Supervisor Andrew Do is Orange County’s most powerful Vietnamese American official, known for mentoring other Vietnamese American conservative politicians from Little Saigon.
But now Do’s ability to serve is being challenged following ethics questions raised by an LAist investigation exposing critical times he failed to disclose family connections.
On Thursday, the county’s largest paper, the Orange County Register, issued a call for Do’s resignation, which was echoed by some in the Vietnamese American community that had helped to catapult him to the county’s highest office.
Tracy La leads the Garden Grove-based advocacy group VietRISE, which is part of a coalition demanding Do resign. Her group has criticized Do for failing to serve the Vietnamese American community on issues such as immigration reform and rent stabilization.
“Andrew Do has built a career pretending to be a champion for Vietnamese people, but he’s only proven time and time again that he only cares about his small circle of political allies and cronies,” La said.
Do’s checkered past
Dzung Do, the top editor at the largest Vietnamese-language paper in the country, Nguoi Viet, said allegations of financial impropriety have tailed Do for years, but that the supervisor has still enjoyed popularity among a Vietnamese American constituency that doesn’t closely follow the goings-on of the Board of Supervisors.
“He organized some events in the community like a health fair or festival for Tet, so people like him for that,” Do said.
But revelations that Do approved millions of dollars worth of subcontracts for a mental health center without publicly disclosing…
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