ARTICLES

There's Still Hope

Pro-Life Catholic Woman Launches Write-In Candidacy in the 76th Assembly District

BY BRYAN MARTIN

Come out of the closet. That's the message write-in candidate Kim Tran is trying to spread to Christian voters in the 76th Assembly District. Come out of the closet, and you could send a pro-life, pro-family representative to Sacramento.

If not for Tran, pro-life voters in the 76th would face a Hobson's choice between liberal Republican Ralph Denney and liberal Democrat Lori Saldaña for the seat. What hope those voters cling to is embodied in this 54-year-old Vietnamese immigrant, mother of five, and foster mother to nearly a dozen other children over the past two decades.

Tran, a member of Holy Family Parish in Linda Vista, says she's running to protest the local Republican Party's backing of a candidate such as Ralph Denney who, Tran says, terrifies her with his stands on moral issues and the support he is mustering from groups such as the homosexual organization Log Cabin Republicans. "We had volunteered for Jeff Perwin's campaign. He was the Republican running against Ralph Denney, who lost in the primary," Tran's husband and campaign manager, attorney Robert Sutton, said. "What happened, what we discovered through working with (Perwin), is that Ralph Denney is part of a bigger plan. I'm talking about the Log Cabin Republicans. Their agenda [stated in] their national talking points is to infiltrate the Republican Party and change it from the inside, because this is the only thing that is stopping them from putting their social agenda forward. So what they're doing is running Log Cabin Republicans in all the safe Democratic districts across the state. They know the Republicans won't put a candidate up, so despite the fact that they will lose, they get automatic seats on the central committees of the districts they are running for. So here in San Diego you got Mike German, Trisha Hunter, a long-term advocate for abortion and the gay agenda, and now Ralph Denney, who are all part of this plan. So they infiltrate the Republican Party, and they are really aggressive, and they are swaying people within the party across the state."

Tran continued, "I hear more and more about Lori Saldaña, a Democrat who is pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage, and gives amnesty to the illegal immigrants. On all of these issues, having brains, we have to oppose them. But also, at the same time, I find out about Republican, Mr. Ralph Denney, who has had personal homosexual relationships and supports promoting those same types of relationships being enshrined in state laws. Plus he opposed President Bush's constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. I have heard things about him which make me terrified of the man. He is supportive of abortion and of gay marriage, of course. This is why I am on the radical side of the Republicans right now. We cannot let someone like this represent our Christian beliefs."

A restraining order filed by Denney in May of 2002 supports Tran's claim that he has had homosexual relationships. On the order, Denney checked boxes indicating that he and the restrainee, Edward Estrada, had lived together and had a dating or engagement relationship.

On Ralph Denney's official web page, he makes no reference to his pro-gay stands. However, he is a board member of the Log Cabin Republicans of San Diego. He held a booth at the most recent Gay Pride parade.

"Ralph says he's a family man, never talks about the gays, and says he's a Christian," Tran says. "Mr. Denney states he is a Christian, but he is a member of the homosexual church, Metropolitan Community Church, which believes that God created homosexuality and that is simply not a Christian position at all."

Sutton faults the local media for their coverage of the primary campaign which put Denney on the Republican ticket. "The media didn't cover that campaign to where the voters had an informed vote," Sutton says. "They were sitting there voting on what it said in the ballot statement, not knowing what he stood for. If the Republican voters would have known that he was pro-abortion and supportive of gay marriages, he would not have won, there is no way he would have won."

Tran's opinion of the gay lifestyle is not derived from religion alone. She recently retired after years of work as a physician's assistant. On the job, she says, she saw the effects of unfettered homosexuality on the body and spirit. "A lot of people call me a homophobic," she says. "I'm not a homophobic. Almost 18 years I have been working with the patients and a lot of them are carrying AIDS. I treat them with bare hands; I care for them with love and dignity. Many of them I see dying a lonely, painful death."

And Tran understands the threat of abortion from a medical prospective. "You can die from abortion; you can ruin your whole life. You may never have children again if they are to cut the wrong cord.... Worse yet, you can die right on the table when they are doing the procedure."

But gay marriage and abortion are not the only issues fueling Tran's candidacy. She has strong views on immigration, as well. "You know I am not racist at all. I married a white man, I support racially diverse children. But the people [who come] here illegally with their family and children and don't work immediately go on welfare.

"Everyone under Jesus is the same. But people in America open their doors, open their houses for us. They give us food, they give us life, they give us freedom, and they give us democracy. So we immigrants must do the best that we can do to repay some of what we got from the many people here."

Tran worries that increasing reliance on the state to provide could bring about in her adopted country what happened in her native South Vietnam. "People think, 'I have to worry about my bowl of rice, my piece of bread, my family, and that's it.' Well, that's wrong. If you do it this way you'll lose your country, just like I lost South Vietnam to the communists. Everyone believed that because we had a strong army, we were so good. But, because of our politics, we were so weak. This will just gradually eat up a country and one day, boom, you have nothing."

According to Tran, not only the Vietnamese community, but the Cambodian and Filipino communities as well, have encouraged her to run.

While her message may appeal to many Christians living in the 76th district, how can Tran overcome the enormous difficulty of succeeding as a write-in? There are 276,000 registered voters in the 76th district. Of those, approximately 30,000 voters cast votes in the 2006 primaries. Tran figures there are over 100,000 practicing Christians in this district. If only 10 or 15 percent of them vote for her, and non-Christian Vietnamese vote for her as well, she has a solid chance of winning.

To get her name out there, Tran, helped by five to seven volunteers, has been passing out fliers, and registering many members of the Vietnamese community. She's spent nearly $10,000 for posters, pamphlets, and yard signs, and a mobile billboard which a volunteer has been driving around the 76th district. Her budget, she says, is quickly drying up. "I go door to door, to the people I know, to the friends I know, and to the churches I know. I talk to them and convince them about us, and talk about what's happening within the society. I think it is necessary for us [Christians] to come out of the closet. Right now the liberal side -- the pro-abortion people, the gay marriage activists -- want to shove us in the closet while they come out. It's opposite of the way it's supposed to be.

"The most important thing," Tran continues, "is for the Christians to come out of the closet and vote. We have to resist the liberal movement if we want to keep the family values, to keep everything important, including life."

Her husband offers some words of encouragement. "If she was on the ballot today, and Ralph Denney wasn't, Kim would win. Eighty percent chance, with the Christian vote, she would beat Saldaña. This time is going to be tough, but 2008 should be a whole different round."

No matter what happens, Tran's spirits are up, and her outlook is positive. "Even if I don't win this race, I'll tell my children that I tried my best. I always try my best. I fight for whatever I believe in, and so I'll fight for this."

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