Rout by Dornan’s Ex-Followers

Vietnamese and Republican voters who supported Robert K. Dornan in the past deserted him Tuesday, helping along a rout of the former congressman by Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Times analysis of election returns shows.

And though the Latino turnout was down from two years ago, Sanchez captured more of the Latino vote than she did the first time she was elected.

In addition, political analysts say, minorities especially became disenchanted with Dornan and may have seen his efforts to overturn his loss to Sanchez two years ago as attacks on immigrants.

Dornan’s “unwillingness to lose gracefully in ’96 and his attacks on [Sanchez] may have been perceived as attacks by an Anglo against people of color in general,” said Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at UC San Diego.

“Some of the Vietnamese may have identified with Sanchez, a successful [Latina] under attack by a fairly mean-spirited white guy. That may have worked to her benefit.”

Sanchez defeated Dornan on Tuesday by 17 percentage points, garnering 56.2% of the vote to Dornan’s 39.2%, according to the Orange County registrar of voters. Libertarian candidate Thomas E. Reimer took 2.8% of the vote and Larry G. Engwall of the Natural Law Party, 1.6%.

The analysis of the 231 precincts in the 46th Congressional District, which includes parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, shows that:

* In every precinct in which more than one-third of the voters are Vietnamese, Sanchez picked up more votes this year than two years ago. She won a majority of the vote in all but one of those precincts.

* In each of the 16 precincts with a majority of Republican voters, Sanchez increased her percentage of the vote this year over 1996. She won a majority of the vote in four of the GOP strongholds. Dornan’s percentage of the vote dropped in all but three of those precincts.

* In every precinct in which more than half the voters are Latino, Sanchez won a majority of the vote, an increase even over her strong showing among Latinos two years ago.

* In her home precinct, where registered Republicans outnumber Democratic voters 57.8% to 32.3%, Sanchez nudged Dornan, capturing 48% of the vote to his 47%.

Sanchez may have done well in the heavily Republican precincts simply because Republican turnout was low. But in at least some cases, Republicans crossed party lines to vote for Sanchez.

“I’m a Republican, but I went for Sanchez,” said Al Guevara, 41, a sales representative. Guevara said he was proud to vote for a Latino candidate, but said her ethnic background was not a deciding factor.

“What Dornan did in the last election, accusing her of cheating, I don’t like at all,” he said. “But I like her too.”

That she did even better among about 34,000 Latino voters in the district than she did two years ago didn’t surprise some Democrats.

“The reality is, the Republicans haven’t looked at the demographics,” said Mike Clary, a Democratic activist. “Orange County is changing, and it’s leaving them behind.”

Marti Maciel, a Mexican American who lives in Santa Ana, said the Sanchez victory was a triumph for all Latinos.

Dornan “made our community hurt from distrust,” Maciel said. “He passed out these fliers with the Virgin of Guadalupe on them in my neighborhood. I thought it was disgusting. It’s like, how dare he do that? I’m Catholic too. But he’s not one of us, and [Sanchez] is. She’s doing a good job for our people and our country.”

Dornan did keep some die-hard fans.

“He’s the only one who has sincere faith, religiously, who believes in getting back to the basics,” said Joe Beckworth, 31, a plumbing wholesaler from Garden Grove who waited in a long line Tuesday outside the Faith United Church of Christ to cast his ballot. “He puts his trust in God, and so do I.”

But Dornan lost votes across the board in what Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College political science professor called “a decisive repudiation.”

“That suggests that he wore out his welcome.”

Times staff writers Ray Herndon, Tini Tran and Janet Wilson contributed to this report.

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Dornan’s Doom

Minorities and, to a certain extent, even his fellow Republicans helped defeat Robert K. Dornan in his rematch with Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Dornan lost ground in all of the most heavily Latino precincts, all but one of the Vietnamese precincts and in 13 of the 16 major Republican precincts.

Heavily Latino Precincts (at least 50% registration)

*--*

% Latino Sanchez % change Dornan % change 68334 76 +9 -8 68162 71 +9 -8 21367 69 +19 -8 68052 55 +16 -8 68183 51 +11 -8 68128 60 +19 -7 68150 54 +18 -7 68060 73 +12 -6 68349 61 +13 -6 68296 54 +11 -6 68098 55 +15 -6

*--*

Heavily Vietnamese Precincts (at least 33% registration)

*--*

% Vietnamese Sanchez % change Dornan % change 14053 38 +12 -15 68185 33 +21 -13 68136 33 +15 -9 68190 35 +17 -8 68350 33 +13 -6 68199 38 +12 -5 14252 42 +8 -4 39362 38 +10 +1

*--*

Heavily Republican Precincts (at least 50% registration)

*--*

% Republican Sanchez % change Dornan % change 14052 51 +17 -12 68069 58 +10 -8 68051 51 +15 -8 02200 58 +15 -7 68283 51 +11 -7 68054 52 +7 -6 14026 51 +11 -5 31607 50 +12 -4 02054 53 +11 -3 14014 51 +12 -3 14601 50 +8 -2 68063 51 +7 -2 02139 56 +9 -1 59907 50 +2 +2 68342 59 +5 +3 68365 60 +2 +4

*--*

46th Congressional District Final Vote

Loretta Sanchez, Dem: 56%

Robert K Dornan, Rep: 39%

Others: 5%

Sources: Orange County registrar of voters, Times reports