Sanchez and Dornan Still Raising Stakes

With Robert K. Dornan amassing more campaign money than ever before, the rematch between the former Orange County congressman and Rep. Loretta Sanchez has shaped up as the most expensive congressional race in the country this year and the second costliest in history, an analysis for The Times shows.

Sanchez, a Garden Grove Democrat, has raised $3 million--more than any other House incumbent except Speaker Newt Gingrich and Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt. Never has a freshman legislator raised near that amount.

Her Republican foe has raised even more--$3.4 million--mostly through nationwide mailers and ads in Washington newspapers. That is more than any other challenger for a House seat this year, and $1.4 million more than Dornan has garnered in any of his nine previous campaigns.

While Dornan has spent two-thirds of his money simply to raise more funds, both candidates are hitting the airwaves and mailboxes in the final days before Tuesday’s election with advertising boosting themselves and tearing down one another.

The big-money campaign, bolstered on both sides by contributions mostly from people motivated by ideology, is a measure of the lightning-rod nature of the rematch between Sanchez and Dornan. Like no other contest this year, it brings into sharp focus the split between conservatives and liberals on such national issues as abortion, education reform, defense spending and the role of organized labor.

The battle is also deeply personal, stirred mainly by Dornan’s 14-month battle to overturn the 1996 election that cost him his seat. Sanchez, then a political newcomer, defeated Dornan by a narrow margin.

This year’s fight also is seen as a referendum on the emerging power of the Latino vote and the changing demographics in one of the country’s most conservative counties.

“Just like metal filings are attracted to a magnet, ideological money from all over the country is attracted to this race,” said Larry Makinson, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington nonprofit research group. The heat in the campaign, which Dornan has cast as revenge for the seat he says was taken from him, has turned fund-raising norms for a local congressional campaign upside down.

Most congressional races are fought with less than a third of the money Sanchez and Dornan have raised, and most raise their money primarily from local residents and political action committees.

But Sanchez and Dornan have raised much of their money from individual donors elsewhere in California and around the country as they battle over central Orange County’s 46th Congressional District.

While most Republicans are backed strongly by business interests, it is Sanchez who has far more business support in this race. Most of Dornan’s money trickles in from households around the nation in increments of $50 to $100.

“There is nothing typical about this race,” said Dwight Morris of the Virginia-based Campaign Study Group, which analyzed the data for The Times. The analysis covers financial reports filed by the candidates through Oct. 14.

“I suppose you could come up with two more ideological opposites, but it’s hard to imagine,” Morris said. “And that is affecting the way money has come into these campaigns.”

Only Costlier Race Involved Gingrich

Only once before has more money been raised in a congressional race, in 1996, when Gingrich and challenger Michael Coles, the millionaire owner of the Great American Cookie Co., raised $8.9 million between them.

Dornan raised most of his money from retirees through a national direct-mail campaign targeted at a conservative support base he has built over the years. About 68% of his campaign funds come from outside California. And $2.5 million of his money, or 74%, is from donors who gave less than $200 each.

But Dornan did not shun donations from political action committees, as he sometimes has in the past. Conservative ideological groups, including Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, the Republican National Coalition for Life and the Campaign for Working Families have added a total of $35,300 to Dornan’s coffers.

“Bob Dornan has a proven pro-family, pro-life voting record,” said Sheila Maloney, executive director of the Eagle Forum, which has donated $10,000 since January, 1997--more than any other group or individual. “This is a very symbolic vote in a lot of ways. It’s between someone who is 100% about what we believe in, and someone who is not.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee donated $4,500 to Dornan and has spent $67,000 of its own money on issue ads and get-out-the-vote efforts designed to help the former congressman’s campaign. In the primary, Republican groups passed Dornan by, giving instead to another candidate in the race.

“That was then. This is now,” committee spokesman Todd Harris said. “We’re doing quite a bit. This is a key congressional seat for us.”

However, Dornan’s success in raising money has left him with little to spend. As of Oct. 14, he had just more than $200,000 left in his campaign coffers, depleted mainly by the costs of managing the costly direct mail campaign to raise the money in the first place. His fund-raising costs totaled $2.3 million.

Sanchez, who has spent her money so far on mailers, four television spots and a costly get-out-the-vote campaign, had more than four times as much in her campaign in mid-October. She reported more than $900,000 left to spend.

That didn’t worry Dornan, who said he has more than he needs.

“It’s tremendously expensive to raise money this way, but it keeps me away from the PACs,” Dornan said. “I never feel like a bought man. I’m my own man and I’m never subject to interest groups or pressure in politics.”

Sanchez’s campaign coffers are built heavily on support from labor and women’s groups. Gay and lesbian rights groups are also eager to prevent Dornan, a harsh foe of homosexuals, from regaining office.

