The FlashReport started hearing a buzz yesterday that first-term Assemblyman Van Tran, who is now seeking the GOP nomination for the 34th State Senate seat being vacated by the term-limited Democrat Joe Dunn, had endorsed Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen to replace him in the Assembly.

The source of the rumors was a mailing that has gone out from Nguyen’s campaign inviting people to a February 9th fundraising event with special guest Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, on which Tran is listed at the top of the Host Committee.

Knowing how close Van is with both Nguyen and the other GOP candiate vying for his seat, businessman Jim Righeimer, I put a call into Van so that I could try to sort this out.

Van told me that, "Both Janet and Jim are friends of mine – long standing friends.  Janet asked me to lend my name to be on the host committee [for this event] in early January, at least a couple of weeks before I made my announcement for State Senate, and before Jim Righeimer had let everyone know he was running for the open Assembly seat."

Van made it clear that he has not endorsed anyone for the 67th, adding that "either Jim or Janet would make a great member of the legislature."

Tran went on to say that 100% of his focus is on his own race for the 34th Senate District, as it should be.  His colleague, Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher will be a formidable primary election foe.  And then the general election proves to be even more challenging, since unlike the 67th AD which is ‘safe GOP’ territory, the 34 Senate seat is very competitive.  The two top Democrats duking out their primary are Assemblyman Tom Umberg, and Supervisor (former Assemblyman ) Lou Correa.

I haven’t talked to anyone else listed on the invite, but a good number of them are folks I know are close to Righeimer.   Their stories are probably similar.  For that matter, I don’t know if Righeimer’s entry in the race will impact Assemblywoman Runner’s support.

That said, this will be an interesting primary, and I look forward to covering the race!  Righeimer and Nguyen will both be aggresive candidates.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 4th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.