GOP Leaders Refuse to Debate Sanchez Case, Thwarting Attempt at Settlement

An attempt to settle the ongoing dispute over last fall’s election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) was thwarted Saturday when Republican leaders on Capitol Hill refused to even debate the matter.

After two days in which individual Democrats and Republicans had been negotiating behind closed doors, the public rebuke by GOP leaders dimmed Democrats’ hopes that the election challenge filed by defeated Republican Robert K. Dornan would be dismissed before Congress adjourns for the year.

Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) introduced a resolution on the House floor that called for the case to be dropped, but for an investigation into illegal voting and voter registration procedures by both California authorities and the House Oversight Committee to continue. Hoping to attract support from at least a handful of Republicans, Gephardt stripped from the resolution the inflammatory rhetoric accusing the GOP of harassing minority voters and Sanchez.

But the strategy failed. Immediately after the motion was read on the floor, it was tabled by a near-party line vote. As in previous votes on the Sanchez matter, James A. Traficant Jr. (D-Ohio) voted with the Republicans and Michael P. Forbes (R-N.Y.) defected to the Democrats.

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) who sits on the committee probing the election, said that Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) had promised him there would be an hour of debate and a vote on the substance of Gephardt’s motion. But Hoyer said Armey told him he had changed his mind just before Gephardt rose to introduce the resolution.