Sanchez Leading Foes by a Bundle in Fund-Raising

Girding for a major battle in the fall, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) already has $916,496 in cash in her campaign bank account, dwarfing the amount accumulated by her GOP rivals.

The money was raised through national phone drives and small local gatherings as well as major fund-raisers held on her behalf by Democratic leaders, including Vice President Al Gore and former Texas Gov. Ann Richards.

It brings to $1.67 million her total fund-raising for the election in the past 15 months, according to the latest campaign reports prepared for the Federal Election Commission.

Republicans and Democratic party officials agree that the freshman Democrat’s seat in central Orange County will be a key race in November as the major parties struggle for control of the House of Representatives. Both sides predict that $4 million will be spent in the fall campaign, which could make it the nation’s most expensive House race.

On the Republican side, former Rep. Robert K. Dornan, who was ousted in an upset by Sanchez in 1996, leads his GOP rivals with $149,268 in cash left in his campaign treasury, according to reports covering the period ending March 31.

Dornan has reported raising $1.77 million for the 1998 campaign, most of it through 10 mailings and a string of newspaper ads soliciting donations from a national constituency of conservatives who give him small donations. He spent about $400,000 of the money he raised on the election challenge to Sanchez, said Sallie Dornan, the candidate’s wife and campaign director. The balance of the $1.3 million has been spent on campaign mailers, fund-raising costs and other expenses.

Among the three other GOP candidates:

* Family law attorney Lisa Hughes has $97,414 remaining in her treasury, having raised $134,163 in donations since she entered the race in 1997. Hughes, a millionaire, has lent the campaign an additional $200,000 to bolster her funds. The campaign has been spending lavishly in the past three weeks on cable television commercials and four mailers to targeted audiences.

* Superior Court Judge James P. Gray has $41,050 left in his campaign account, after raising $172,419 since last fall. Gray has attracted contributions from lawyers and a national constituency that supports his questioning whether continuing to criminalize drug use is the best way to fight the war on drugs.

* Former Cypress City Councilman Chuck Coronado said he has raised less than $10,000. Coronado’s report was not available. Coronado, a former Marine, has said his campaign primarily will rely on contributions from retired Marines.

*

On Wednesday, Gray criticized Hughes, suggesting that she is using her wealth to buy credibility.

“It would certainly change the complexion of this race if I had $500,000 to put into the race and didn’t have to spend so much time raising money,” said Gray, who is on leave from his $103,000-a-year judgeship and living on savings.

He added that Hughes’ flood of cable advertising and early mailers “is a very expensive thing to do.”

Hughes responded: “Judge Gray is having a bad day,” and added that she is “investing” in herself. “This makes me beholden to no one,” she said.

Hughes, who on Wednesday received the endorsement of the Lincoln Club, a conservative political action committee of Republicans, said there is no limit to the amount of her own money she’ll spend to win the primary June 2. Hughes said she would contribute “whatever I need to put in.”

In the 1996 campaign, Sanchez and Dornan spent about $1.55 million together. Republicans and Democrats were awed Wednesday by her substantial early bankroll.

Dan Sallick, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Sanchez had raised “a couple of hundred thousand dollars more” than any other incumbent Democrat in a competitive race. “It is an extraordinary figure,” he said.

Buck Johns, a key GOP contributor in Orange County, described her cash reserves as “very impressive. These numbers are just off the charts.”

Also impressive, was that neither Dornan nor Sanchez are relying heavily on political action committees to boost their balances. Dornan raised $267,123 in the first quarter of 1998, none of it from PACs. Sanchez raised $756,265, about $82,000 from PACs.

A Sanchez lunch this week with Richards brought in $31,000 and an event with Gore last month raised $145,000, said spokesman Lee Godown. Another big payday will come May 3 when President Clinton is scheduled to appear at a Sanchez fund-raiser at a Los Angeles hotel.

*

The other contested congressional primary in the county is for the seat held by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach).

Two Democrats are running in the primary: Patricia Neal, a Realtor and past president of the California Assn. of Realtors, who has $51,965 in her account; and Lud Gerber, a retired attorney, who is not raising any funds.

Charmayne Bohman, a former Westminster councilwoman and Cal State Dominguez Hills professor, is challenging Rohrabacher in the primary. She has $13,120 in cash in her account. Rohrabacher’s office refused to release his report, which was not yet available from the FEC. As of Dec. 31, he had $61,134 in cash on hand.