Potential GOP spoiler raises money with GOP

A California independent is raising money for House Republicans before he decides whether he wants to play spoiler to one of their top candidates.

Former Marine pilot Quang Pham (I) is weighing an independent campaign that could be damaging to Assemblyman Van Tran’s (R) efforts to take Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s (D-Calif.) seat. But this weekend, he
is organizing a fundraiser for a House Republican at which two other House Republicans will be present.

Pham is hosting the event with California Republican Reps. Ed Royce and Dana Rohrabacher on Saturday in Garden Grove, Calif., with the proceeds going to the reelection campaign of freshman Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.).

And that’s not all: Tran is on the host committee.

Pham said in an interview that the event is about Cao and that he and Tran are just trying to help out a fellow Vietnamese-American. Cao became the first Vietnamese-American in Congress this year, and both Tran and Pham have their eyes on joining him.

“The congressmen know what’s going on (with Tran and me),” Pham said. “We’re just focusing on helping Joseph Cao. There’s nothing about me or Van in this thing.”

Tran has an exploratory committee and is, for all intents and purposes, in the race. Pham told the Orange County Register last week that he was considering the race and would likely run as an independent–unless Tran steps aside, in which case he would run as a Republican.

Pham’s candidacy threatens to steal some of the Asian-American vote, which is already eclipsed in the majority-Hispanic 47th district.

Pham has gained a degree of renown for his memoir, “A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey.” He said in an interview that he would self-fund at least $250,000 and would put together another $250,000 by the fall.

Pham is also well aware of what his candidacy could do to the race.

He noted that, just this week in the nearby 32nd district, state Board of Equalization member Judy Chu (D), an Asian-American, won the Democratic nomination in a special election in another majority-Hispanic district. She was aided in her victory by two Hispanic candidates splitting up the rest of the Democratic vote.

Chu is expected to win the July special election with ease.

Pham said he doesn’t want to waste valuable resources in a primary and seemed irritated that national and state Republicans have lined up behind Tran so quickly.

“Common sense says we split the votes, and she gets reelected,” Pham said. “I’m walking that line until somebody says, let’s see who emerges as the best candidate to beat Ms. Sanchez. You don’t pick somebody a year and a half before the general election.”

“Everybody will look at me as the spoiler. I look at it as, why would I want to (run in the primary) when they’ve already picked their person?”

–Aaron Blake