Most people don't respond to mass emails from political campaigns.
But Sam Liu, campaign manager for candidate Jay Chen, sent the Weekly a message he received on Oct. 13 in response to a bulk email asking voters to support Chen's race for the 39th congressional district against incumbent Republican Ed Royce.
The email response was from former Costa Mesa attorney Anthony Kassas, and it was laced with brutally racist remarks.
Specifically, it read:
]
“Fuck off chink. I'd never vote for a slant eyed gook. Asians are trying to take over out (sic) country so why would I want to vote for a slope. Fuck off and die. I hope you get cancer of the eyes and testicles. Leave me alone.
Thank you,
Anthony Kassas
Sent from my iPhone. please excuse any typos.”
Sadly for staffers of the Chen campaign, this isn't the only unpleasantness they've had to endure. Recently, several posters were ripped from the front of their Fullerton headquarters, and tasteless signs have been popping up around town including one that reads “Vote for the American” and “Is Jay Chen a Closet Commie?”
Until last year, Kassas operated a law firm that shared a common lobby with the Weekly's offices. On Aug. 18, 2011, agents with the California Department of Justice raided the office, shuttered its doors and placed the practice in receivership. Attorney General Kamala Harris alleged that Kassas's legal practice was, in fact, a scheme to dupe underwater mortgage holders into signing up for a bogus lawsuit against banks like Chase and Bank of America.
This morning the Weekly sent an email to the address supplied by the Chen campaign. We asked Kassas if he would comment on his recent troubles with the Department of Justice and the California Bar Association. Within minutes, Kassas responded and asked what our questions were. The Weekly then sent a copy of the racially filled text asking for comment as well as a follow up request. As of press time, he hadn't replied to that or a subsequent request for comment.
After Kassas was forced to leave his office, he tried unsuccesffuly to to have his practice removed from state receivership. A visit to the California Bar website indicates that as of December 2011, he hasn't been eligible to practice law in the state.
Documents posted on the Bar's website chronicle hundreds of counts involving either gross negligence or moral turpitude related to his now defunct practice as well as the violation of a protective order filed against him in Los Angeles County. We contacted his former girlfriend, who declined to elaborate on specifics and didn't want to be identified, but confirmed that she filed a restraining order against him.
