http://kfmb.com/stories/story.67189.html

AG: Voter Warning Linked to GOP Campaign

Last Updated:
10-19-06 at 9:37AM

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- State investigators have linked a Republican
campaign to letters sent to thousands of Orange County Hispanics warning
them they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month, a
spokesman for the attorney general said.

"We have identified where we believe the mailing list was obtained,"
said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

He declined to identify the specific Republican campaign Wednesday,
citing the ongoing investigation.

The Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register both reported
Thursday that the investigation appeared to be focused on the campaign
of Tan D. Nguyen, a Republican who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam
as a child and is now challenging Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez for
her seat in Congress. Nguyen's Web site says he opposes illegal
immigration.

The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advised that
if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant,
voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."

In fact, immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens can vote.

Complaints about the letters this week prompted state and federal
investigations, and Barankin said investigators had been questioning
people in Orange County.

The two newspapers reported state investigators had found the location
where the letters were printed and mailed to an estimated 14,000
Democratic voters in central Orange County. The Los Angeles Times,
citing an unnamed source, said authorities had interviewed Nguyen at his
office.

Nguyen did not return messages left by The Associated Press or either
newspaper.

Sanchez said in an interview Thursday on Univision that the sender
should be punished for stating that immigrants can't vote. It would be
unfortunate if the person responsible was another immigrant, she said.

"What a shame, really, that this is still happening in the United States
today," Sanchez said.

The owner of Huntington Beach-based Mailing Pros, Christopher West, told
The Orange County Register that he was hired to do the mailings but
didn't know what they said and didn't know any laws were being broken
when the mailer was sent. He said he gave investigators the name of the
person who hired him.

"I'm the one that processed it, and I don't read Spanish," West said.
"Until the investigator read it to me, I didn't know the content."

Scott Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, condemned
the letter as "an obnoxious, grotesque piece of work."

"Regardless of who did it _ Republican or Democrat _ if it's a crime,
then whoever did it should be prosecuted," Baugh said.

A group of six Vietnamese-American political candidates running for
offices in Orange County issued a joint statement saying: "The content
of this mailer is offensive to the immigrant voters, regardless of their
ethnicity."

The note's letterhead resembles that of an anti-illegal immigration
group, California Coalition for Immigration Reform, but group leader
Barbara Coe said she told investigators for the attorney general's
office Wednesday that her group didn't authorize the letter and she
didn't know who sent it.

"The letterhead was altered and I've never head of any Sergio Ramirez,"
the name signed to the letter, Coe said.

Numerous political leaders including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have
denounced the letter and called for the investigations.

/end

"You are advised that
if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant,
voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."