Dornan to Recoup Vote Challenge Costs

In a move that angered Democrats, a House committee decided Wednesday to reimburse former Rep. Robert K. Dornan $320,526 toward his failed bid to overturn his 1996 election defeat, revitalizing his campaign to regain the seat this fall.

Democrats charged that the GOP leadership was giving the conservative Republican a six-figure gift of public funds. Dornan said last month that his campaign was nearly broke, with only $4,500 in cash.

“This was a back-room deal that they cooked up at the last minute so they could give Dornan a campaign contribution of $320,000 in taxpayer money,” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez, the Garden Grove Democrat who won Dornan’s seat in a close race.

Sanchez received $250,500 to reimburse her for costs in defeating the challenge.

Dornan’s camp, which has alleged that Sanchez benefited from illegally cast votes, was elated.

“The vindication is in the money. We got the lion’s share,” said Dornan’s campaign manager and son, Mark Dornan. “Bob Dornan proved his case of voter fraud.”

This year’s rematch between Sanchez and Dornan promises to be one of the most expensive congressional races ever. Each has raised more than $1 million, though Dornan has spent most of his money on legal bills and winning the GOP primary.

House Oversight Committee Chairman William Thomas (R-Bakersfield) said a losing party has been reimbursed at least once before. But House Democrats disagreed, labeling the action a troubling precedent for future challenges.

The committee decided that Dornan and Sanchez should be reimbursed for their costs, but it put a cap of $125 an hour on their legal fees--a standard amount set by the Department of Justice.

Dornan received 69% of his $468,000 in expenses. The committee deducted $73,000 of Sanchez’s expenses because it refused to pay for her court action challenging the constitutionality of House subpoenas. She received 61% of her reduced expenses of $410,000.

Dornan’s money will go into his campaign fund, but Sanchez cannot use hers for the campaign because the money originally was raised in a non-campaign account.

The committee’s decision angered Democrats.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) said it smacked of partisan payback for Dornan, who had said that GOP leaders let him down by refusing to invalidate the election returns.

“Mr. Dornan raised a big stink, and Mr. Dornan doesn’t have a lot of money in his kitty,” said Hoyer, the only Democrat on the investigative task force.

Sanchez said the money for Dornan would have been better spent for real needs in the 46th Congressional District in central Orange County. She said $320,000 would pay annual benefits for 750 Orange County military veterans, 160,000 school lunches, construction of six new classrooms or four more police officers for her home city of Anaheim.

“Bob Dornan lost,” she said. “This isn’t a wise use of taxpayer funds. It’s a political contribution to one of their own.”

After his loss by 984 votes, Dornan alleged that Sanchez was aided by a conspiracy of local Latino rights groups to register noncitizens to vote. In its investigation, the House found that 748 noncitizen votes were cast, not enough to overturn the election.

“The Republicans on one hand say they want to outreach to Latinos and build bridges with Latinos, and then they remind the Latino community why they’re so hateful,” said California Democratic Party official Bob Mulholland.

Elliot Zaret of States News Service in Washington contributed to this story.