Language of Material: The majority of this series' materials are in English with some in Latin American Spanish.
Arrangement
Except for some records in labeled office files and packets bound with office clips or staples, materials in this series had
no clear original order. The loose materials and their archival folders were arranged in chronological order along with the
files and packets.
Biographical / Historical
The Honorable Robert K. "Bob" Dornan (1933-), a former Air Force pilot, was a Republican U.S. House Representative of California
from 1977 to 1983 and 1985 to 1997. He was the incumbent for California's 46th District when Democrat Loretta Sanchez challenged
him in the November 1996 election. Loretta Sanchez won by 984 votes (979 after a recount) and was sworn into office on January
7, 1997. Dornan contested those results through the Federal Contested Election Act, claiming there was alleged voter fraud.
Steven Jost became Chief of Staff over Sanchez's D.C. congressional office from January 1997 to December 1998 and his office
papers are included in this series.
On January 14, 1997, the Orange County District Attorney's office carried out a search warrant to investigate the organization
Hermandad Mexicana Nacional due to its alleged connection with non-citizens registering to vote. In Congress, the U.S. House
of Representatives' Committee on House Oversight (CHO) created the "Task Force for the Contested Election in the 46th Congressional
District of California" for their own investigation. U.S. Representative William Thomas of California was Committee Chairman
and U.S. Representative Vernon Ehlers of Michigan was head of the Task Force.
This Task Force held a field hearing in California on April 19, 1997 entitled: "In the Matter of the Contested Election of
Loretta Sanchez for the Office of House of Representatives to the United States Congress, Robert K. Dornan, Contestant v.
Loretta Sanchez, Contestee." William R. Hart of the Hart, King and Coldren firm represented Dornan. Sanchez's legal team included
the Law Offices of Wylie A. Aitken; William Kopeny of the Kopeny and Powell firm; Brand, Lowell, and Ryan; and Strumwasser
and Woocher.
At the request of Dornan's legal team, the U.S. District Court, Central District of California had issued several subpoenas
for documents, such as citizenship and voter records, to evaluate voter fraud claims. The Sanchez legal team motioned to quash
the subpoenas and the Task Force quashed, modified, or kept subpoenas based on their relevancy to the case.
The Task Force reviewed these subpoenaed Orange County and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agency records
to identify 748 invalid votes due to voided absentee ballots or voters who registered illegally. Based on this evidence that
still left Sanchez in the lead, the Committee dismissed Dornan's contest in February 1998 and Sanchez kept her seat. Sanchez
defeated Dornan again in the 1998 election.
This election investigation involved Orange County Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever, Orange County District Attorney Michael
Capizzi, U.S. Magistrate Elgin Edwards, U.S. District Court Judge Gary L. Taylor in California, INS Commissioner Doris M.
Meissner, and California Secretary of State Bill Jones.
See a more detailed chronology of the election contest in the Committee on House Oversight's Report 105–416 on pages 17-28
(Appendix A). This series has a physical copy of the report, as well as a link to the online published version in the "Related
Materials" note.
Statement on Potentially Harmful Content
This series may contain materials that are difficult to view, are potentially harmful, or use outdated and culturally insensitive
language. Chapman University preserves and makes these materials accessible to researchers to ensure long-term accuracy of
these historical records. This repository aims to not promote or otherwise celebrate this content, but to use it for educational
and research purposes.
Please see the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) "Statement on Potentially Harmful Content" for more information:
https://www.archives.gov/research/reparative-description/harmful-content
This series contains materials that may be difficult to view regarding political discourse on ethnic profiling of voters.
Processing Information
The following refers to processing decisions that were conducted during the work of this collection.
Some descriptions on archival folders are influenced by labels found on the original folders.
