Sydney Cao

NS Nation Name: Bruke
Character Name: Sydney Cao
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 75
Character Height: 5 feet 5 inches
Character Weight: 138 pounds?
Character Position/Role/Job: political activist and donor, former Orange County Supervisor (1976-1980), ex-State Senator (from 1994 to 1998) for the the 34th District, former member of the Little Hoover Commission (from 1994 to 1998), former member of the Commission on Asian & Pacific Islander American Affairs (from 2004 to 2008).

Appearance: (Photo preferred, not required)

(Image)

Character State of Origin: n/a (born in the former State of Vietnam)
Character State of Residence: California
Character Party Affiliation: Cần Lao Party (Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party), Republican Party
Main Strengths: Better-than-average fundraiser and writer. Somewhat well-connected from her political career. Ambitious and very determined to get what she wants.
Main Weaknesses: Poor public speaker (Jittery in front of large crowds, gets stage fright). Can be extremely arrogant at times. Has lost much of her political relevance. Is a staunch supporter of the authoritarian Diệm regime, believing it never should have been overthrown. Supports multiple organizations working to overthrow the current Vietnamese government. Has a fiery temper when provoked.
Biography: (Minimum 2-3 paragraphs)

Sydney Cao (born Cao Thị Ngọc), was born in Saigon to Cao Văn Lu and Huỳnh Linh Xuan in 1942, with her brother Joseph Cao (born Cao Sang Minh) being born eight years later.

Their father, Lu, was a commander in the Bình Xuyên, the criminal organization and private army that had controlled the city's underworld since the 1920s. Their mother Xuan was a housewife. Lu had made a name for himself as a cold and calculating strategist, earning the trust of Bảy Viễn, the head of the group. As the government began to crack down on the Bình Xuyên, Lu agreed to become an informant for the National Police and the Army. In May 1955, his information, along with sabotage, helped foil a coup attempt against Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm. This led to an award from the PM himself. As the organization crumbled, he continued to be a crucial intelligence source, helping to destroy the last remnants of his would-be comrades. In order to keep him under surveillance, he was encouraged to join the ARVN Rangers in 1961. Just two years later, with the fall of the Diệm regime, a new government came into power. The military junta suspected him of being a Diệm loyalist and distrusted him because of his criminal record. He was stripped of his rank and given a lengthy prison sentence. He feared for his family's safety: Sydney and Joseph were youth activists for the Cần Lao Party, and Xuan had attended his award ceremony. So before he was taken into custody, he managed to get them out of the country.

Sydney, along with her mother and brother, were flown to Hong Kong. They unsuccessfully applied for asylum there, before successfully applying for asylum in the United States. They settled down in Santa Ana, California. Her mother worked at Rickenbacker's, a guitar manufacturer. Both Sydney and Joseph attended Santa Ana College. Sydney went on to earn a Master's degree in Public Policy from USC's School of Citizenship and Public Administration by 1973. While going to USC, she interned at the Orange County Board of Supervisors. During her time there, she worked on a report about the newly created Orange County Transit District (created in 1972). This was the start of her time in public service.

She ran for and won a seat on the Board of Supervisors, despite a blatantly racist and sexist campaign from her opponent in the primary. During her time in office, from 1976 to 1980, she focused on preventing a strike by Transit District employees, helping lure developers to build what would become the MainPlace Mall, and preserving trails, parks, and natural habitat in the Santa Ana Mountains. She wrote a modestly successful book, Conservatism across Cultures, that was reviewed favorably in the Claremont Review of Books. The book, which compared the government and civil service of British Hong Kong to the United States, gave her "15 minutes of fame" among conservative thinkers. This later became the basis for a series of books written by her, with the same theme.

Meanwhile, Lu had been released from prison early on the condition that he continue to the work for the government. He joined the Field Police, taking part in the infamous Pheonix Program, and was part of BD 222, a unit stationed in Saigon. He continued to serve until the fall of Saigon in 1975, after which he joined the rest of his family in Santa Ana. It took a long time for them to come to terms with what had happened to him while they were in America, and created a rift between them and him.

Cao lost her re-election campaign in 1980, as her opponent turned public anger against her for failing to head off the transit strike. After the loss, Sydney Cao worked in the private sector, becoming a policy analyst at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government. Over the next 10 years, she worked on creating a database on California politics and demographics. This project sharpened her skills. After the database was completed, she left the Rose Institute as it was shifting its focus to topics that required specialized training that she did not have.

She decided to re-enter politics in 1993, when the then-incumbent retired from his State Senate seat in the 34th District. She won on a platform of government transparency, bureaucratic reform, devolution of power to local governments, and law and order policies. She won a full term in 1994 with the same message as the last year combined with strong support for Proposition 187 (the Illegal Immigrant welfare law). She donated her time and money to the group behind the measure, the California Coalition for Immigration Reform.

