness.
We all can agree that Madison is not the most honest member on the Council. She did try to pull a fast one on that $100,000 for a developer. The reality was it didn’t cost $100K for the Little Saigon folks to put up the banners. So why did she want to allocate that much money for Lop Tang? There is definitely something going on behind that deal.
End of the day, the question is:
Is that and other offenses that Madison did/allegedly did sufficient to recall her?
Well, I have been concerned about costs given the current economic climate. Sure, madison is bad but can we afford to recall and then replace her?
The cost of recall is a sunk cost, it matters whether I vote yes or no (as for short term fiscal impact). I will get to vote my conscience—-YES because it is time we set a higher standard for our councilmember.
The Recall group’s new proposal is what have changed my mind from a No to a YES on Recall.
In the long run, I believe the cost of this election is neglible when other politicians begin to watch our dime a bit better and be more honest.
Honesty..now isn’t that what we want from our politicians?
so Recall group, I will looking for you this weekend. Need to get me one of your lawn signs.
James,
Honestly, how much $money$ did they pay you to sit there 24/7 and write all these nonsense? And what’s your real name?
Want to meet face-to-face over the Starbucks of your choice, buddy? I love lively debates, hon.
#8- Pat,
Very well said, and thank you for saying it. Don’t forget, bigotry is STILL alive and well in San Jose, and the treatment this community has received by many, for taking part in our democratic process prove it. Thank you for taking the time to learn both sides of the issue on this topic, and for having the courage to write what you have in #8! Compassion for others is a vital part of humanity, thank you for leading by example.