OC Congresswoman tells reporter in Spanish: Vietnamese, Republicans trying to take her seat

Sanchez: Vietnamese, GOP trying to take her seat

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Orange County Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez told a reporter in Spanish that “the Vietnamese” and Republicans are trying to take her seat in Congress.

Sanchez’s opponent, Republican Assemblyman Van Tran, asked for an apology Thursday, the Orange County Register reported.

The reference sparked a heated debate about the close race on political blogs and local talk radio.

George Andrews, Tran’s campaign manager, said the comment on national television was an attack against immigrants and the Vietnamese community.

“The 47th congressional district belongs to the people and not an individual ethnicity,” Andrews said.

The remark came as Sanchez was being interviewed by Jorge Ramos on Univision’s Sunday morning show, “Al Punto.”

“The Vietnamese and the Republicans are — with an intensity — trying to take away this seat, this seat (from which) we have done so much for our community, take away this seat from us and give it to this Van Tran, who’s very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic,” she said in Spanish.

Her campaign says her statement referred to members of the Vietnamese community who are supporting Tran, who was evacuated by the U.S. Army from Vietnam just before the fall of Saigon in 1975.

He was the first Vietnamese-American to be elected to a state legislature. Sanchez was elected to Congress in 1997.

The 47th congressional district is 70 percent Hispanic and 9.5 percent Vietnamese. Half of its residents were born outside the U.S.

Information from: The Orange County Register, www.ocregister.com