Posted on 10/24/2006 7:17:41 PM PDT by freedomdefender
A Republican congressional candidate whose campaign was linked to an intimidating letter sent to Hispanic voters said Tuesday he would not quit the race if he is charged with a crime.
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"If you're innocent and somebody charges you, would you give up? No, you've got to fight," said Tan Nguyen, who is seeking to unseat five-term Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez (news, bio, voting record) in California's 47th Congressional District.
"Innocent people can be persecuted," he told The Associated Press.
The state Department of Justice has opened a voting rights investigation into the letter sent to certain Democratic voters in Orange County.
The letter, written in Spanish, warned: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."
Immigrants who have become naturalized U.S. citizens are eligible to vote.
Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant who has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, was interviewed at his campaign office. It was open for the first time since being raided last week by investigators who seized computers, political signs and other items.
Nguyen said he purchased a database of 14,000 Hispanic voters from a Burbank company called Political Data Inc. so he could send Spanish-language fliers to voters. He said his campaign sent four fliers using the database before his office manager forwarded the names to an outside party.
Nguyen refused to identify the office manager or the third party who he said mailed the letters.
He said last week that he believed an employee in his office might have used his campaign's voter database to send the letter without his knowledge.
He reiterated that he did not authorize or approve the intimidating letter and said neither he nor any of his three paid campaign staff members wrote or funded the mailing.
"It has to be clear: I didn't authorize it, I didn't approve it, we didn't send it out from the campaign. People who are saying that it's coming from the campaign is a fat lie," he said.
Asked whether any campaign volunteers were responsible for the mailing, Nguyen referred questions to his attorney.
William Braniff, his campaign attorney, said a volunteer drafted an English version of the letter and e-mailed it to a volunteer who translated it into Spanish. The office manager forwarded the database of Hispanic voters to a volunteer, said Braniff, who declined to give the name of the office manager.
Nathan Barankin, spokesman for the state Department of Justice, had no immediate comment on Nguyen's account. Sanchez's campaign has said it would not comment until after the investigation is complete.
Francine Busby. It's a good thing she lost in the special election, and she ought to lose again next month.
Get a clue yourself ~ racism is alive and well in California, and it has its own cheerleading squad who get out there every single time to distract folks from it.
Mr. Nguyen did nothing wrong ~ he's the Republican candidate. He commands our support.
That's usually a sign of raw racism at work, and it's not surprising at all.
Are you sure you have read this thread or did you just read the news piece and then jump to the end with material we've chewed up, digested, and disposed of already?
I think we can all agree that the wording in the letter is not the best.
"E" prefixing a verb usually means "EX" or "OUT OF". "I" prefixing a verb usually means "IN" or "INTO".
There, with that satisfied, notice that in Spanish we have the exact same structure.
Could it be we are both drawing on the same fundamental Latin/Ladino usage? Or is there a mystery here unfathomable by RINOs and Democratic party hacks?
Ah, yes, now I see ~ "EX" and "IN" are all same thing to RINO/DEMhack people ~ ah, so! Resume place in line awaiting scraps from the table of our betters.
Sounds like a plan to me.
READ the letter it says if you are here ILLEGALLY you cannot vote. I don't understand how anyone can make an issue of the letter, even if you are a legal resident you still cannot vote unless you are a citizen. I always tell folks words mean things, read the words.
Sorry before hand for losing my patience:
NO you idiot, naturalized citizens can vote, legal residents CANNOT vote.
Unless you are planning on using a bunch of unlawful voters yourself to win the election. You aren't are you?
http://2005.kfi640.com/pages/streaming.html
Well, since some here love to point fingers and label people the enemy for an opposing opinion I'll just leave my comments as is.
I never resorted to calling names. My contention is the letter is poorly worded. This may be due to translation but even naturalized citizens are referred to as immigrants these days by themselves and others. I would never call you an idiot sir, can you refrain?
>>He was shifty and would not answer the most straight-forward questions
Quack quack waddle waddle... politician.
ROFL
Here's the latest:
1) Defendant admits prior knowledge of the original letter.
2) Defendant asserts he did not compose or authorize distribution of the letter reviewed
3) Defendant asserts that his campaign has been effectively ended by the AG who confiscated his resources.
4) Defendant's antagonists have now switched to his recent residential change, a sign that defendant will prevail in the hate crime investigation.
"It has to be clear: I didn't authorize it, I didn't approve it, we didn't send it out from the campaign. People who are saying that it's coming from the campaign is a fat lie[emphasis added]"
I heard him on the radio this evening. Thought he did pretty well. The hosts, John and Ken, seemed to think so, too.
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