Congresswomen Demand Speaker End Probe of Sanchez Election

One year to the day after Garden Grove’s Loretta Sanchez scored her upset congressional victory, her Democratic sisters in the House burst into the office of Speaker Newt Gingrich unannounced to demand an immediate halt to the probe of noncitizen voting in the election launched by the man she beat, Republican Robert K. Dornan.

“You the man, Mr. Speaker. It’s all on you,” Rep. Carrie Meek (D-Fla.) told Gingrich as she and seven other congresswomen crowded around him in his plush offices. “You are the leader of this whole thing. You could say . . . ‘Enough already.’ ”

The Georgia Republican smiled, thanked the women for coming and, to no one’s surprise, politely declined.

He did, however, hint at an idea that other sources say is being considered, in which Republicans would drop the investigation if Democrats backed a broader inquiry into voter fraud.

“Your party would be well served by suggesting we investigate citizenship of voters and not in one district,” Gingrich said after ushering the women into his inner sanctum but failing to offer them seats. “I can’t imagine you all are saying you don’t want to know if noncitizens are voting.”

Later Wednesday night, Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.)--who chairs the task force conducting the probe--said he believes that there were about 1,000 noncitizens who voted last fall in the 46th Congressional District, based on a cross-check of the Orange County voter rolls with Immigration and Naturalization Service databases. That is in addition to 429 illegal votes uncovered in separate investigations by California Secretary of State Bill Jones and the county registrar of voters, he said.

Although the number of questionable votes Ehlers presented is more than Sanchez’s 984-vote margin of victory, it might not be enough to overturn the election because there is no way to prove for whom the ballots were cast. In previous cases, the number of questionable votes has been subtracted from each candidate in proportion to the total result, which would leave Sanchez the winner. Ehlers also said that further examination of the 1,000 names remains necessary.

For the third time in recent weeks, House members debated the case on the floor for an hour late Wednesday, but Republicans again blocked a formal request to drop the probe with a near party-line vote. They then skirted debate on dozens of similar motions with an abrupt vote to adjourn until morning.

Democrats promised to renew and expand the parliamentary games today.

Behind the hoopla, the investigation churned on, with no resolution in sight. Aides to Jones, who agreed last month to help the House panel with its probe, said their office can only verify whether individuals voted or registered to vote, not their citizenship status, and therefore cannot provide a list of legal, illegal or suspect voters as requested.

Thus, the substantive questions remain unanswered--and increasingly seem unanswerable--as the probe becomes one of those Washington issues preserved for the province of political fund-raising and press-conferencing.

On the Capitol steps Wednesday morning, the scene was reminiscent of the historic snapshot of then-Rep. Barbara Boxer leading a cadre of women lawmakers to the Senate to protest the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991.

This time, a group of female Democrats locked arms, held hands and marched up the Capitol steps to see Gingrich. Boxer, now one of California’s two U.S. senators, attended the news conference that preceded the Gingrich mission but left before the actual procession.

At the news conference, Boxer said: “There’s a saying in a card game, ‘You got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.’ Republicans, you are out of time and your hand is a loser. Give it up.”

Standing in front of the Capitol, the women acknowledged that, in the 10 months since Dornan filed papers contesting Sanchez’s victory, there have been many protests but little progress.

“One more time, the supporters of Loretta Sanchez are having a press conference,” said Rep. Barbara Kennelly (D-Conn.), Sanchez’s roommate in Washington earlier this year.

“One year ago today, the voters of [California’s] 46th District made their choice,” Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) said. “One year later, Loretta Sanchez still has been unable to savor her victory.”

The new twist Wednesday was the surprise visit to Gingrich’s office to deliver a letter signed by 33 Democratic women. They never really expected to get in.

“He actually right now is in a meeting,” drawled an aide who met the party at the door.

“Will he take a few minutes to talk to us?” asked Connecticut’s Rosa DeLauro, the Democrats’ deputy whip.

“Let me check and see,” came the response.

The inaptly named Meek, the Florida congresswoman, did not want to wait.

“You don’t wait for the speaker to come to you, you go where he’s at,” she said, leading the brigade through the door uninvited.

Gingrich soon appeared. He engaged the guests’ questions for about 15 minutes, spewing details about the case as they made their demands but without budging a bit.

“We’re not asking [Sanchez] not to vote,” Gingrich said, noting that the GOP majority seated her despite the ongoing investigation. “At the point where we’re confident of the evidence, I think the investigation will end.”

Times staff writer Peter M. Warren in Orange County contributed to this story.