This is Part Three of the story of Hispanics in Orange County having received a supposed voter suppression letter, the "WTF Edition".

Looking at the limited amount of evidence available and the attempts by Democrats and illegal immigration supporters to take advantage of it, it seemed very unlikely that the letter could have come from the GOP or an opponent of illegal immigration. Yet, Attorney General Bill Lockyer is now saying that he's focusing on "one or more Republican candidates for office", and sources tell the LAT and the OCR that one of those campaigns is that of Tan Nguyen. He's running against Loretta Sanchez in the 47th Congressional District.

Who would have thought that whoever sent this letter out would do so via bulk mail instead of, for instance, printing it out on an old untraceable printer and putting it into envelopes while wearing gloves (just blue skying here)? Yet, that's what appears to have been done, and the mailing was more extensive than previously considered: around 14,000 letters were supposedly sent out. If Nguyen or another Republican did this, they will have given the Democratic Party a terrific GOTV tool and an issue that will probably be brought up in future Democratic campaigns.

But, bear in mind that Nguyen hasn't been charged with anything and has not issued any sort of a statement.

Also bear in mind that me refering to those in the previous post as "Hacks" still stands: given all of the evidence available, the strong possibility that this was a smear should have been considered, but those sources did not do that.

10/19/06 3pm UPDATE: The latest is that Nguyen blames his since-fired office manager. He refers to "her", but the only paid staffer someone can find is a "he", Ryan Flynn, who's identified as his campaign manager here. Despite that, it could have been a volunteer. The bulk mailing center (Mailing Pros) owner says he didn't deal with Nguyen on the mailer, but OC GOP chairman Scott Baugh says sources there and at the AG's office say Nguyen called to expedite the mailer. However, calling to expedite the mailer doesn't necessarily mean he knew what it contained.

And, you can see the letter here:
maldef.org/pdf/AlbertoGonzales10172006.pdf

Note that that link seems to be accusing CCIR of sending the mailer, something that they deny. Given the current facts, unless there's a link between Nguyen and/or his mystery office manager and CCIR, they were not involved.

Whether MALDEF has libeled CCIR or not remains to be seen.

If you find any examples of people continuing to definitely state that CCIR, the other groups mentioned in the letter, or those opposed to illegal immigration in general were involved in the mailing, please leave the details in comments.

UPDATE 2: On a note related to media bias and the language used in the infamous letter, the NYT's "County G.O.P. Asks Candidate to Withdraw Over Letter Threat" from October 20 2006 by Cindy Chang falsely states: "The candidate, Tan Nguyen, who is running on an anti-immigration platform..." (Despite that wording, I'm positive that Cindy Chang is not the mystery office manager.)