Monday Assemblyman Van Tran (R-68) is set to annouce he will seek the GOP nomination for the 
34th Senate Dist. Tran was just elected in 2004 to the Assembly after serving on the Garden Grove City Council. Tran may face Lynn Daucher (R-72) who is termed out. I expect Daucher will drop her bid with Tran coming on strong.
Even after winning in the Primary, Tran will face the Democrat in a district that will have a plurality of Republican voters, but has sent a Democrat to the Senate twice in the last eight years. Assemblyman Tom Umberg is the leading candidate for the Dems, while County Supervisor Lou Correa is also rumored to be considering a run.
Also this week expect to see Janet Nguyen, Republican Garden Grove city council member to annouce for the 68th AD. Nguyen was district director for Assemblyman Maddox who Tran succeeded.
Nguyen is young, in her late 20’s. But the 68th has a history of being a young man (now woman’s) game. Curt Pringle represented the seat in his late 20’s and Maddox was in his early 30’s when he first ran.
It is interesting that Maddox, Tran and now Nguyen have all served on the 
Garden Grove city council. The 68th also includes parts of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Westminister and Anahieim. Other possible candidate for the 68th is GOP Garden Grove Councilman, Mark Leyes who already has a committee open for the position, the ability to raise real money and a 15-year history of sucessful elections to the council under his belt.
The 68th is solidly GOP so the nominee would not have to worry about November. In these times of term-limits candidates have usually had more than a year to prepare for a legislative campaign. This campaign will be short–ability to raise money is key. Nguyen already has more than $50,000 in her account.