Calif. Campaign in Turmoil Over Letters

Aide to GOP Candidate Sent Mailing Saying Immigrants Are Barred From Voting

Tan Nguyen, who is challenging Rep. Loretta Sanchez in Orange County, said a staff member sent the letters without his knowledge and has been fired. (By Ric Francis -- Associated Press)

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 -- A California Republican's congressional campaign went into meltdown Thursday after he said a staff member was responsible for sending thousands of letters to new voters with Hispanic surnames telling them -- wrongly -- that it is illegal for them to vote if they are immigrants.

Tan Nguyen, the GOP candidate for California's 47th District, said in a statement that a staff member had sent the letters without his knowledge and has since been fired. Nguyen, himself an immigrant from Vietnam, has focused his campaign on keeping illegal immigrants out of the country, a deeply felt issue in suburban Orange County.

"The mailer was flawed and ill-conceived," Nguyen's statement said. "I will do whatever I can in the weeks before the election to encourage all citizens in this district to exercise the most important of their democratic privileges."

The Orange County Republican Party immediately called for Nguyen to withdraw from the race. He will hold a news conference today.

Written in Spanish, the letters advise recently registered voters that it is a crime for those in the country illegally to vote in a federal election, which is true. They also say, falsely, that immigrants may not vote and could be jailed or deported for doing so, that the federal government has a new computer system to verify voter names, and that anti-immigration organizations can access the records.

As many as 14,000 letters were sent in the district, now represented by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D). The letterhead identified them as coming from the California Coalition for Immigration Reform.

The group denied responsibility, and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer launched an investigation into possible violations of two state laws that prohibit intimidation to suppress voting. On a radio program, Lockyer confirmed that his office was focused on a Republican congressional candidate.

Sanchez said she has called for a federal probe into possible violations of the Voting Rights Act. "We would like to find who did this and have them prosecuted," she said.

Local Republicans have largely ignored the race, though Sanchez's seat is not normally considered safely Democratic. The district narrowly went for President Bush in 2004.

Nguyen, 32, was largely unknown to local Republicans until he beat out a favored candidate to face Sanchez. Two years ago, Nguyen ran as a Democrat in an effort to take the 46th District seat of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.).

Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh said: "When I interviewed him to determine why he was becoming a Republican, I was less than convinced that he switched parties because he doesn't believe in the values of Democrats. Then, after getting the nomination, he wanted the Republican Party to carry him across the finish line. And I told him that's not how it works."

Nguyen had spent $427,000 of his own money on the race as of September, according to campaign filings.

His campaign materials describe immigration as the focus of his campaign. He praises the Minuteman Project and opposes Bush's proposed guest-worker program.

Nguyen himself immigrated to the United States at age 8, one of thousands of Vietnamese to flee in boats. He worked as a stockbroker before entering politics.

Orange County is known for heated immigration politics. One-third of its residents are Hispanic, according to 2004 census data, and the area is home to large populations of Vietnamese and Middle Eastern immigrants. It is also the birthplace of several anti-illegal-immigration movements. Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen, is a resident, as is Barbara Coe, founder of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform.

"Certainly this is a very polarized area," Sanchez said. "When you have people like the creator of the Minutemen living there, and Gloria Tuchman, who worked on the anti-bilingual law, and Barbara Coe, one would say that it's a pretty volatile area."