Both Candidates Get Donations Nationwide

Like Dornan, Sanchez also raised money from individual donors around the country, though nearly three-quarters of her total came from Californians. But instead of using direct mail, she launched an intense telemarketing campaign targeted at women and Latinos. About $2.4 million, or 49%, of her contributions were from individuals, unusual for an incumbent member of Congress.

Eighteen of Sanchez’s top 30 contributors are union PACs, including one, the Service Employees International Union, that has given $20,000 to Sanchez since the beginning of 1997. Fourteen others have given Sanchez more than $10,000 each.

The large contribution by the service employees union, which has 1,200 members in the 46th District, was driven by antipathy toward Dornan as much as by Sanchez’s pro-labor voting record, said spokeswoman Jill Gallagher. Among other things, Sanchez voted against a bill that would have required workers to take mandatory compensatory time off instead of overtime pay. The bill did not pass. The union has 1,200 members in the district.

Ideologically motivated groups contributed heavily to Sanchez, padding her campaign war chest with more than $31,000. Women’s issues groups, including EMILY’s List, have given Sanchez more than $19,000, and gay and lesbian rights groups $18,000. Abortion rights advocate groups have pitched in more than $16,000.

Sanchez also took in more than $168,000 from lawyers and lobbyists, including $9,250 from family and business associates of her campaign chairman, Orange County attorney Wylie A. Aitken.

Two businesses are among Sanchez’s top 30 donors. Employees of Parking Co. of America in Miami donated $9,000. Company officials did not return calls seeking explanation from The Times. Employees of the Yucaipa Co., which owns Ralphs grocery stores, donated $6,000. Yucaipa owner Ron Burkle is one of the country’s biggest donors to Democratic causes and campaigns.

This week, the two campaigns wasted no time spending what they had left on television ads and attack mailers--and efforts to raise more money.

Dornan said he plans to unleash several hard-hitting television ads over the final weekend before the election. Sanchez already has aired four television spots on local cable stations.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala held a fund-raiser for Sanchez at an Anaheim hotel.

Dornan “never let us forget what his intention was over the 15-month election contest and he never stopped [raising money], so we never stopped,” Sanchez spokesman Lee Godown said. “Raising that kind of money became something that was indispensable.”

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Sanchez, Dornan, Dollars

In raising more than $6 million for their contest in the 46th Congressional District, Rep. Loretta Sanchez and Robert Dornan tapped vastly different sources. Both received most of their money from individuals, but Sanchez was able to raise nearly 10 times what Dornan received from political action committees. Money raised Jan. 1, 1997, through Oct. 14, 1998:

Sanchez

Individual, $200 or more: $861,793

Individual, less than $200: $1,505,603

Political action committees: $629,161

Other: $38,848

Total: $3,035,405

*

Dornan

Individual, $200 or more: $371,509

Individual, less than $200: $2,523,019

Political action committees*: $67,150

Other: $432,566*

Total: $3,394,244

* Includes $320,525.90 reimbursement of legal fees from House

Whence the Money

Unions were heavy industry/interest groups to the Sanchez campaign, while retirees were supporting the Dornan campaign. Most of Sanchez’s money from large individual contributors came from Californians, while most of Dornan’s sources were out of state.

Sanchez Donors

Unions: $314,900

Lawyers/lobbyists: $168,025

Ideological groups: $112,582

Health care interests: $68,525

Financial services interests: $56,950

*

Top Ideological Contributors

Liberals/Democrats: $31,602

Women’s issues: $19,177

Gay/lesbian rights: $18,026

Abortion rights advocates: $16,450

Pro-Israel: $10,317

Dornan Donors

Retirees: $226,264

Ideological groups: $35,300

Republican groups: $26,100

Health care interests: $18,795

Financial services interests: $14,500

*

Top Ideological Contributors

Conservatives/Republicans: $26,200

Anti-abortion: $2,800

Liberals/Democrats: $2,700

Religious interests: $1,850

*

California Split

Individual donations of $200 or more:

Sanchez

In state: 76%

Out of state: 24%

*

Dornan

In state: 32%

Out of state: 68%

*

Campaign Expenditures

Dornan has outspent Sanchez by a 3-2 ratio, with most of his money being directed to more fund-raising:

*--*

Sanchez Dornan Overhead $390,131 $415,414 Fund-raising $ 878,574 $2,347,834 Advertising $429,302 $69,260 Campaign mailers $232,763 $196,923 All other $184,666 66,818 Total $2,115,436 $3,096,249

*--*

Sources: Campaign Study Group

High Stakes

The contest in Orange County’s 46th Congressional District is the priciest in the country this year, and has raised the second highest amount of any race in U.S. history. Congressional races raising the most money:

1996

Newt Gingrich (R) vs. Michael Coles (D): $8.9 million

1998

Loretta Sanchez (D) vs. Robert K. Dornan (R): $6.4 million

Newt Gingrich (R) vs. Gary Pelfrey (D): $6.2 million

Richard A. Gephardt (D) vs. William Federer (R): $4.8 million

Source: Campaign Study Group