Van Tran

VAN TRAN Age: 40 Lives in: Garden Grove Bills introduced this session: 19 Bills pronounced dead: One, a resolution that would have urged Congress to permanently ax the estate tax -- it was spiked in April by a committee. Questionable success: He got unanimous committee approval of a bill making Anaheim the southernmost stop on a high-speed rail line beginning in San Francisco, but whether the $9.95-billion project will be built ... How he's different from his colleagues: While some legislators keep their home and family in their district and rent an apartment in Sacramento, Tran does the opposite.

Paul Clinton Rep. Dana Rohrabacher says a bill he introduced would make health care "more affordable, increase the privacy surrounding health care records and speed up the availability of crucial medical treatments." He dropped the health care reform bill -- known as the Medical Independence, Privacy and Innovation Act -- on Friday. The bill would implement a number of changes, including creating tax-exempt medical checking accounts, making insurance payments tax deductible, requiring patient consent to release records and modifying drug-approval procedures.

Costa Mesa Assemblyman Van Tran has dropped out of a potentially brutal race for the 34th District California Senate seat and instead will run for reelection, a path of somewhat less resistance. Tran, 41, announced in January that he'd run for the seat being vacated by termed-out Democratic Sen. Joe Dunn. He had even taken out candidacy papers from the Orange County Registrar of Voters. But he might have faced a June 6 primary battle with two fellow Republicans, anti-illegal-immigration activist Lupe Moreno and Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher.

Engineers and surveyors group praises Van Tran; another endorsement made in yet-to-begin race; JWA fee passes muster with taxpayers group.As the year ends, groups that watch lawmakers are totting up lists of who's been naughty and who's been nice -- or at least who's promoted their interests through legislation. It's a mixed bag in most cases, with Newport-Mesa's legislators generally being proclaimed business-friendly but not always advocates of environmental and social spending programs.

Assemblyman considers run for state Senate seat held by Democrat since 1998.After a year in the state legislature, Costa Mesa Republican Assemblyman Van Tran has announced he's considering a 2006 run for the open seat in the 34th state Senate District. Democratic Sen. Joe Dunn has held the seat since 1998 but is termed out next year. The Senate district is larger than Tran's Assembly district -- nearly 280,000 voters compared with 205,000 voters -- but it includes parts of Garden Grove, Westminster and Anaheim, cities he represents now. Tran was elected to the 68th Assembly District seat in 2004.

As the 68th District assemblyman, Van Tran's legislative career has been partly a campaign against the excesses of Sacramento Democrats. Now Paul Lucas, Tran's Democratic opponent on the November ballot, is running a campaign charging that Tran is part of what's wrong with state government. Tran was first elected in 2004 to represent the 68th District, which includes Costa Mesa and parts of six other cities. In the past two years, he had eight of his 30 bills signed into law. He said he's most proud of one that allows courts to consider grandparents' petitions for visitation and adoption of their grandchildren, and one that cut some of the red tape associated with state transportation projects.

Republican Assembly lawmakers including Assemblymen Chuck DeVore, and Van Tran moved to block a senate bill Tuesday that would close a tax loophole that allows yacht owners to avoid taxes by stowing their boats out of the state for 90 days. The yacht tax issue is likely to come up again and Republican leaders may even use it as a bargaining chip in budget talks this summer, Tran said. Many Democratic lawmakers view it as a tax break for the wealthy while the state slashes social programs for the poor.

Alicia Robinson After knocking on doors and shaking hands on behalf of other candidates for years, Mark Leyes decided it was time to make the effort for himself. Leyes is vying for the Republican party's nomination for the 68th District Assembly seat, against Van Tran. A Garden Grove City Councilman who has worked with and for the government in various jobs, Leyes said he's ready to take a seat in Sacramento himself. "At some point I just kind of looked around and said, 'Well, I could support other candidates but I'm kind of tired of letting [the other guy]

Alicia Robinson After a 10-year career in law, Van Tran wants to take his experience from the courtroom to the Assembly floor. Tran and fellow Republican Mark Leyes will face off March 2 for the 68th Assembly District seat. Born in Saigon, Tran said his family came to America seeking job opportunities and found them. That might be why his favorite kind of legal work is with businesses, advising them on legal requirements, reviewing contracts and helping to get them started.

