Sanchez Holds Big Money Lead Over Dornan

With the hotly contested race for her congressional seat in its final stretch, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) has more than four times as much left to spend as her challenger, former Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan, according to campaign disclosure statements released Friday.

Each candidate has raised more than $3 million since the race began, making the contest one of the most expensive congressional battles in the nation this year.

Sanchez goes into the last days of the campaign with $905,443 left to spend, while Dornan has $218,244 in his campaign accounts.

Dornan has out-raised Sanchez since July by more than 2 to 1, pulling in $1.39 million mainly from a national direct-mail campaign and through newspaper solicitations attacking the character and record of Sanchez. But his fund-raising strategy is costly, leaving him with less money than Sanchez.

A chunk of that sum came to Dornan in the form of a $320,526 check from the House of Representatives as reimbursement for his expenses in challenging his narrow reelection loss to Sanchez two years ago. Dornan owes his lawyers $39,500 of that reimbursement.

Also since July, Sanchez gathered considerably less, about $663,000. In the spring, her campaign coffers reached nearly $2.39 million, then larger than that of any House Democrat except Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt. The spring effort was aided by national fund-raisers held for her by Democratic leaders, including Vice President Al Gore and former Texas Gov. Ann Richards.

Altogether, Dornan raised $3.39 million and Sanchez $3.0 million through Oct. 14.

The money Sanchez has left is enough to give her an advantage as the campaign goes into its final week. Sanchez leads Dornan by 14 percentage points, according to a Times Orange County Poll released this week.

But 17% of voters are still undecided, according to the poll. Moreover, with the economy humming and no president to elect this year, turnout Nov. 3 is expected to sink to a historic low, which means persuading voters to cast ballots is critical.

Republicans and Democrats agree that the seat is a key one as the major parties struggle for control of the House of Representatives. Dornan has cast the race as revenge for Sanchez’s 984-vote victory over him in 1996.

“The voter turnout rate is likely to be the single greatest factor determining who wins the Dornan-Sanchez election,” state GOP Chairman Michael Schroeder said. “Both candidates have got to be focusing right now on getting those voters motivated to show up on election day.”

On Friday, the campaigns were busy making plans to spend what they have left.

Dornan spent the afternoon shooting two television commercials at his Garden Grove headquarters. He declined to discuss the spots, saying only that they were a “surprise” and that they may hit Sanchez hard on some issues.

In the past, Dornan has been known for making personal attacks on his opponents. But while he has sent out two mailers this fall criticizing Sanchez for votes on abortion and Social Security, he has so far focused largely on his own record. Mailers and television ads have pictured him with his family and built on his campaign theme: “Dornan: A fighter with a heart.”

Sanchez plans to air several more commercials before election day, campaign chairman Wylie A. Aitken said. In addition, the Sanchez campaign is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on phone banks and mailers urging Democrats to come to the polls, Aitken said. One mailer has an application for an absentee ballot attached, to encourage people to vote if they can’t make it to the polls on election day.

Aitken said Sanchez may use part of her funds to respond if Dornan attacks her.

“With the few dollars we have left, we have the ability to decide whether we want to make any response to the increasingly desperate attempts by our opponent,” Aitken said. “We’ll just politely read the mail over the weekend and figure it out.”