poll, 71 percent of respondents ranked fighting communism as a "top priority" or "very important". Vietnamese Americans stage protests against the Vietnamese government, its human rights policy and those whom they perceive to be sympathetic to it. In 1999, opposition to a video-store owner in Westminster, California who displayed the flag of Vietnam and a photo of Ho Chi Minh peaked when 15,000 people held a nighttime vigil in front of the store; this raised free speech issues. Although few Vietnamese Americans enrolled in the Democratic Party because it was seen as more sympathetic to communism than the Republican Party, Republican support has eroded in the second generation and among newer, poorer refugees. However, the Republican Party still has strong support; in 2007, in Orange County, Vietnamese Americans registered as Republicans outnumber registered Democrats (55 and 22 percent, respectively). According to the 2008 National Asian American Survey, 22 percent identified with the Democratic Party and 29 percent with the Republican Party. Exit polls during the 2004 presidential election indicated that 72 percent of Vietnamese American voters in eight eastern states polled voted for Republican incumbent George W. Bush, compared to the 28 percent voting for Democratic challenger John Kerry. In a poll conducted before the 2008 presidential election, two-thirds of Vietnamese Americans who had decided said that they would vote for Republican candidate John McCain. The party's vocal anti-communism is attractive to older and first-generation Vietnamese Americans who arrived during the Reagan administration. Although most Vietnamese overall are registered Republicans, most young Vietnamese lean toward the Democratic Party because some Vietnamese are members of labor unions. An Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) poll found that Vietnamese Americans aged 18–29 favored Democrat Barack Obama by 60 percentage points during the 2008 presidential election. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, 47% of registered Vietnamese-American voters leaned Republican and 32% Democratic; among Vietnamese Americans overall (including non-registered voters), 36% leaned Democratic and 35% Republican. Vietnamese Americans have exercised political power in Orange County, Silicon Valley, and other areas, and have attained public office at the local and statewide levels in California and Texas. Janet Nguyen is a member of the California State Assembly; Andrew Do is part of the five-member Orange County Board of Supervisors; Bao Nguyen was mayor of Garden Grove, California, and Vietnamese Americans have also been the mayors of Rosemead and Westminster, California. Several serve