SANTA ANA — The occasional sparks of life in California’s otherwise sleepy U.S. Senate race come courtesy of the freewheeling Loretta Sanchez — sometimes to her benefit, sometimes not.
The most talked about moment of the Oct. 5 debate with front-runner Kamala Harris, for instance, was Sanchez’s closing flourish, a hip-hop dance move called the “dab” that her makeup artist’s 9-year-old daughter showed her a few hours earlier.
It’s the type of quirky surprise that the Democratic congresswoman has regularly delivered since bursting onto the political scene in 1996, when she upset iconic Orange County conservative Congressman Bob Dornan.
But the biggest surprise of her career could come if she upsets fellow Democrat Harris, the state’s attorney general, on Nov. 8. Harris finished the primary with a 21-percentage point lead over Sanchez. Some polls show that advantage shrinking, but Harris continues to lead by double-digits in most surveys.
If Sanchez prevails, it will be her serious side that carries the day. She points to 20 years of experience in Congress and her senior positions on the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees in the race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.
House Democratic Leader “Nancy Pelosi turned to me for information on nuclear disarmament, to talk about the important things in the world,” Sanchez said. “My colleagues in Congress have endorsed me because I know about those things. They know me, and they look to me for leadership.”
But, she said, “it doesn’t mean I don’t have light-hearted moments.”
She has been endorsed by 20 of her House colleagues. Harris is backed by nine. But Harris is the darling of the Democratic establishment. Her endorsements include President Barack Obama, Gov. Jerry Brown, Sens. Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and the California Democratic Party. So far, Pelosi has steered clear of the fray.
That means that despite two decades on Capital Hill, Sanchez finds herself running as an alternative to the establishment, contrasting Harris’ progressive credentials with her own more moderate brand of politics and a reputation for working across the aisle.
Sanchez, however, has a history of going her own way, most notably breaking with both Democratic and Republican majorities by voting against the Iraq war, the Wall Street bailout and the Patriot Act.
Harris’ measured manner has served her well, but Sanchez’s spontaneous approach can make her seem more personable. Her playful holiday cards — usually featuring her cat — arouse a buzz on Capital Hill each year. Then there are her uninhibited exclamations.
In April, she told Larry King that 5 percent to 20 percent of Muslims support an international Islamic state that transcends borders — even if violence is involved. Despite backlash, she has stood her ground, citing the book “Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue” and other sources for the estimate, and saying it is important to acknowledge the problem.
Subsequently, she was caught on tape imitating a Native American war whoop and, while criticizing Obama’s endorsement of Harris, noting that they are both African-Americans.
She offers no apologies, saying things were taken out of context.
“Improvisation has a part to play in jazz, but it’s not always effective in politics,” said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College, when asked about Sanchez’s political style.
Sanchez, 56, is the second of seven children born to immigrant parents from Sonora, Mexico. Neither parent finished high school, although Sanchez’s mother would eventually get a GED, a college degree and spend 17 years as an Orange County grade-school teacher.
Sanchez credits Head Start, a union scholarship and a Rotary Club scholarship for helping her earn an economics degree from Chapman College and an MBA from American University. She went on to work as a financial analyst for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
Interest in city finances led to a failed bid for Anaheim City Council in 1994. But after trying without success to get a meeting with Dornan, her congressman, to discuss education issues, she decided to challenge him.
Wylie Aitken, one of Orange County’s most prominent personal injury attorneys and a major Democratic donor, recalled Sanchez introducing herself to him at a reception during her City Council bid and her persistence in getting a contribution.
Not long after the loss, she called to ask for a meeting, with the surprise news of her next move.
“I said, ‘What? You’ve never held office, you lost a City Council race, and six months later you’re announcing you’re running for Congress?’”
But she laid out her strategy and convinced Aitken to take a hands-on role as her campaign chairman.
“Loretta is very intelligent,” he said. “We were definitely the underdog, but when you have a chance to take out somebody like Bob Dornan, you go for it. I told her who the major donors were, and she’s not a shrinking violet. She worked very hard.”
Despite the Democratic Party endorsing someone else, she made it out of the partisan primary and ended up beating Dornan by 984 votes.
Pitney is among those who wonder if Sanchez should be campaigning harder this time — particularly in light of a five-day trip she made to Europe during the summer for a trade mission and a brief vacation.
Sanchez, however, says she’s been campaigning for 1 1/2 years and rattles off more than a dozen parts of the state she’s visited, saying that she’s been campaigning diligently for a race she entered after determining the declared candidates weren’t qualified.
Sanchez has been criticized by Harris for having the third worst attendance record in the House. Sanchez counters that she had a 95 percent attendance record before running for Senate.
“This is what people do when they’re running and giving up their seats,” said John Campbell, a former UC Irvine political-science lecturer and a Republican who served with Sanchez in the House from 2005 to 2015. “It’s not unusual.”
Campbell said during his decade in the House, he found Sanchez hard-working and eager to cross the aisle on bipartisan issues. He also acknowledged her humor.
“She can be goofy one day and then the next, be as serious as a heart attack — she has both sides,” he said, noting she may not always present the appropriate persona. “She can get them crossed sometimes.”
