I've done quite a few media interviews, both on and off the record, over the past month about the Loretta Sanchez-Van Tran congressional race, and I always answer the inevitable question about Tran's chances thusly: no. No way. No how. Screw the polls: the demographics (both political and ethnic) of the 47th don't square away with voters ditching the mediocre Sanchez with the reprehensible Tran. Or…(cue Oscar Bluth) do they?
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Maybe I'm being delusional–okay, I'm completely delusional on many
things, but that's besides the point. I still say Sanchez pulls off the
victory, but if Sanchez has a problem convincing my neighbor to vote for
her, then she's definitely in trouble. He's Mexican by birth, puro zacatecano down with la raza, hates Republicans, has voted for Loretta for over a decade–yet spent this morning complaining about Loretta.
“What has she ever done for us?” he said, “us” meaning specifically Mexicans. He went on to rail against the general ineffectiveness of all incumbents before declaring he was going to vote for Van Tran–a liberal, almost-Aztlanista Mexican voting for Tran!
The Sanchez campaign owes me a scoop, because I convinced him (I think) to not vote for Tran after showing him the Weekly's various critical articles of him over the years. Not that I even favor Loretta–I'll probably leave my ballot blank on that race. But if my neighbor–as true-blue Democrat as they can get–hates Loretta, imagine the sentiments of the general, uninformed voter in the district?