COSTA MESA — Although there's still a chance that a bill allowing Costa Mesa to buy the Orange County Fairgrounds will be presented alongside a state budget bill, the deal might not go through after all, an area legislator said Monday. Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Westminster) said while he is in favor of keeping the fairgrounds in local hands, if the sale with the city and its private partner, Facilities Management West, does not guarantee accountability and transparency to the public — and if the sale doesn't ensure that the fair will remain in place indefinitely — then he will not support the deal.

With all precincts reporting, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor won the Republican primary in the 68th Assembly District and, due to voter registration in the district, could very likely head to Sacramento after the November election. Because voter registration leans Republican in the district, Mansoor could fill Republican Van Tran's state Assembly seat in the 68th District. Tran, who won the GOP nomination in the 47th Congressional District, is aiming for Congress in November's General Election.

There’s a three-way race in the Republican primary for the 47th Congressional District to decide which candidate will face the seven-term Democratic incumbent, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana), in the November general election. The district covers Garden Grove, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana and parts of Anaheim and Fullerton. As the only Orange County Democrat in Congress, Sanchez is being targeted by the National Republican Campaign Committee. The primary election is June 8. Here’s a look at the candidates who want to take on Sanchez in November.

State Assemblyman Van Tran’s decision to run for Congress, which he announced last week, is in a lot of ways the fulfillment of a prospect that has been on his radar for more than a decade. Before serving four years on the Garden Grove City Council and three terms in the state legislature, Tran started his political career as an aide to Republican Rep. Bob Dornan in the mid 1980s. Tran worked part time for the congressman while getting a political science degree from UCI. After spending 10 years as a lawyer, but before even being elected to city council, Tran says he was already being prodded in one way or another to run for Congress.

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor will run for a seat in the state legislature in 2010 and plans to formally announce his candidacy in the next few days, he told the Pilot on Wednesday. Rumors have been circulating that he had his eye on the assembly seat held by fellow Republican Van Tran since before November’s election, but in the past week or so he kicked his campaign into gear by hiring a treasurer and a consultant so that he can begin lining up endorsements and campaign funds.

A few notable local Republicans have shipped out to Minnesota to attend the Republican National Convention this week to see presumptive vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin speak and participate in a variety of other functions. Even though California still doesn’t have a budget, Assemblyman Van Tran went to the Twin Cities as a delegate, while fellow state politicians Sen. Tom Harman and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore stayed home. Tran said that even though the budget is a pressing concern, he is not on the budgetary committee and therefore not intimately involved in drafting it; when one is drafted, he will return to vote.

Local California Assembly Republicans Chuck DeVore and Van Tran voted alongside a unanimous coalition of assembly Republicans to oppose a new Democrat-backed budget plan Sunday, which means the state still doesn’t have a budget more than a month into the fiscal year. However, DeVore and Tran consider the vote an important step toward solving California’s budget stalemate. “Now that the vote has failed, we’re hoping that some of our suggestions will be taken seriously,” DeVore said.

Assemblyman Van Tran has introduced a bill that would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations to verify the immigration status of any new prisoner taken into state custody. The bill, which would require correctional officers to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and federal law, is aimed at reducing the state costs Tran sees related to the state’s influx of illegal immigration. A Vietnamese immigrant himself, Tran says prison costs could be cut tremendously by deporting, instead of detaining, such criminals.

Republican Assembly lawmakers including Assemblymen Chuck DeVore, and Van Tran moved to block a senate bill Tuesday that would close a tax loophole that allows yacht owners to avoid taxes by stowing their boats out of the state for 90 days. The yacht tax issue is likely to come up again and Republican leaders may even use it as a bargaining chip in budget talks this summer, Tran said. Many Democratic lawmakers view it as a tax break for the wealthy while the state slashes social programs for the poor.