CALIFORNIA — Sitting in a glass office at his business in Westminster’s Little Saigon, Michael Vo wages a campaign outside Republican influence. He looks over papers delivered by hushed employees. The knot of his tie is firm, though not cinched tight, and the very top button of his shirt is undone.
On a Friday just a week and a half out from the March 9 special election, he was holding meetings, sending emails, and making phone calls. His campaign strategist, Aaron Spradlin, was leaving the office, two heads taller than Vo and dressed in a T-shirt and basketball shorts.
Vo is one of three Republicans in the running, raising concerns that a loaded field could swing the election to Democrats.
"I see an opportunity to serve a much larger community," said Vo, currently the mayor of Fountain Valley.
Vo and company have put in a lot of miles during the truncated special election campaign. Spradlin said the team has texted 800,000 people and dispatched 1.5 million emails.
The five candidates are grappling for the seat vacated by Michelle Steel after she was elected to the House of Representatives in November. Each has said they're the one who understands how to steer the county out of the pandemic.
Republicans have put their weight behind John Moorlach, an experienced state legislator who once held the very seat now up for grabs. The Republican Party of Orange County furnished polling data it believes shows Moorlach is the guy to beat. Newport Beach City Councilmember Kevin Muldoon listened to leadership and disregarded them. Vo didn't return their phone calls.
"Our firm doesn't believe in polling," Spradlin said of i-77 Strategies with offices in Laguna Nigel.
They favor a survey approach woven into their door-to-door efforts. Spradlin said staff will have done thousands of surveys by the end of the campaign.
Democrats have their own split with favorite Katrina Foley and unknown Janet Rappaport. Candidates' expectations for how many votes it will take varies. But many say the winner will earn votes somewhere in the range of 22,000 to 25,000. Each vote, and each candidate, could skew the outcome for the favorite in each party.
With 10 years experience as a Fountain Valley councilmember, Vo brings with him experience, a constituency, and a depth of local connections.
A refugee of the Vietnam War, Vo moved to Hawaii and later Southern California. Over the years, he's developed a name for himself as a local insurance agent, an opportunist who tests locked doors to find which will open.
For all the qualities that set him apart, his platform mirrors that of other candidates in the race. Pressed for details, he said he wants to establish an emergency fund and a community center staffed with student volunteers from various county universities and colleges. Vo said the county has the resources for his goals, although he's ironing out where the money will come from.
All candidates are trying to answer for frustration over business closures, in-person school cancellations, and growing fatigue over the global pandemic, which just hit its one-year anniversary.
He plans to win big in his city but said the Vietnamese vote is roughly 5% of the whole district. How? Lots of emails. Lots of phone calls.
"You have to have your ear to the ground to know what people need," he said.