Tran moves up in national GOP program

Just days after winning a three-way primary in the 47th Congressional District, Assemblyman Van Tran has moved up one more rung on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Young Guns program, bringing him one step closer to getting financial support from the party in his bid to unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez.

A combination of a convincing win in the primary and a solid fundraising base contributed to his being moved from “On the Radar” to “Contender” status in the program, said NRCC spokeswoman Joanna Burgos. If Tran continues to raise substantial campaign funds and demonstrates a good ground game for getting out the vote he would become a “Young Gun” and then could count on financial support from the NRCC. Burgos said the NRCC expects that with the primary behind him Tran will be able to ramp up his fundraising efforts and collect more endorsements than before that contest.

Tran won his primary with 54.3 percent of the vote. As of May 19 he had raised $665,094 and had $347,914 cash on hand to begin the general election campaign. Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, had raised $1.1 million up to that point and had $1.1 million cash on hand.

“What’s encouraging is that now that we are finished with the primary it will be a head to head election between me and my Democratic opponent,” Tran said. “The race is much clearer on the part of Republican supporters. So we are seeing a lot of encouraging signs in terms of donor interest as well as the general level of interest on the part of the voters. I have four and a half months to run this race and get my message out to the people and I’ll do everything possible and necessary to make sure my message is heard.”

Tran started the primary season with three other opponents, one of whom, businessman Quang Pham, was seen as a much more formidable contender than either Katherine Smith or Tan Nguyen. Pham dropped out just before the filing deadline and has since endorsed Tran. Smith, a member of the Anaheim Union High School District, chose not to raise or spend any money on her primary bid. She received 25.9 percent of the vote. And Nguyen, who ran unsuccessfully against Sanchez in 2006, raised $27,975 for his primary bid. He got 19.8 percent of the vote in the June 8 contest.

Tran wouldn’t say how much he needs to raise to unseat the 13-year incumbent Democrat.

“I’m not going to put a number out because I think that’s unrealistic,” Tran said. “I will make sure that we will have the financial resources to get our message out there.”

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