Sanchez, Tran debate for first, only time in central Orange County

The rhetoric’s ramping up as a heated congressional election in central Orange County comes down to the last weeks before the November election. Incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez is vying to keep her congressional seat. But termed-out Republican Assemblyman Van Tran trails her by only a few points in the polls.

The two met face-to-face for the first and only scheduled debates at KOCE public television in Huntington Beach.

Fourteen years ago, Sanchez beat Republican icon Bob Dornan for the 47th District congressional seat by only a few hundred votes. She’s won every re-election since by a wide margin.

But "incumbent" is a bad word among voters these days. They want to blame someone for the bad economy. So the incumbents are in the crosshairs.

That’s left the door cracked for Republicans to try to regain control of the district – an island of blue in the normally red Orange County where registered Democrats narrowly edge out registered Republicans.

Both candidates spent much of the two half-hour debates attacking each others’ record.

"You can either vote for a failed Sacramento politician, who cannot pass a budget, who votes for deep cuts to school funding and whose idea on health care is just to repeal it, even when we’ve just begun on the work," said Sanchez. "His voting record in Sacramento shows that he’s a politician who allows his donations from special interests to guide his decisions, not the best interest of the families he represents.

"Or you can vote for me, a leader who has created jobs and has made sure that when Sacramento politicians failed our schools this year, that we were able to keep them open and to keep teachers on the job. I have fought for you to have better health care, for cheaper prescription drugs, to make sure our middle class got the tax cut that they deserve."

But not so fast, says Republican candidate Van Tran. He criticized Sanchez several times for relying heavily on notes and a teleprompter.

"There you go again, Loretta, with the campaign slogans and all the attacks. And it’s very unfortunate. You know, this race, this campaign on our part is a message, a positive message of hope and opportunity for our neighbors," Tran said to Sanchez. "You should be talking about your record, your 14 years of non-presence and ineffective representation here in central Orange County."

"I will bring a new face, a new change and a new tomorrow so that we can reign in spending from the federal government, we can stop the taxation that Loretta Sanchez has voted for and has supported the liberal majority 97 percent of the time," Tran continued. "Is that what we wanted when the country is headed in the wrong direction?"

But what direction would each candidate take? Neither one gave specifics about how they’d cut spending.

They weren’t very specific on immigration, either. Sanchez said she supported immigration reform that includes a residency option and an expanded visa program. Tran said he isn’t for "blanket amnesty" – but he also doesn’t think "wholesale immigration" would work.

The district has a large Latino population of about 44 percent registered Latino voters. They lean toward Democrats. But it’s a population that’s hard to turn out at the polls.

Asian voters, mostly Vietnamese, make up about 18 percent of the district, but they do vote – and they tend to vote Republican.

The first half-hour Sanchez-Tran debate aired last night. The second one airs at 6:30 p.m. today on KOCE public television.