The Political Landscape:

State Assemblyman Van Tran’s decision to run for Congress, which he announced last week, is in a lot of ways the fulfillment of a prospect that has been on his radar for more than a decade.

Before serving four years on the Garden Grove City Council and three terms in the state legislature, Tran started his political career as an aide to Republican Rep. Bob Dornan in the mid 1980s. Tran worked part time for the congressman while getting a political science degree from UCI.

After spending 10 years as a lawyer, but before even being elected to city council, Tran says he was already being prodded in one way or another to run for Congress.

“The joke is that every two years around election time someone will declare my candidacy on my behalf. It’s just the excitement level and the level of anxiousness on the part of a lot of folks,” Tran said.

Now, he thinks he has found the best opportunity to actually launch a campaign. Support from the party locally and from other elected officials around the country give him a solid shot, Tran said.

Former Irvine mayor seeks funds for run

Congressional hopeful Beth Krom is banking on support from a number of prominent Newport Beach residents to help her in her 2010 bid for Rep. John Campbell’s 48th District seat.

The Irvine Democrat has booked a number of tony fundraising events in Newport Beach over the next few months.

AirFair president Melinda Seely will host a fundraiser for Krom on May 20 at her Newport Beach home for the group Women in Leadership.

The contribution levels for the event include the cleverly named $500 “Bra Burners” donation and a $2,400 “Shattering the Glass Ceiling” level.

Big-time Democratic fundraiser and chief executive of nursing home giant Sun Healthcare Richard Matros and wife Adrienne also will host an invitation-only fundraiser for Krom June 7 in Newport Coast.

Newport doctor Ari Babaknia will throw a June 16 fundraiser for Krom.

Event hosts include Newport Coast residents Mike and Shohleh Chegini, who threw a fundraiser for a hopeful Sen. Barack Obama back in June 2007.

Krom has already beat Campbell at the fundraising game in the first quarter of 2009, campaign disclosure statements show.

Krom raised $63,370 from January through the end of March, mostly from individual donors, campaign finance records show. Campbell raised $54,514 during the same period, with only a handful of individual donors.

She has announced a goal of raising $250,000 by June 30.