This series contains a physical copy of the U.S. Committee on House Oversight's Report 105–416
Dismissing the Election Contest Against Loretta Sanchez: Report of the Committee on House Oversight On H.R. 355 Together with
Minority Views
(February 12, 1998). Duplicates of some correspondence and legal documents found in the CHO's report and the "Contestant
Robert K. Dornan's Field Hearing Brief" (April 19, 1997) can be found in chronological order throughout the rest of this series.
Clippings were kept from the April 13, 1997 issue of the
Los Angeles Times and the Section B Washington Edition California pages of the May 1, 1997 issue of the
Los Angeles Times. The cover page and clippings were also kept from the Vol. 3 no. 22 February 6-12, 1998 issue of
OC Weekly. Once clippings were removed, remaining pages were discarded because of issues with the materials' acidity.
This series mostly contains photocopies with pages that often include any combination of an original date, a filed date, a
printer timestamp, or a received date stamp. Printer timestamps were used to place faxed and printed out items in chronological
order based on when those copies were created. Original item dates were used when there were no printer timestamps.
News clipping packets covering multiple days were arranged by the earliest date present. Contest material packets with multiple
dates were arranged using the main item's date and not the dates of the packet's supplemental materials, such as exhibits.
Legal proceedings items filed during the investigation with the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Santa
Ana office; Office of the Clerk, U.S. House; and/or the Committee on House Oversight are public record and do not need restriction.
Unpublished congressional committee records associated with the U.S. Committee on House Oversight, such as correspondence
with committee letterhead, were removed from this series by archival staff. Duplicate originals and select photocopies of
some of these records have been restricted for 30 years from each item's creation date in accordance with U.S. House Rule
VII, section 4. See Series 6, Restricted files for additional information.
Related Materials
For more information on election contests see the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entitled
The Federal Contested Election Act: Overview and Recent Contests in the House of Representatives at https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11734.
This series contains three hardcopies of the
Congressional Record publication. Digital versions of these can also be found on https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record.
This series contains a physical copy of the Committee on House Oversight's Report 105–416
Dismissing the Election Contest Against Loretta Sanchez: Report of the Committee on House Oversight On H.R. 355 Together with
Minority Views
(February 12, 1998). This physical copy is missing pages 124 to 129, which can be found in the full online report on pdf
pages 129 to 134 at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt416/pdf/CRPT-105hrpt416.pdf.
Scope and Contents
Series 1 contains mostly photocopies and some original materials from the first Robert K. "Bob" Dornan vs. Loretta Sanchez
election (1996), Dornan's subsequent election contest (1996-1998), and their election rematch (1998). In general, these are
news clippings and article print outs often in "Daily Press" packets, as well as legal and congressional documents related
to the contest.
Some items have handwritten marginalia, post-it notes, or post-it note annotations written by either the Honorable Loretta
Sanchez, her office staff, or her legal team. All of the papers in this series came from Sanchez's office. These include Steve
Jost's correspondence and memorandums with attached news clippings.
News clipping sources include but are not limited to the
Orange County Register,
Los Angeles Times,
Excelsior,
La Opinion,
OC Metro,
OC Weekly,
Roll Call, and
The Hill newspaper.
This series mainly contains legal case files generated by or for Dornan's legal team and Sanchez's legal team in association
with the U.S. District Court, Central District of California and the congressional Committee on House Oversight (CHO) contest
proceedings. Case files include but are not limited to correspondence, subpoenas, exhibits, deposition and hearing transcripts,
memorandums, and motion requests. Printed email, fax or mail correspondence is typically between any combination of the case's
lawyers; Steve Jost or Sanchez's office; and government officials from Orange County, State of California, Congress, or Federal
agencies.
Congressional items in this series include but are not limited to press releases, legislation, briefing materials, research
materials on past contested elections, talking points transcripts, and 3 hardcopies of the
Congressional Record.
- Vol. 143 Monday July 28, 1997 No. 108
- Vol. 143 Wednesday October 29, 1997 No. 148
- Vol. 143 Wednesday November 5, 1997 No. 153
This series also contains a physical copy of the CHO Task Force's final Report 105–416
Dismissing the Election Contest Against Loretta Sanchez, dated February 12, 1998.
