September 24, 2010 3:54 PM

Loretta Sanchez: "The Vietnamese" are Trying to Take My Seat
Posted by Lucy Madison 10 comments


Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California
(Credit: CBS)

California Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez has come under fire for recent comments she made stating that "the Vietnamese" were trying to steal her congressional seat.

"The Vietnamese and the Republicans are, with an intensity, trying to take this seat from which we have done so much for our community -- to take this seat and give it to this Van Tran, who is very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic," Sanchez said during a recent Spanish-language interview with Univision, according to the Orange County Register.

Tran, a Republican state assemblyman and Sanchez's challenger for the seat, is a Vietnamese-American whose family immigrated to the United States in 1975 amid political turmoil in Vietnam, according to his website.

Tran's campaign promptly responded to Sanchez's comments, saying "the attack against immigrants and the Vietnamese community on national television is shocking. The 47th congressional district belongs to the people and not an individual ethnicity."

"At a time when our state faces an unemployment rate above 12 percent, Loretta Sanchez resorts to insensitive racist attacks against her own constituents," said Tran campaign manager George Andrews, according to the Register.

Andrews added: "This is one of many incidents demonstrating that Loretta Sanchez is disconnected with the values of central Orange County. In fact, she has attended more parties at the Playboy Mansion than bills passed in Congress. Her record is abysmal and so all she has to run on is personal attacks," Edwards said.

Sanchez's campaign responded that her comments specifically referenced "those in the Vietnamese community who are supporting her opponent," not the Vietnamese Americans as a whole.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162- ... %3A+Living)



Some of the comments on the site............

by dance-like-devrish25 September 24, 2010 4:20 PM EDT

Sanchez's campaign responded that her comments specifically referenced "those in the Vietnamese community who are supporting her opponent," not the Vietnamese Americans as a whole. _____ Ok so let me get this straight...if I'm an incumbent republican running for re-election against a black opponent, its ok to say "the blacks are trying to take my seat" so long as I'm only referring to those blacks supporting my opponent? Give me a break Sanchez. It is not your seat. You have no right to it beyond November. If you want to keep it, you need to earn it. This is the problem with career politicians...they forget who the boss is. We're the boss...not them.


by retm-w September 24, 2010 6:35 PM EDT
She's a racist period.


by meshine September 24, 2010 6:04 PM EDT

Her statements sound like personal ownership of that Congressional seat to me. That is exactly why we need term limits. People get elected to an office and suddenly claim ownership. The way it came out of her mouth definitely sound racist. Her statements would lead one to beleive that only a Hispanic person has a right to that seat. She should be campaigning on her accomplishments and what she can do to help her Congressional district rather that interjecting that type of racist language into the campaign.