Sanchez Gets $61,000 Democratic Boost

In a sign that Democrats believe congressional candidate Loretta Sanchez has “a legitimate chance” of unseating Rep. Robert K. Dornan, the party’s Congressional Campaign Committee has decided to contribute $61,000 to her election.

“This race kept getting better and it looks good right now,” said Jim Whitney, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “As Sanchez put together a strong campaign and with Dornan’s continued weakness, it meant we are coming in with everything we could.”

The contribution from the Democratic campaign group makes Sanchez one of five candidates in the state getting the maximum gift from the party’s congressional arm. Each party’s congressional campaign committee may provide up to $61,000 to races around the country for services such as a mailer, a poll or the purchase of cable television time.

There are two other indicators that the race is considered close by both parties.

Polling done for the Sanchez campaign during the weekend portrays a tight contest, and Republican County Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes last week asked Reform Party candidate Lawrence J. Stafford to get out of the race and endorse Dornan. Both Stafford and the Republican incumbent are opposed to abortion rights, while Sanchez favors a woman’s right to choose abortion.

Neither Fuentes nor a spokesman for the Dornan campaign could be reached for comment about the poll or the contribution, which were announced late Tuesday.

Dornan has said he will beat Sanchez because she is inexperienced and uninformed on the issues that matter to his constituents. Two years ago, he spent more than $2 million and defeated his Democratic opponent 57% to 37%.

The Democratic poll, released late Tuesday, showed Dornan and Sanchez even at 43%, with 12% undecided and 2% supporting other candidates, according to Alex Evans, of the polling firm Evans/McDonough of Berkeley.

The Sanchez poll contacted 500 likely voters from Oct. 12 to 14, Evans said, and had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

The results are similar to a poll done within Dornan’s 46th Congressional District last week for a local Republican candidate, according to GOP sources who declined to publicly elaborate.

Stafford, who first ran for Congress in a Republican primary in the 1966, said he turned down the request that he step aside, which was made by phone on Friday.

“Fuentes was pushing the pro-life deal,” he said. “I told him this is the second time [since 1966 that] the GOP Central Committee has asked me to drop out. I have 30 years invested in the district, why should I step aside when I can win this thing?”

Stafford also said that Dornan chief of staff Pat Fanelli phoned him on Thursday, asking if he was interested in getting out of the race and suggesting he have a talk with the congressman about it.

In an interview earlier Tuesday, Fanelli denied the account.

“I think he is a little confused,” she said, adding that she had called Stafford, whom she has known for 30 years, to “give him a little dig about the party he belongs to,” which favors abortion rights, and to tell him “you don’t belong in this party.”

The $61,000 is a significant financial boost to the Sanchez campaign.

In the reporting period that ended June 30, the most recent for which figures are available, Sanchez had raised $94,844, had loaned her campaign $66,000 and had cash on hand of $106,049. A campaign spokesman Tuesday said she has raised about $300,000 as of Sept. 30. That sum does not include the $61,000 from the party’s congressional committee.

Dornan reported raising $16,015 this year and had cash on hand of $22,938. Dornan said his campaign would report between $200,000 and $300,000 for the period that ended Sept. 30.

Whitney said Democrats in Congress have been watching the Sanchez-Dornan race for some time.

“Dornan’s lack of attention to the district has caught up with him,” he said. “His run for president shows an indifference to the district. With Clinton running well in Orange County and with a good, strong candidate, this race just got better and better. It is really winnable. We want Sanchez to have enough resources to get out her message.”

Dornan has previously said that his presidential run did little to distract him or his staff from their work. He points to an attendance record of above 95% and said he made just five visits to Iowa and New Hampshire during the primaries.

“My staff is the best in the county at constituent services,” he said last week, when he released a page-long list of federal programs and aid provided to the district in part through his efforts.