THE BUZZ: RED-BAITING — The battle to court the pivotal Vietnamese American voter bloc in a toss-up Orange County House district is getting more intense — and more personal — by the day. The latest salvo came from Republican Rep. Michelle Steel, who is Korean American and said that she was “more Vietnamese” than her Democratic opponent, Derek Tran, the son of Vietnamese refugees. “My opponent may have a Vietnamese last name, but I understand [the] Vietnamese community,” Steel said in an appearance on a Vietnamese-language interview program. The brief comments, which caught instant flak online, including from Tran himself , were a succinct distillation of the increasingly bitter battle in California’s 45th district. For both candidates, the road to Congress could very well run through Little Saigon and which candidate can best appeal to that critical community. Much like Little Havana in Miami, the politics of Little Saigon have been forged by the experiences of an immigrant population that fled a communist regime. Local politicians, especially Republicans, have often invoked that painful history in an effort to appeal to voters who have a deep fear of the communist parties in China and Vietnam. The region has long been known for its sharp-elbowed political campaigns — and not just red team versus blue. Little Saigon is dominated by competing factions, where personalities, not party, can determine loyalties and there is a robust media ecosystem of Vietnamese-language television stations, newspapers and YouTube channels that contribute to a clamorous political scene. Against that backdrop, Steel had the advantage in courting the Vietnamese American vote in the last two election cycles, when she beat Democrats Harley Rouda and Jay Chen. In 2022, against Chen, a Taiwanese American naval officer, Steel ran a resoundingly anti-Communist campaign, including one mailer that depicted her opponent holding a copy of the “Communist Manifesto.” But Democrats had hoped that Tran’s background would inoculate him against similar attacks and help him peel off a sizable portion of Vietnamese-speaking voters — about a fifth of voters in the district speak the language, and the city of Westminster is nearly half Vietnamese. What has emerged are two competing theories of what it takes to court this decisive voter group — a shared background or a long record of working with the community. Assemblymember Tri Ta, a Westminster Republican backing Steel who is Vietnamese American, said that the incumbent’s track record trumps Tran’s biography. “Being Vietnamese is a good thing,” he said. “But have you been with the community? What have you done before you announced you were running for office?” While Steel is running on her record, she also is running a tried-and-true playbook in Little Saigon, leaning heavily on anti-Communist tropes and other messages aimed squarely at Vietnamese American voters. Her campaign has sent red-baiting mailers that include Tran’s photo along with a giant hammer-and-sickle emblem of the Chinese Communist Party and a giant red flag backdrop. Another mailer superimposes his image alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping as he raises a clenched fist. Steel’s campaign has even questioned Tran’s self-described fluency in the Vietnamese language after he used a translator to appear on a television program. Over the weekend, dozens of Tran supporters held a protest in Little Saigon, which straddles the working-class suburbs of Westminster and Garden Grove, to object to Steel’s tactics. Across the street, Steel’s supporters held a dueling rally with giant “TRUMP” flags. Christina Tram Le, a popular local TV host and political organizer who backs Tran, said Steel’s attacks aren’t landing the same with Tran as they have against previous opponents. “Derek is the son of boat refugees,” Tram Le said. “Those wounds are still fresh, even after 50 years. And for her to exploit all of that for her political gain, that is very offensive.” Orrin Evans, a Tran campaign spokesperson, called Steel’s attacks “desperate,” adding, “their smear campaign will backfire because Derek is the champion this district, and this diaspora, deserves.” Steel’s campaign counters that Tran has indulged in red-baiting messaging of his own for months. His campaign for months has highlighted reports that Steel’s husband, attorney and Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steel, hosted a Chinese official who sought to influence the Trump administration. The story has now become fodder for a Vietnamese-language digital ad, complete with an illustration of the Chinese Communist flag. Tran has also jabbed at Steel’s own immigrant backstory, asserting that her family left Korea and came to America for “economic gain” and not because they were refugees fleeing communism. On Monday, Steel’s campaign mocked the Democrat as “cry baby Tran,” suggesting he’s crying wolf after he has “leveled false and despicable attacks” on her family. Spokesperson Lance Trover said Steel’s campaign “accurately highlights his connections to Communist China.” Those connections, at least in one of Steel’s recent Vietnamese-language mailers, are, well, tenuous. The flier says, as proof of Chinese influence, that Tran has a TikTok account, enjoys the support of socialists such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and owns Chinese-linked cryptocurrency. The latter attack is an interesting choice given the millions of dollars a pro-crypto group has spent on ads boosting Steel. GOOD MORNING. Happy Tuesday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte. WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced. | 
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