If Vietnamese-American Is Elected, He’s History : Politics: The odds are against Jimmy Tong Son Nguyen’s quest for a Westminster City Council seat. If he wins, he’ll the first one of Vietnamese descent to be elected to U.S. public office.

WESTMINSTER —  Setting his sights on becoming the first Vietnamese-American elected to public office in the United States, business consultant Jimmy Tong Son Nguyen announced his candidacy Friday for the Westminster City Council.

Nguyen, who is banking on a platform to fight crime and unite all the different communities within Westminster, hopes to take one of four at-large council seats that are up for grabs this November in a city where more than 20% of the 78,000 residents are of Vietnamese descent.

He repeated his motto of “Everyone Living in Harmony” throughout the hourlong press conference at Tau Bay Restaurant, saying “this campaign is about bringing the community together. Not just the Vietnamese community, but the Caucasian community, the Hispanic community--all together.”

His candidacy, which comes more than a decade after Vietnamese began arriving here in large numbers, was welcomed by leaders such as Co Pham, chairman of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce in Orange County.

“We need a Vietnamese to run for office,” Pham said. “That is why we support any Vietnamese-American who wants to run for City Council.”

But the 43-year-old candidate will have to count on more than the Vietnamese vote to win. Local organizations estimate that only 3% of the Vietnamese community in Westminster is registered to vote.

Nguyen believes that by running, he will inspire more of the Vietnamese community to become active in politics and get out to the polls.

“It will be a tough task ahead to increase the number of voters, but I think Vietnamese-Americans have been here long enough,” said the native of Ho Chi Minh City, which he prefers to call Saigon. “I want to set an example for others not to be afraid of public office. We live here and we’re here to stay. The only way we will have a voice is to get involved.”

If Nguyen is elected, he will be the first Vietnamese-American to hold office in the United States, according to Lloyd Hara, a spokesman of the Asian Pacific American Municipal Officials, a constituency group of the National League of Cities.

Two other Vietnamese-Americans living in Westminster are expected to announce their candidacies in coming weeks, possibly turning the focus of this year’s race on a segment of the population that continues to make a social and economic impact in Westminster and Orange County.

Getting involved in politics is what lured Nguyen, his wife, Leslie, and their 10-year-old daughter, Christine, to Southern California two years ago from Louisiana. Nguyen, a former deputy sheriff and liaison for the Vietnamese community in New Orleans, said he decided to live in the “capital of Vietnamese refugees in this country and free Vietnamese throughout the world--Little Saigon.”

Nguyen said he came to the United States as a political refugee in 1975, leaving behind his entire family and resettling in New Orleans. He graduated from the police academy in 1980 and was immediately named a deputy sheriff, applying his bilingual skills to law enforcement efforts in solving crimes in the Vietnamese community of New Orleans.

He left active duty in 1986 when the mayor of New Orleans named Nguyen as the city’s first liaison with the Asian-American community. Two years later, through his involvement with the city’s Southeast Asian community and several veterans organizations, he helped get the first monument built by Vietnamese-Americans to honor Vietnam veterans, an 18-foot marble memorial.

Nguyen continued his work as liaison until 1990, when he moved his family west and opened a consulting firm in Fountain Valley that assists Asian-American businesses in Southern California.