She made statewide news for enduring not one, but two grueling town halls in her own district, each with a hostile audience of immigrant rights activists inside and protestors outside. Her famous remarks after the first town hall was turned into a memorable ad campaign...

(From a story on the front page of the Orange County Register): "Cao not cowed by immigration activists"

"To hell with them [the activists and protestors]. They fight for lawbreakers and criminals, while my Republican colleagues and I are fighting for the hard-working, law-abiding people of California. Taxpayers shouldn't have to see their money going to illegals, and that's that."

In 1996, she sponsored a proposition that would have had the state government sign an agreement with the feds to have all state law enforcement, such as the California Highway Patrol, join the Section 287(g) program (under the not Clinton era law of IIRIRA). The then Governor (not Pete Wilson) backed the proposition, and it was approved at the ballot. This cemented her reputation as a strong voice against illegal immigration. Beyond immigration, she focused on environmental protection, crime, and bureaucratic reform. As a member of the Little Hoover Commission (while State Senator), she criticized CALPERS for what she saw as it corrupt culture and governance.

Throughout her time in the State Senate, she had relied on a multiracial conservative coalition of whites and Asian Americans, while fending off challenges from white and Hispanic Democratic candidates. But the 1998 election saw the perfect storm: a Republican losing the governor's race handedly, anger among Hispanic voters over her stance on immigration, and a scandal over a potential misuse of campaign funds. This made her the target of a successful recall effort, and she went on to lose office. She took the loss in stride, believing that she would have lost the next election anyways.

Her political career had ended up ruining any potential academic or research one. When she tried to enroll in a PhD program at her alma mater, USC turned her away after a public outcry. The same thing happened when she tried to find work doing policy analysis and research at the State Capitol and local lobbying firms.

She entered a new chapter in her life when she start her own political consulting firm, specializing in getting propositions passed. Her philosophy for this work came from her time at the Rose Institute, and later research, which showed that propositions should be written and promoted in such a
to cater to specific groups, with the ideal proposition meeting the interests of multiple groups. She also continued to be active in public service, especially with advocacy groups for the Vietnamese-American community.
The political work also helped her personal life. During a conference in Palo Alto, she met Greg Morton, who was serving on the CALCOT board at the time.

In 2004, the Governor (not Arnold Schwarzenegger) appointed her to the state's the Commission on Asian & Pacific Islander American Affairs. She lost that position in 2008 after blasting him for opposing Proposition 8. This final event affected her firm for the worse, and she ended up taking a semi-retirement, leaving active work while still serving on the firm's board.

Her mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2000. She dropped everything to focus on caring for her mother. When she felt her mother was not receiving adequate care, she helped her family move to Palo Alto, California so that her mother could stay at Stanford Hospital. Unfortunately, even with better treatment, Xuan's condition deteriorated and she passed away in 2006. The stress of the move and unfamiliarity with his surroundings, along with the loss of his wife, weighed heavily on Lu and he died soon after her. In between those years, Sydney had met and was dating Greg Morton, a former consultant with McKinsey and future Congressman. She got married and moved with Concord to be with him after her parents passed away, and worked as a real estate agent there. Just as before, Sydney became active in local politics: thanks to multiple fundraising parties she hosted, and her husband's endorsement, a vulnerable Republican state senator hung on to his seat in the left-leaning 11th district. The state senator recommended she become more involved, so she turned her home into a regular fundraising stop for the Contra Costa County Republican Party. She continued this when she moved to Suisun City, helping Republicans in Solano County.

She is a member of the California Federation of Republican Women, the Asian American Republican Council of California, the Catholic League, and the Việt Tân (Vietnam Reform Revolutionary Party). She has supported the self-declared Government of Free Vietnam and now supports its successor organization, the Provisional Government of Vietnam.

The figures that have had the most influence on her political and social views are Ngô Đình Diệm and the (not Bushes), and her views carry influences from the Person Dignity Theory and what is termed compassionate conservatism. She believes that a truly moral society is one in which people, through faith and the love of God, develop a sense of moral responsibility for themselves and others: first starting with themselves, then the family, then the local community, and then the nation as a whole. She believes that the role of government is to be proactive in helping develop the economy and ensuring security, leaving the task of welfare to charities and the task of what she calls "moral development" to religious institutions.

She is hawkish on foreign policy, being a strong supporter of the (not Bush) Doctrine. On domestic policy, her views are staunchly conservative: to limit government spending, promote family values, and protect national security.

She believes that America must have freedom of action in both foreign and domestic affairs, with the assumption that it will use that freedom of action to promote democracy, capitalism, and human rights. To her, having freedom of action means taking a critical eye to multilateral alliances and trade agreements.

She is pro-life, anti-gay marriage, anti-euthanasia, and anti-death penalty (except in circumstances like war, espionage, terrorism, or treason). She is opposed to gun control and skeptical of environmental and worker protections. She is supportive of civil rights (but not of affirmative action).

Other Info: She decided to start over as a real estate agent after leaving the Commission. She would like to be active again in state politics.