A majority of Series 1's folder titles refer to the date range of a folder's mixed materials, which are described above. These
titles are not listed below. The remaining folder titles refer to the names and dates of contest hearings, reports or items
received in office files that are listed in the container list below. Singular dates refer to the date of a hearing or report.
Carton 1:
- Gejdenson samples (photocopies), 1994 December 20-1997 March 5
- Lever- Response to Dornan 1/17/97 and Bill Jones- to Lever 1/21/97, 1996 December 18-1997 January 24
- Rohrabacher- INS Letter 1/16/97, 1997 January 16-17
- Aitken Review of Dismissal Draft 1/24/97, 1997 January 24
- Hart's evidentiary appendix and exhibits, 1997 February 7, 2 copies
- exhibits 1-22 copy #3, 1997 February 7
- Dornan- opposition to dismissal 2/7/97, 1997 February 7
- Dear colleagues, 1997 February 10-25
- Chronology, 1997 February 14
- Dornan subpoenas and exhibit A, 1997 February 25
- Aitken- Atty of Record 2/26/97, 1997 February 26
- Aitken-Hart "obstruction," 1997 February 27-28
- Subpoena - Orange County, 1997 February 28
- Edwards - denial 2/27/97, 1997 February 28
- Subpoenas copy #1, 1997 March 3
Carton 2:
- Subpoenas copy #2, 1997 March 3
- CHO Notice of motion, 1997 March 7
- Motions to quash or modify subpoenas (2 folders), 1997 March 20-28
Carton 3:
- Constestant Robert K. Dornan's Field Hearing Brief (2 folders), 1997 April 19
- Jones Universe - paperwork, 1997 April 22-23
- CHO Sanchez mition to quash subpoena, 1997 April 24
- CHO's actions on motions to quash subpoenas, 1997 April 24
- Sanchez's closing field hearing testimony and exhibits, 1997 April 30
- CHO Sanchez opposition to subpoenas, 1997 May 19
- Contestee's motion to disqualify contestant's counsel and subpoenas, 1997 May 20, 21 (2 copies, 1 with press release)
Carton 4:
- Deposition transcripts (folders 1-2 of 5), 1997 October 27
Carton 5:
- Deposition transcripts (folders 3-5 of 5), 1997 October 27
- Committee on House Oversight Report 105-416 Dismissing the Election Contest Against Loretta Sanchez (folders 1-3 of 5), 1998
February 12
Carton 6:
- Committee on House Oversight Report 105-416 Dismissing the Election Contest Against Loretta Sanchez (folders 4-5 of 5), 1998
February 12
- Congressional contested election research, undated
- Contested election research, undated
- photocopies of GAO reports GAO/AIMD-95-147 and GAO/GGD-95-162FS, undated
Bibliography
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. "DORNAN, Robert Kenneth 1933 –." Congress.gov. Accessed August 12, 2022.
https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/D000435.
Congressional Quarterly Staff. "Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D)." In
CQ's Politics in America 2000: The 106th Congress, edited by Philip D. Duncan and Brian Nutting, 207-208, USA: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1999.
Garrett, R. Sam, L. Paige Whitaker, and Christopher M. Davis.
The Federal Contested Election Act: Overview and Recent Contests in the House of Representatives. Congressional Research Service (CRS). November 2, 2022. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11734.
"Steven Jost." LinkedIn. Accessed August 4, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-jost-3b879b2b.
Wex Definitions Team, Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. "Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)." Last
updated April 2022. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/immigration_and_naturalization_service_%28ins%29.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on House Oversight.
Dismissing the Election Contest Against Loretta Sanchez: Report of the Committee on House Oversight On H.R. 355 Together with
Minority Views.
February 12, 1998. 105th Cong., 2d sess., H. Rep. 105–416. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt416/pdf/CRPT-105hrpt416.pdf.