Final Flurry for Dornan and Sanchez

In one of the tightest and most closely watched congressional races in the country, incumbent Robert K. Dornan and political newcomer Loretta Sanchez appealed to their constituencies Monday for a strong turnout that could decide the election.

With help from the two Latino members of Clinton’s Cabinet -- Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and Henry Cisneros, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development--Sanchez directed her message to Latinos at a small rally in Santa Ana.

“Tomorrow, Orange County will rejoice,” Sanchez told about 250 students and faculty members at Rancho Santiago College Monday afternoon. “No longer will we see the diversity and the cultures of this community attacked by their own representative in Congress.”

Cisneros, near the end of a three-day road trip to promote Democratic congressional candidates, repeated a familiar theme: “It’s all in the turnout,” he said. “If we can capitalize on the numbers of people who’ve become registered, if we can capitalize on the people who are for us, we can win this election.”

Meanwhile, Dornan was upbeat throughout the day, giving a 90-minute talk about politics and religion in the afternoon to an enthusiastic group of students, parents and teachers at a small, Christian school in Anaheim.

Later, he personally pounded a lawn sign into the front yard of a supporter’s home on Antigua Street, then returned to his headquarters to talk to supporters and Republican congressional colleagues, who phoned their support.

Twice during the day Dornan allowed for the possibility that he might “win or lose,” but later insisted that the comment was nothing more than a “rhetorical flourish” on the day before the election.

“I would bet the store I am going to get close to that 50%,” he said, which would be enough to win reelection. Dornan on Sunday predicted he would get 50% of the vote and Sanchez 41%, with the balance split among three minor-party candidates.

In Orange County, seats are up for grabs in six congressional, two state senate, seven state assembly and two county supervisorial districts, as well as spots in a host of judicial, community college trustee and school board elections. Also at stake are a plethora of state propositions and local ballot measures ranging from bonds for new jails and wetlands restoration to terms limits for city council members and county supervisors.

The polls open 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

The Orange County race that has drawn the most attention throughout the country, however, is that between Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Sanchez, a Democrat who has never held elective office.

Sanchez, who narrowly defeated three challengers in a March primary, appears to be in a neck-and-neck race for the seat Dornan has held for 12 years. Before that, he served for six years representing a congressional district in West Los Angeles.

On Monday, Sanchez studied voter lists and focused on Latinos and on women who voted in the 1992 elections but stayed home in 1994. Seated in the corner of her cramped campaign headquarters, she called hundreds of homes headed by women, while volunteers collated and stapled precinct lists for a get-out-the-vote effort today.

“Do you recognize my name?” she asked one woman on the line. “I’m the woman that’s running for Congress against Bob Dornan and I’m calling to please ask for your support.”

As an incentive to single working mothers, the Sanchez campaign will offer a half-hour of child care to women who want to vote. “We call them struggling women,” said Sanchez, 36, a financial consultant who was born and raised in Anaheim. “They are working for minimum wage, raising kids on their own. And they’ve seen that if they don’t vote, they don’t have a voice.”

The mood at Dornan headquarters on Brookhurst Street was frenetic all day, as several dozen supporters helped package pro-Dornan and anti-Sanchez election fliers to be walked to voters’ homes before the polls close. Others handed out phone lists to volunteers who would be making get-out-the-vote calls on election day from their homes.

Dornan arrived at the storefront center about 12:30, embracing and kissing his son, Mark. Carrying two white roses, Dornan called out to his wife, Sallie, “Look at what I brought you from your garden.” He embraced and kissed her as well. Sallie is the campaign’s manager and Mark its coordinator.

Dornan was both rambling and intense as he spoke to about 70 students and 20 adults at the Anaheim Discovery Christian School.

He read two passages from the Bible. Summarizing one from Psalms, he said, “they cannot tear you down as long as you do what is right” and added “Win or lose, I will read the Psalm at Republican headquarters” on election night.

He attacked President Clinton, saying he is not “fit to be president, not with the womanizing or triple draft-dodging,” and urged the students to get involved in politics and run for office.

Interpreting the Constitution, he said to considerable applause that “there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution or our Declaration of Independence about separation of church and state.”

The Dornan campaign expects to have some 300 to 400 volunteers participating in its get-out-the-vote operation, which will be run out of the Hyatt Regency Alicante in Garden Grove. Dornan said he expected Republican Reps. Randy Cunningham and Duncan Hunter of San Diego to participate in the effort.

At Sanchez campaign headquarters in a Garden Grove strip mall, a dozen volunteers gulped down pizza and sodas while preparing precinct lists and yard signs for a last-minute push. Coordinators said they expected several hundred volunteers to show up Monday night to pick up assignments, and that they hoped the volunteers would reach more than 90% of potential Sanchez voters in person or by phone today.

Among those volunteers was Ignacio Sanchez, a soft-spoken immigrant from Sonora, Mexico, who is also Sanchez’s father. He wore a T-shirt with his daughter’s name and the slogan: The Woman to Beat Bob Dornan.

“I’ll be walking, today, tomorrow, walking precincts,” said the senior Sanchez, who boasted that each of his seven children is a professional of some standing. “I guess we did something right,” he said.

Sanchez seemed to handle the last-minute stress with a sense of humor, laughing often when discussing her opponent. But the former Head Start student spoke seriously of the significance of the race.

“If this all stops tomorrow, I still have my family and my business to go back to,” she said. “But what’s scary, what concerns me, is all the people who are voting for the first time, who see a chance to elect a Latina to a national office. Imagine if they go and cast their vote and it doesn’t matter. That’s the burden I have.”

If Dornan is to win, he will need a big turnout of folks like Tricia Burnett, a teacher at the Christian School. “I like some of the things he stands for, especially his pro-life views and support for schools like this,” she said.

The Sanchez campaign, though, is betting on voters like Randy Cormier, a Republican from Garden Grove who walked by the Dornan headquarters about noon Monday and said he voted for Dornan two years ago.

“I like Dornan, but I am not going to vote for him,” said the owner of a small electronics repair store. “He is not a good congressman for this district. . . . I am afraid he will not follow through on his promises.”