Fund-Raiser Costs Sanchez Convention Spot

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) has been dropped from the speakers’ list at next week’s Democratic National Convention and may face further reprisals from party officials after she rebuffed their requests Thursday that she not hold a fund-raiser at the Playboy Mansion.

Jenny Backus, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, announced that Sanchez--one of the group’s co-chairs--would be removed as a speaker for her refusal to move the Tuesday night fund-raiser from the mansion.

The event, benefiting a political action committee Sanchez heads that seeks to promote voter registration among Latinos, coincides with the second night of the Democratic convention in downtown Los Angeles.

Officials of the DNC and Al Gore’s presidential campaign have been trying to pressure Sanchez into changing the fund-raiser’s location, expressing concern that holding it at the Playboy Mansion is inappropriate for a party committed to gender equality and women’s rights.

The pressure reached a new level Thursday when DNC Chairman Joe Andrew sent Sanchez an unusually blunt letter. Andrew reminded Sanchez that he had told her before that “Democratic state chairs, Latinos, leaders of women’s groups and just plain Democrats have called and told me that this event was neither appropriate nor reflective of our party’s values. I am hereby informing you that if you go forward with it, I will take actions in my capacity as party chair and president of the Democratic National Convention Committee.”

Sanchez responded by making a brief announcement outside her Garden Grove congressional office. She said the fund-raiser would go on, and predicted that “it will be a great success.”

She declined to answer questions or react to the party’s threats.

Backus, speaking on behalf of Andrew, said after Sanchez’s statement: “We have done everything we can, but now we have no alternative but to take action.”

Convention details still are being hashed out, and precisely when Sanchez would have spoken had not yet been determined.

A spokesman for the Gore campaign said the vice president is “in complete support of Chairman Andrew’s decision.”

Mark Fabiani said Gore, who will officially become the Democratic presidential nominee Wednesday, “has been clear from day one” that he opposed holding the fund-raiser at the Playboy Mansion. Fabiani added: “We’re sorry this has not been resolved. We bent over backward to find other locations, and we’ve just reached the end of the line.”

Other Democratic officials, requesting anonymity, suggested that Sanchez ultimately could be stripped of her largely honorary post of DNC co-chairwoman and that the party might withhold support for her reelection bid.

Sanchez was a surprise choice for the position last year--an honor growing out of her stunning upset of longtime Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in 1996. Sanchez has emerged as a prominent figure in the party, becoming a key spokeswoman as Democrats have courted the Latino vote.

Backus declined to comment as to whether Sanchez is at risk of losing her co-chair job. Backus said the DNC will meet Aug. 18, the day after the convention ends, but declined to say whether Sanchez’s status would be discussed.

Sanchez acknowledged Thursday that Gore’s staff had encouraged her to change the location of the fund-raiser.

Donations Link Gore to Playboy

Two weeks ago, Gore publicly condemned the selection of the mansion for the event, which sold out in two days.

Sanchez aides said more than 600 people will attend at a cost of about $5,000 each to benefit the political action committee, Hispanic Unity USA.

Sanchez said she consulted the PAC’s board of directors regarding the flap. “They strongly recommended that the event proceed as planned,” she said.

Despite the current controversy, Gore’s campaign has benefited from Playboy’s largess as well. Magazine founder Hugh Hefner donated $1,000 to Gore’s campaign in March last year, and Hefner’s daughter, Christie, gave $500 to Gore in April this year, Federal Election Commission records show.

The mansion, located in Los Angeles’ Holmby Hills neighborhood, frequently has been the site of fund-raisers, according to Playboy officials. The officials said that groups holding such events there have included the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee and Rock the Vote, which seeks to register young voters.

DNC Response Was Unexpected

A Playboy spokeswoman said the party’s reaction to the planned fund-raiser is “very right-wing” and unexpected.

“Certainly we’re very surprised with this coming from a party with which we’re very similar on stands and on behalf of issues, including the 1st Amendment,” said Cindy Rakowitz, Playboy’s vice president of promotions.

Pressure on Sanchez to move the event intensified in recent days as Gore chose Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut as his running mate. Lieberman is an Orthodox Jew who has been a leading critic of excessive portrayals of sex and violence in U.S. culture.

Andrew, in his letter to Sanchez, said that “as the father of young children” he was dismayed at the message that would be sent by the event’s location.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, a convention vice chairwoman, said Sanchez had been asked repeatedly by party activists to change the event and was “defiant” about keeping it as scheduled.

“Key officials dropped big hints about how inappropriate it was,” Molina said Thursday. “Her stubbornness is an unfortunate thing for all of us. [The location] doesn’t reflect well on the Democratic Party, on women or on Latinos.”

However, Democratic activists in Orange County rallied around Sanchez and said the flap has become a free speech issue now that the party intervened. Sanchez has been a national folk hero since beating Dornan, one of the most flamboyant mouthpieces for Republican conservatism.

Zeke Hernandez, with the Santa Ana chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the event will raise significant cash for voter registration efforts in the growing Latino community, which has assumed increasing importance in statewide elections. The fund-raiser’s location--in a tent outside the mansion--has been a nonissue among most Latinos in Orange County, he said.

“It’s just a lawn,” Hernandez said. “If Loretta chooses to risk her party position on this, that’s a bold step, and I have to applaud her for it.”

Santa Ana attorney Jess Araujo, who planned to attend the event but will be out of town, said that Gore campaign officials should commend Sanchez instead of castigating her.

“She’s figured out a way to raise much-needed funds for a good cause,” Araujo said. “I regret that it has escalated to this level.”

Several Orange County Democratic convention delegates said the party’s reaction to the fund-raiser is misguided.

“It must be the symbolism [of the location] that they’re going after, and that’s a mistake,” said Santa Ana attorney John Hanna, a Gore delegate. “Loretta Sanchez is a great symbol for our party.”

Delegate and longtime Sanchez supporter Rueben Martinez said Gore could risk alienating Latinos by threatening Sanchez at this late stage.

“He’s our candidate. He’s Loretta’s candidate,” said Martinez, owner of Martinez Books and Art, a Santa Ana bookshop and informal cultural center. “It could possibly backfire, and I really don’t want that to happen.”

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Times staff writers Mark Z. Barabak and Scott Martelle contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

DNC Letter to Sanchez

August 10, 2000

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The Honorable Loretta Sanchez

DNC General Co-Chair

430 South Capitol Street, SE

Washington, DC, 20003

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Dear Loretta:

It is with much disappointment that I send you this letter. For months we have been working with you and your office to address the fact that you had scheduled a fundraiser for your personal political PAC--Hispanic Unity--at the Playboy Mansion during the week of our Convention. As a father of young children, I tried to convey to you my dismay at the kind of message that this event would send. As the National Chairman of the Democratic Party, I told you how Democratic State Chairs, Latinos, leaders of women’s groups and just plain Democrats have called and told me that this event was neither appropriate nor reflective of our Party’s values. But you refused to budge. While this is not a Democratic Party event nor is it sanctioned by our Party and therefore I can’t force you not to have it, I am hereby informing you that if you go forward with it, I will take actions in my capacity as Party Chair and President of the Democratic National Convention Committee. The decision rests in your hands. You have always been a supporter of our Party. I am asking you to make the right choice now. I await your decision.

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Sincerely,

Joe Andrew DNC National Chair

cc: Democratic Members of Congress