From the courtroom to state government

Alicia Robinson

After a 10-year career in law, Van Tran wants to take his experience

from the courtroom to the Assembly floor.

Tran and fellow Republican Mark Leyes will face off March 2 for

the 68th Assembly District seat.

Born in Saigon, Tran said his family came to America seeking job

opportunities and found them. That might be why his favorite kind of

legal work is with businesses, advising them on legal requirements,

reviewing contracts and helping to get them started. “This is an

opportunity for this family or this couple or partner to go into

business and become economically self-sufficient,” he said. “It’s the

American way.”

An admirer of Ronald Reagan who became an adult during Reagan’s

presidency, Tran said he has always been interested in public

service.

He steered his career into politics in the mid-1980s, working for

a congressman and a state senator and learning different skills from

each.

“Working for Congressman [Robert] Dornan was definitely an

exciting experience for a 20-year-old college kid who gets to see

politics practiced up close and personal,” Tran said.

A few years later, he was an assistant to former state Sen. Ed

Royce, which he said was quite a different experience.

“Dornan would get into all the battles that he believed in as

just, whereas Ed Royce would pick and choose his battles to win,”

Tran said.

Tran said he’s running for Assembly because he’s concerned about

the state’s budget crisis and he wants to help solve it.

“I really believe in the message that we need more jobs so we can

revitalize the economy and also bring in more revenues to the state

as well,” he said.

He’s served as a planning commissioner and councilman in Garden

Grove, and he wants to take his political career to the next level.

His experience working with legislators has taught him the art of

compromise without giving up his principles, he said.

“I think the quality of a good legislator is the ability to work

with other people and also listen to their needs and concerns,” he

said.

“By nature I’m a very optimistic person and I want to bring open

opportunity back to the state through my work, through my legislative

contribution.”