European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 29, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday november 29, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Pago 15 dirty tricks not new As democrats Are aware Cal Thomas some democrats arc righteously indignant Over alleged attempts by Mem Bers of new Jersey  Christie Whitman s Campaign to suppress the Black vote by supposedly paying off some ministers. While they sputter about investigations and lawsuits they conveniently ignore their own history. In fact for some who regard the phrase dirty politics As redundant and for those with a knowledge of political history attempts to buy or influence votes Are legion for both parties though democrats seem to have had More prac Tice. Author Jac Mitchell has com piled a Long history of under handed election practices in his Book How Roget elected an anecdotal history of mud slinging red baiting vote stealing and dirty tricks in american politics. Among the imaginative tricks designed to ensure that tammany opponents had no real Chance of winning against their handpicked candidates writes Mitchell was the development of the sniff test. A chemical with a Strong Long lasting odor was put on democratic ballots and tammany flunkies were As signed to sniff the exiting voters hands. Those who did t smell right would soon find themselves unemployed or suffer other reprisals. Tammany also perfected the repeat voter. These were men who showed up with facial hair voted went to a local Barber for a shave or otherwise altered their appearance and returned to vote again having fooled inattentive or bribed poll watchers. In Early 20th-Century Chicago politics chronicled by Ben Hecht in his play the front Page poll monitors were to make sure the voter was not unduly influenced by common practices of free liquor a free Flop a free lunch in the Saloon a patronage appointment or when flattery failed. Assault and  of the election judges were ruffians wearing  in the roaring twenties writes Mitchell votes also were stolen by Short Pencil men these people palmed Pencil stubs As they counted vote tallies and subtly defaced opposition ballots so they would t count. A Day before the election wrote Hecht the vital wards of the town filled up with hordes of drunks hop Heads and bearded hoboes eager for free booze prostitutes and voting bonuses of several dollars each. Then there was landslide Lyndon Johnson who won a Senate primary race in the late 40s in a manner that defined modern dirty politics. In addition to trashing his opponent the upright Coke Stevenson Johnson also lied about his own War record saying he had been in Pacific combat. In fact Johnson had used official connection and connived to obtain a Safe stateside Job visiting Navy contractors on the West coast for mos. Of the War. Thirty years after that primary Vic tory which launched Johnson s political career the election judge of Duval county admitted doctoring 200 ballots that gave Johnson his razor thin margin of Victory. And who can forget Chicago mayor Richard Daley at one time the mos powerful local politician in the country in 1955, Daley s infamous machine decided to waste Republican Alderman Robert Marriam. Daley s dirty tricks made those watergate Guys look like amateurs. Daley s machine circulated copies of Merriam s divorce papers in conserva Tive Catholic neighbourhoods according to Mike Royko the Chicago columnist and longtime Daley watcher. Not Content with that Jab the machine mailed letters that claimed that no one knew How Many children Merriam might have abandoned without support. Daley s men also went after Merriam s second wife who was French born by spreading the lie that she was part Black. A nonexistent american negro civic association wrote Royko went to heavily White neighbourhoods urging a vote for Merriam because he supposedly prom ised that Blacks would get Home and building opportunities All Over the City. This was when Chicago was still largely segregated. Merriam also was hit with another missile a phony letter fro the Taft Eisenhower league accusing him of associating with leftists. Recalling such crimes is not meant to justify any wrongdoing that May have occurred in this year s new Jersey Gover nor s race. It is to say that democrats ought not to get so puffed up about integ Rity when they have a pretty dismal re Cord of their  los Angeles times. Vietnamese family helping make . Better fifteen years ago the s past thanksgiving week end a 10-year-old vietnamese Hoy named Viet Dinh arrived in the United states As a refugee. He was with his Mother four Sisters and a brother. They had $200, which they spent on used Winter  were boat people. They had left Vietnam on a Small fishing boat which lost its engine in a storm. They drifted for Days until they made it to Malaysia swimming in at night to avoid patrol boats that had fired at them. After months in a refugee Camp they were cleared for admission to the United states and flown to Portland  members of the family were left behind in Viet Nam Viet Dinh s father Phong Dinh and an older Sis Ter Van Dinh who was 20 then. She stayed behind to help their  Dinh had been a City councilman in Vung Tau during the Saigon regime. When the communists took Over in 1975, he was sent to a re education Camp. He escaped from the Camp on june 12, 1978, and was on the run when his wife and six children  the next five years Phong Dinh tried unsuccessfully 25 times to get out of Vietnam by boat. He paid Boatmen who never turned up or who were arrested. Finally in 1983, he made it to the Philippines and then to the United  left the oldest child Van Dinh. She had helped her father pay the Boatmen. But it was six years before she managed to leave herself on a boat that reached Hong Kong in August 1989.the family knew that she had left Vietnam be cause they got a message to that effect. But for a year they did not know she was in a Hong Kong refugee Camp in deed they did not know whether she had landed anywhere or had gone Down at sea As Many boat people did. Van Dinh was kept in the locked Hong Kong Camp for three years waiting for Clear Ance As a refugee. With her was her 5-year-old son Quan who had a congenital heart Condi Tion. That made her desperate to reach the United states but f or years she could not even Getan interview with those in charge of the refugee process in Hong Kong. At the end of 1991 Viet Dinh then 23, sent me an essay he had written about his sister s plight in hons Kong. I forwarded it to the new York times and the editors published it in january 1992. Last month i had another letter from Viet Dinh. It had Good news about his sister. After his piece was published other papers picked up the Story. The Hong Kong authorities feeling the pressure finally inter Anthony Lewis viewed Van Dinh and found that she was entitled to refugee status. In september 1992 she made it to port land. The family was reunited after 15 years. There is More to Tell about the Dinh family As i Learned when i interviewed Viet. His parents Are run Ning a Small grocery in Salem Ore. A sister Ann helps them. Another sister thu is an accountant. Kathleen and Leanne Are computer programmers. Viet s one brother Bao is an architect. The child with the heart condition Van s son Quan has been treated in Portland. He is doing Fine. Van herself after 14 months in the United states is studying at a Community College in Salem and working As an assembler in an electronics Plant. It is an american Story and one that i wish members of Congress and their constituents who Are fulminating these Days about the immigrant threat would think about. The Dinh family is doing exactly what immigrants on. The lower East Side and so Many other places did in past years struggling for themselves and making this country better. One More thing about Viet Dinh. His recent letter ended i graduated fro the Harvard Law school in june and am now a Law clerk for judge Laurence h. Silberman of the .court of appeals in Washington. Next year i clerk for Justice Sandra Day o Connor at the supreme  t the now York times