Dornan Seeks Extension of Hearings Into Fraud Allegations

Lawyers for former Rep. Robert K. Dornan said Tuesday that they have asked a congressional panel to expand their hearings into alleged voter fraud beyond the single session set for April 19.

“Practically speaking, I don’t think there is any way we would complete our investigation by then,” said Dornan lawyer William Hart, citing refusal by some three dozen groups and individuals to comply with subpoenas issued in March by Dornan. The subpoenas are part of the Republican’s effort to prove his claim to Congress that voter fraud caused his loss in November to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

Sanchez last month challenged the three-member Congressional Election Task Force, which is looking into the contested election, to decide the issue based on evidence gathered by the end of the hearing a week from Saturday.

Steve Jost, Sanchez’s chief of staff, on Tuesday criticized the request for more hearings as a waste of time and money.

“Six months after the election, Bob Dornan is whining that he needs more time, more taxpayer funds and more evidence to prove he didn’t lose,” he said.

Meanwhile, groups with competing political interests are using allegations of voting by noncitizens and Dornan’s effort to overturn the election as fund-raising devices for their own operations.

In the past week, the Republican Party of Orange County mailed an appeal for money, citing among other things, “voter fraud” by Democrats and Sanchez backers.

The letter to Republicans and Democrats in the county, signed by county GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes, alleges that “every day, more and more evidence of massive voter fraud by the Democrats and the Sanchez supporters comes to light” and also claims that “the Democrats recruited noncitizens as illegal voters to try to steal” the election from Dornan.

At the same time, a group called Dump Dornan, which is run by political consultant Mike Farber, has restarted its nationwide direct-mail fund-raising operation.

Farber, who lost to Dornan in 1994 and to Sanchez in the 1996 Democratic primary, also works for the Latino civil rights group Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, which is under a criminal investigation into allegations of noncitizen voting in Sanchez’s district.

“Unable to accept his defeat, Dornan went maniacal--smearing his political opponents, bashing the immigrant community and issuing illegal subpoenas,” read the mailer from Farber, which included the headline “The Nightmare Is Back And We Have Got To Stop Dornan Now.”

Neither Fuentes nor Farber could be reached for comment. A spokesman for Farber declined to discuss the letter.

The request from Dornan’s lawyers to expand the hearings, filed in Congress on Monday, also asks the panel to compel compliance by those subpoenaed or to appoint a “special master.” Such a person, commonly a lawyer or judge, would be charged with sorting through more than a dozen claims from reluctant targets of the subpoenas who say the demand for records violates constitutional rights, or that they are overly broad or irrelevant.

Hart charged that it has become increasingly difficult to gather evidence. Only the district attorney’s office and the registrar of voters’ office complied substantially with Dornan’s requests for information, he said. Others subpoenaed included Farber, Hermandad and its executive director, Nativo V. Lopez, Sanchez, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, several immigrants’ rights groups and others that ran voter registration projects.

“[Our opponents’] goal was to make sure that no records were produced prior to the April 19 hearing,” Hart said. “Their goal was to produce no records and have them demand that the hearing decide the matter on its merits. Don’t we all wish it was so simple?”

Sanchez attorney Wylie Aitken said the request for delays and special masters is similar to the tactics used in connection with “frivolous lawsuits.”

“They filed the lawsuit and they have the burden of proof,” he said. “We assumed if one makes those kind of allegations that one is ready to move with it.”

Aitken also said that the Sanchez team would decide Thursday how the congresswoman would deal with a subpoena asking that she appear Friday for a deposition at Hart’s office.