GOP candidate threatens hispanics with jail if they vote

[Grimmlok]

AG: Voter Warning Linked to GOP Campaign
Oct 19 9:38 AM US/Eastern

State investigators have linked a Republican campaign to letters sent to thousands of Orange County Hispanics warning them they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month, a spokesman for the attorney general said.

"We have identified where we believe the mailing list was obtained," said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

He declined to identify the specific Republican campaign Wednesday, citing the ongoing investigation. The Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register both reported Thursday that the investigation appeared to be focused on the campaign of Tan D. Nguyen, a Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez.

The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "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."

In fact, immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens can vote.

Complaints about the letters this week prompted state and federal investigations, and Barankin said investigators had been questioning people in Orange County.

The two newspapers reported state investigators had found the location where the letters were printed and mailed to an estimated 14,000 Democratic voters in central Orange County. The Los Angeles Times, citing an unnamed source, said authorities had interviewed Nguyen at his office.

Nguyen did not return messages left by The Associated Press or either newspaper.

Sanchez said in an interview Thursday on Univision that the sender should be punished for stating that immigrants can't vote. It would be unfortunate if the person responsible was another immigrant, she said.

"What a shame, really, that this is still happening in the United States today," Sanchez said.

The owner of Huntington Beach-based Mailing Pros, Christopher West, told The Orange County Register that he was hired to do the mailings but didn't know what they said and didn't know any laws were being broken when the mailer was sent. He said he gave investigators the name of the person who hired him.

"I'm the one that processed it, and I don't read Spanish," West said. "Until the investigator read it to me, I didn't know the content."

Scott Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, condemned the letter as "an obnoxious, grotesque piece of work."

"Regardless of who did it _ Republican or Democrat _ if it's a crime, then whoever did it should be prosecuted," Baugh said.

A group of six Vietnamese-American political candidates running for offices in Orange County issued a joint statement saying: "The content of this mailer is offensive to the immigrant voters, regardless of their ethnicity."

The note's letterhead resembles that of an anti-illegal immigration group, California Coalition for Immigration Reform, but group leader Barbara Coe said she told investigators for the attorney general's office Wednesday that her group didn't authorize the letter and she didn't know who sent it.

"The letterhead was altered and I've never head of any Sergio Ramirez," the name signed to the letter, Coe said.

Numerous political leaders including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have denounced the letter and called for the investigations.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/19/D8KRNVS80.html

Time to play dirty, folks!

[Grimmlok]

And now an update!

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - 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.

"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.

William Braniff, Nguyen's 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.

Nguyen called for an investigation into what sparked the criminal probe.

Nathan Barankin, spokesman for the state Department of Justice, said the letters alone triggered it.

"What prompted the probe was hundreds of letters arriving in the mailboxes of registered voters a couple weeks ago," he said.

Sanchez's campaign has said it will not comment until the investigation is complete.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061025/..._voting_threat

They sent thousands of letters to Latinos threatening them with jail if they voted. Big crime, that one. But he's still gonna run even if they charge with a crime. His biggest concern is how the feds found out about what he did. Well, here's a thought - you sent thousands of letters out under your name threatening people in apparently violation of voters rights laws. Perhaps that's how the feds found out.

Idiot.

[LynnieD]

I saw this jackass on the news last night, and only caught the tail end of the story, but this dude isn't exactly a Rhodes Scholar, I mean the guy can barely complete a sentence and he's threatening IMMIGRANTS? He's a REAL piece of work.

[KrisNine]

Hey, he's right here in the OC!!! I'm so proud

ETA: Just kidding, of course.

[crumpet]

Are y'all mad because they stated that immigrants would be jailed for voting because it's illegal for them to do so? If so, I agree, because citizens can vote and many immigrants are citizens. It's dumb to assume every immigrant is illegal. However, I'd disagree with anyone who thinks it's wrong to arrest illegals caught voting in an election. I guess I'm just confused by your responses as to the point of contention.