Dornan Fights Anew for Former House Seat; Foes Dismiss Chances

So much for the low-key Bob Dornan.

In recent weeks, the former Orange County congressman--best known for his hard-right views and roaring rhetoric--had been taking a softer approach in his competition with three GOP opponents in the June 2 primary.

No more. The old Dornan appears to be back.

He is putting together two mailers attacking U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, even though he technically doesn’t face the Garden Grove Democrat in June. He also warned Republicans on Tuesday that if they win by trashing him with eleventh-hour hit pieces, he’ll run as a write-in candidate this fall.

Defeated in November 1996 by Sanchez by 984 votes, Dornan cried voter fraud in challenging the election in Congress. Now, after losing that battle as well, he is hungry for vindication and hopes to regain his party’s favor by retaking the seat this fall.

The quick end to his kinder and gentler phase came last week after he saw his name listed with Sanchez’s on the blanket primary ballot. “I realized I was running against Sanchez again--not in the fall, but right now,” he said.

For Dornan, 65, that means unleashing his attacks on Sanchez. He says his mailers, which he was finishing Monday night, score Sanchez for everything from her votes against banning so-called partial-birth abortion to her life outside Congress.

Sanchez, 38, calls Dornan a “nasty man who can’t run on the issues.” Though she is unopposed for the Democratic nomination, she nevertheless is advertising heavily on television and through the mail.

A Sanchez-Dornan rematch in the general election this fall could be one of the most expensive congressional contests ever. Each had raised nearly $1.8 million by the end of March, second only to the top two House leaders. The money continues to pour in as leaders in both national parties contest the Orange County seat in vying for control of Congress.

Whether a rematch occurs depends on voters.

Dornan, of Garden Grove, must win the GOP nomination first. Running against him in the primary are family law attorney and California Lottery Commission Chairwoman Lisa Hughes, 49, Superior Court Judge James P. Gray, 53, and retired aerospace engineer Cornelius “Chuck” Coronado, 71.

Dornan’s Republican opponents say he is soiled goods, especially in the Latino community, and cannot beat Sanchez. His 14-month-long challenge to her election rested largely on claims that Sanchez won with votes from Latinos who were not yet citizens and with ballots cast illegally.

Dornan, who in other circumstances could have the GOP establishment’s support for a rematch, has battled Hughes for local endorsements. Her consultant, state Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange), began the exodus from Dornan’s camp last year.

Hughes’ candidacy is built on the theory that she can neutralize Sanchez’s advantage among women, especially Republicans who support abortion rights.

“Lisa is the best opportunity we have to retake that seat,” said Dale Dykema, president of the Orange County Lincoln Club, a political action committee of affluent Republicans. “It would be a different type of race with Lisa and Sanchez.”

Gone from that match-up, he said, would be the emotionalism generated by Dornan’s election challenge, which inflamed many Latinos and allowed Democrats here and in Congress to depict Dornan and the GOP as racist.

Orange County Republican leaders, too, are angry. They cannot believe that Dornan let the seat get away, allowing Sanchez to create a Democratic beachhead in their domain. To their added dismay, the election challenge made her a national heroine to many.

Dornan is indignant. “Is Bob Dornan a sore loser, or did I have a legitimate impact on the issue of voter fraud?” he asked. “Did I not create a new standard for how every American thinks about the voting process?”

Though largely ignoring the jibes from his GOP opponents and their supporters, Dornan on Tuesday said that if he loses the primary because of last-minute attacks, he will run in the general election.

“If she goes negative on me [in the mail], then I am going to be there until Nov. 3,” he said. “I am going to run as a Republican write-in in the general election.”

Hughes called Dornan paranoid. “He is the only one who has put out negative mail,” she said. “What could I say that is negative that hasn’t been said a hundred times over already about Bob Dornan?”

Sanchez’s 46th District is the only one in Orange County where Democrats predominate. Of people registered for the June 2 blanket primary, which permits voters to cast ballots for any candidate, 45% are Democrat, 38% are Republican, and 12% are independent.

In wooing primary voters, Dornan is trying to hold together his old coalition, including abortion opponents, Vietnamese immigrants, blue-collar Democrats and gun-rights advocates.

Hughes has been running for office since early last year. A millionaire who made her fortune in a family law practice, she has flooded the district with mail for eight weeks and is running ads on cable television.

“I will spend what needs to be spent,” she said. She makes no apologies for her wealth, saying she was raised poor and now is dedicated to giving something back to society.

Gray and Dornan call her a carpetbagger. She lives in Orange--outside the district--but said she is selling the house and planning to move into the district. The house is listed at nearly $3 million.

Hughes dismissed the Gray candidacy as a nuisance factor and said she will win “by letting Bob Dornan beat Bob Dornan.” She called him “an embarrassment” to the district.

A certified public accountant, she says the top issue before Congress is an accounting problem. She wants all agencies to use the same bookkeeping rules. Otherwise, she said, you have “phony numbers,” and nothing--from balancing the budget to saving Social Security--can get done.

Hughes opposes gun control and a ban on soft money and wants a flat tax or national sales tax to replace the income tax. She opposes government-funded abortion, but would permit adults to have them in the first trimester.

Gray has made walking the precincts and using volunteers the essence of his campaign. He has raised more money than Hughes--about $172,000 by the end of March--but lacks the personal funds to compete fully with her in the mail or on TV.

“What I am doing is not sensational; it is one on one,” he said. “People are responding to it. They can see I am not a politician.”

The judge walks precincts daily, going through trailer parks, neighborhoods and apartment complexes. He delivers his message in English or the Spanish he learned for the Peace Corps: “I know we can do better than Bob Dornan or Loretta Sanchez.”

Trying to imprint his name on voters, he invariably tugs at his white hair and leaves them with: “That’s Jim Gray--gray like my hair.”

He has a 26-year-old adopted Vietnamese son and believes that with his Navy service during the Vietnam War, he will win that ethnic community.

Hanging over the Gray candidacy is his declaration in 1992 that the war on drugs had failed and that cocaine, heroin and marijuana should be legalized. He called for drug sales to adults through pharmacies without prescription.

“I mislabeled it,” he said in an interview recently, adding that he wanted to create a debate on the issue and now favors “investigating our options.”

Gray would sharply limit soft money in politics. He supports a ban on assault weapons and favors scrapping the tax code in favor of a national sales or flat tax. He would allow first-trimester abortions but opposes government-funded abortions.

Coronado, who won a Purple Heart as a Marine on Okinawa, Japan, in 1945, has no money and no staff. He is campaigning alone, walking door to door. He believes that he can defeat Sanchez and his GOP opponents by winning the Latino vote.

“There is no way the Republican Party can defeat Sanchez unless I run,” he said. He supports a soft money ban and switching to a flat or sales tax. He opposes gun control and abortion rights.