Gephardt Vows Bid to End Sanchez Probe

Expressing sharp dissatisfaction with the continuing investigation into last year’s victory by Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Garden Grove, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives said his party will disrupt the House’s business to end the GOP inquiry into the contested election in central Orange County.

House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri said members of his party will begin use “delaying tactics” and other methods to stymie legislation as a way “to defend Loretta against a totally unreasonable investigation.”

The first such effort, however, was brushed aside Friday by Republicans, who hold a majority in the House.

The House is investigating charges made by ousted GOP Rep. Robert K. Dornan that noncitizen voting and other election irregularities led to his 984-vote defeat in November.

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Gephardt said the inquiry by the House Oversight Committee, which began in January, is “totally out of control” and is being used by Republicans to harass the freshman Democrat and weaken her for a GOP challenger in 1998. He called on his GOP colleagues to prove Sanchez’s victory was tainted by fraud or end their investigation.

Republican leaders rejected all the charges Friday, and swamped efforts by Democrats to limit the time and funds for the inquiry.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield) defended his panel’s probe and chided the Democrats, while indicating that the investigation is far from over.

“Those kinds of bully tactics don’t work with me, and I am pretty sure it won’t work with the [Republican] leadership,” he said.

Saying even the Democrats concede that noncitizens voted in the election, Thomas added that the “natural question is to find out how many.”

“If we quit now, as the Democrats want, we would not be able to get to the bottom of this,” he said. “Our duty is to see that anyone who cast a legal vote does not have that vote canceled by an illegal vote.”