The Wall Street Journal - Wednesday, 20 November 1996.
Christopher Georges, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

"She's a liar," Mr. Dornan says, referring to the Hispanic businesswoman and novice politician who, after the final votes are counted next week, is expected to have scored this year's biggest political coup. As of yesterday, Ms. Sanchez held a 665-vote lead over the incumbent with nearly 100% of the votes tallied. "The whole thing stinks to high heaven," he fumes, claiming he is being cheated out of his re-election to a seventh-consecutive term by voter fraud.

Anybody who thought Bob Dornan would exit quietly hasn't been watching C-Span in recent years. The former fighter pilot is known as "B-1 Bob," both for his passionate defense of the bomber planes and for his scorched-earth rhetoric. He gained national attention as a quixotic GOP presidential candidate this year and on the congressional stage, where for the past four years he assailed President Clinton as a "womanizing, draft-dodging drug abuser."

The 63-year-old Republican, a sometime substitute for radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, already is setting his sights on Ms. Sanchez and the 1998 election. Mr. Dornan says, "For the next year, 11 months and seven days, I will be on her case."

He says he will sue Ms. Sanchez for "tampering with the electoral process," as well as suing her campaign for tearing down his lawn signs. He vows to raise $1 million "to support a Hispanic Republican against her." He is forming a $2 million political-action committee, FAIR, ("call 1-800-FAIR-VOT," he quips) to fight voter fraud. And to keep an eye on President Clinton, Mr. Dornan is planning an Impeach PAC.

Ms. Sanchez, 36, declines to comment on Rep. Dornan's charges, but her campaign manager, John Shallman, dismisses them as "delusional rantings." He says of Mr. Dornan: "He's been, and continues to be, a national disgrace. All we can say is: Adios."

If Mr. Dornan's downfall holds up, one thing is sure: "Congress will be a much less colorful and amusing place without him," says fellow California GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.

Gone from Congress will be the lawmaker who volunteered himself as a replacement hostage when a group of Hanafi Muslims seized a building in Washington in the 1970s; who lost his House speaking privileges for a day after accusing President Clinton, on the House floor, of having given "aid and comfort to the enemy" during the Vietnam war; who claims he swam the waters by the infamous Chappaquiddick Bridge to test Sen. Edward Kennedy's story; and who once grabbed a fellow congressman by the collar after branding him a "draft-dodging wimp," though he later said he was merely straightening the colleague's tie.

Mr. Dornan clearly made an impression on his congressional colleagues.

"He's deeply disturbed," contends Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, a gay lawmaker and a regular target of Rep. Dornan's antihomosexual speeches. "He was the single largest source of nastiness in Congress."

But others voice some praise. "I'll say this for Bob Dornan: He spoke from conviction, as opposed to some conservatives who adopt positions for political reasons," says Rep. Michael Castle, a moderate Republican from Delaware.

Few expected Mr. Dornan, who in 1994 won his Orange County district with 57% of the vote, to lose this year. The former TV talk-show host, who likes to report that his 100th birthday will be the 2,000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Christ, cites several reasons for his defeat.

"What beat me was more homosexual money than in any race in history, including from a group called Lesbians for Motherhood," he says. A Federal Election Commission spokesman says Rep. Dornan's claim about the impact of gay money is dubious, though it is true that tens of thousands of dollars were raised by gay-rights groups to help elect Ms. Sanchez. That included a fund-raising effort sponsored in part by the male companion of Rep. Frank.

Rep. Dornan also blames the news media, suggesting they glossed over Ms. Sanchez's record. He gripes, too, about gender politics. "Would she have won with the name Larry Stafford?" he asks. "Play that mental game, and you get an idea of the free ride a woman gets."

But he quickly moves on to his real beef: "voter fraud." Rep. Dornan asserts that Hispanic noncitizens as well as felons voted illegally in his district for Ms. Sanchez. Though he has yet to offer proof, he insists he is close, saying he knows of four felons who may have voted. County election officials are skeptical. "There is nothing concrete here," says Rosylen Lever, the Orange County registrar.

Rep. Dornan also fumes about what he says was nasty political campaigning by the Sanchez campaign. "She lied her way into office," he says, later producing a Sanchez brochure that includes a photo of a grand European mansion purporting to show how Rep. Dornan lives in Virginia. He concedes his own campaign literature contained inaccuracies about Ms. Sanchez's position on military spending, but those, he says, were the result of "typographical errors."

Mr. Dornan refuses to blame himself or positions he took on the issues, but other Republicans do. "He didn't run a very good campaign,"' says Anaheim GOP Chairman Robert Zemel. Rep. Dornan frittered away much of his campaign funds in his ill-fated run for the presidency earlier this year. Meanwhile, Ms. Sanchez was the recipient of tens of thousands of dollars from liberal groups across the nation who lined up behind her.

But a key was the record-setting turnout by Hispanic voters in California at a time when affirmative action and immigration laws are being tightened and welfare benefits for immigrants are being squeezed. The Hispanic population in Mr. Dornan's district has been growing in recent years, and now is 50%. Though he boasts a strong civil-rights record, he concedes Ms. Sanchez benefited from the backlash. "She played the Hispanic card to the utmost," he says.

In the end, Rep. Dornan also appears to be a casualty in the pre-election race to civility in Congress. After a session of government shutdowns -- a period when some lawmakers literally scuffled outside the House chamber -- niceness is in. Now, both House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Clinton shower Washington with pleas for bipartisanship.

"Civility is just an excuse for hiding things that liberals don't want exposed," counters Steve Sheldon, an Orange County Republican and a Dornan backer. "If Hispanics here knew what Barney Frank and Loretta Sanchez stood for, they'd throw up."

For conservatives, the question remains: Who will be the next Bob Dornan? One lawmaker suggests Rep. Rohrabacher. "No, not me," Rep. Rohrabacher says, but he gladly offers the names of two other conservative lawmakers, both of whom also politely decline the mantle.

"No one is ever irreplaceable," Rep. Dornan humbly concedes, turning to Scottish history for an example: "When William Wallace was gutted, Robert the Bruce stepped forward."

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