Politics has come full circle for Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez.
Twenty years ago, the Orange County resident began her political career with a shocking win over Rep. Bob Dornan, an ultraconservative Republican. But now she’s depending on GOP voters to carry her to an upset victory in November’s U.S. Senate race.
Sanchez, who in the June primary finished a distant second behind another Democrat, state Attorney General Kamala Harris, doesn’t have much of a choice.
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With the election less than two months away, she’s running well behind Harris in both polls and campaign cash. Harris, the former San Francisco district attorney, also has the backing of almost the entire Democratic Party establishment, from President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Democratic Party.
Swinging to the right “is an interesting tack,” said Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Orange County’s Fullerton College. “At this point, she has nothing to lose, since the poll numbers just won’t move for her.”
But an all-out appeal to Republicans can be a dangerous tactic in a state so blue that the GOP couldn’t even scare up enough votes to make one of its candidates a top-two finisher in the Senate race.
It’s a narrow and slippery path for Sanchez. On the one hand, she needs to convince Republicans that she will represent — or at least not ignore — their concerns. But she also has to remind Democrats that she has always been there for the party and its programs.
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To get Republican votes, “she has to come across as a moderate willing to reach across the aisle and work on problems that affect the state,” said Frank Schubert, a GOP consultant. “It’s a very steep mountain to victory, but some Republicans will look at her as the lesser of two evils.”
Not surprisingly, Sanchez’s team sees her growing effort to appeal to Republicans as a feature of her campaign and not a bug.
CQ Roll Call, a news and media service aimed at Washington insiders, last year listed Sanchez as one of the “25 most influential women in Congress,” calling her one of the top five “debate shapers and swing votes.”
“She knows how to work with her colleagues and local elected officials,” said Luis Vizcaino, a campaign spokesman. “She can do what Kamala Harris cannot, which is build coalitions with the left, right and center.”
For Sanchez, that means capitalizing on her years of service on the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Homeland Security to argue that she has the military, security and foreign policy background that Harris, whose political experience is all in California, lacks.
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She hasn’t been shy about making that point, using words not often heard from Democratic candidates.
“When people take a look at me on the issues, they will realize I have the courage to confront and speak out against the threat of Islamic extremists,” she said last month on a conservative San Diego radio program. “I’m strong on veterans’ issues, I’m strong on national defense, on counterterrorism, on homeland security.”
That’s scored some points with the GOP. After joining a high-profile, TV-friendly congressional visit to Southern California military bases earlier this month, she received the endorsement of San Diego County Rep. Darrell Issa, a conservative Republican.
Sanchez’s “work on national security probably tips the scale for a lot of us,” he said in a statement. “I’ve had the chance to work with her on a number of issues facing our military and know she supports efforts to keep the country safe.”
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“Issa’s long history of attacking immigrants, women’s health and President Obama stands in sharp contrast to our values,” Juan Rodriguez, Harris’ campaign spokesman, said in a statement last week. “To stand with Issa means standing with Donald Trump.”
And that’s the problem Sanchez faces with her GOP offensive, said Jeff Flint, a Republican consultant.
“Larry Lunchbucket Republican in California doesn’t think about politics all the time,” he said. “To him, Sanchez and Harris are indistinguishable, since neither has an ‘R’ after their name.”
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To change that perception, he said, Sanchez “would have to do something so viscerally Republican that it would alienate Democrats.”
Think a Trump presidential endorsement, for example.
But Sanchez already has endorsed Clinton and regularly stands with Democrats on hot-button partisan issues. Just last week, for example, she called on Senate Republicans to approve the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland, which they have vowed not to do.
Sanchez’s lifetime voting record on Planned Parenthood issues is 100 percent, and her 13 percent rating by the conservative Heritage Action group is actually slightly lower than that of such well-known Democratic liberals as Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland and Rep. Mike Honda of San Jose.
And no, her staff says Sanchez has no intention of endorsing Issa.
California Senate Race
“Loretta is a loyal Democrat, pro-choice, pro-labor, 100 percent on the environment,” said Vizcaino. “She’s not doing anything different from what Hillary Clinton is doing, promising to be a senator for all Californians.”
That’s not a statement likely to create the surge of GOP support Sanchez will need in November.
“From what I’ve seen, most Republicans will sit it out,” said Flint, who is working on a trio of ballot measure races. “The vast majority is going to look and say, ‘There’s nothing here for me,’ and move on to the rest of the ballot.”
Still, the chance to fill an open Senate seat doesn’t come often in California. Both Boxer, who is retiring, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein were first elected in 1992. Either Harris, who is 51, or Sanchez, age 56, could spend 20 years or more in the Senate with a victory in November.
That could persuade Republicans to pick someone, even if it means selecting a woman they feel is the least bad choice.
John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth