‘I Cannot Do It Alone,’ Sanchez Tells Backers

Congresswoman-elect Loretta Sanchez, finally enjoying a victory party made three weeks late by a long ballot count, implored supporters Monday night to continue giving her input from home over the next two years.

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Sanchez told about 300 supporters as champagne corks popped at the Disneyland Hotel. “This position is not a position for Loretta Sanchez. Each and every one of now owns a piece of what is going on in Washington. . . . I need your help; I cannot do it alone.”

Sanchez, who had beaten veteran Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) by 984 votes when the last ballots were tallied Friday, said that, clearly, every one of those votes counted.

She thanked teachers, labor, environmental groups, various ethnic communities and women’s political groups for helping to “get Bob Dornan out and restore the seat to the people.”

Wylie A. Aitken, Sanchez’s co-chairman, said that “when you win by 984 votes, everything [makes] the difference. Absolutely everything. I have not been so proud to be a Democrat since the morning of Nov. 5, when so many of you showed up to walk precincts.”

Sanchez implored her supporters to continue their activism by forming task forces within the 46th Congressional District to help her keep in touch.

Supporters at the party included Bill Dougherty, a member of the Orange County Republican Central Committee, who had endorsed her; Tracy Wills Worley, the mayor of Tustin; Tom Daly, the mayor of Anaheim; and Bruce Broadwater, the mayor of Garden Grove.

John Shallman, Sanchez’s campaign manager, described the party as “the one we wanted to have on election night.” County Democrats had their presidential victory event at the hotel Nov. 5. But “this,” he said, “is really about Loretta wanting to thank the volunteers.” Sanchez, who has a lingering cold from her weeklong trip to Washington for freshman orientation, made an appearance earlier in the day on the Los Angeles-based radio show, “Which Way L.A.”

Dornan was ahead of Sanchez by 233 votes the day after election day, but that margin was erased over the weeks as first absentee ballots and then provisional ballots were totaled.