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Rep. Sanchez tries tack to right in U.S. Senate race

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WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 17: House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) (C) talks with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno before a hearing about the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Budget Request in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill March 17, 2015 in Washington, DC. All of the service chiefs and the military secretaries warned the committee that the budget cutting measure called 'sequestration' will continue to adversley affect military rediness and put American lives at risk at home and abroad. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 17: House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) (C) talks with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno before a hearing about the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Budget Request in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill March 17, 2015 in Washington, DC. All of the service chiefs and the military secretaries warned the committee that the budget cutting measure called 'sequestration' will continue to adversley affect military rediness and put American lives at risk at home and abroad. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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.”

Kamala Harris, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, campaigns on Jan. 10, 2016 at the at the Building Constructions Trades Council in Los Angeles. Harris continues to hold a lead over her rival, Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez, in the U.S. Senate race. (Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Kamala Harris, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, campaigns on Jan. 10, 2016 at the at the Building Constructions Trades Council in Los Angeles. Harris continues to hold a lead over her rival, Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez, in the U.S. Senate race. (Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Barbara Davidson/TNS

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.”

Sanchez also received the nod from retired Rep. Buck McKeon, former GOP head of the Armed Services Committee, who cited her ability “to put partisanship aside and work with Democrats and Republicans to help move policies forward that better protect our troops and the homeland.”

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She also has endorsements from Republicans like former Los Angeles Mayor Dick Riordan and conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, who wrote in a tweet last week that “Of course I’m supporting @LorettaSanchez in CA Sen race: ... She’s the much better of the 2 D’s on ballot. Very much so.”

But those fond words from well-known Republicans are much less endearing to Democrats, especially when they come from someone like Hewitt, a Donald Trump supporter who argues that Democrat Hillary Clinton is a leftist who “is thoroughly compromised by the Russians” or Issa, who has called Obama “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.”

“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.

“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.

Recent polls have shown Harris with a lead over Sanchez among voters of every partisan stripe, Democrats, independents and Republicans. Even more important, those polls suggest there are plenty of GOP voters who would rather not cast a ballot in the Senate race than choose between two Democrats.

“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.

“As the election gets closer, a lot of people likely will reassess the race,” said Schubert. “It’s one thing to throw up your hands in September, but it’s another to do it the first week of November.”

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth

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John Wildermuth is a native San Franciscan who has worked as a reporter and editor in California for more than 40 years and has been with the San Francisco Chronicle since 1986. For most of his career, he has covered government and politics. He is a former assistant city editor and Peninsula bureau chief with The Chronicle and currently covers politics and San Francisco city government.