ARDEN GROVE, Calif. - Democratic Party officials yesterday removed Representative Loretta Sanchez from her speaking role at next week's party convention, hours after she refused to cancel a fund-raiser at the Playboy Mansion.
Saying he was ''sorely disappointed'' in Sanchez, Democratic National Committee chairman Joe Andrew said he had ''no alternative but to take action.''
''Loretta Sanchez will not be speaking at the Democratic National Convention next week,'' Andrew said in a written statement.
Under pressure from Al Gore's presidential campaign, party officials were planning to meet Aug. 18 and could take further action, including withdrawing support for her reelection and removing her from her position as a DNC general co-chair.
Mark Fabiani, spokesman for the Gore campaign, said that the vice president was ''in complete support of chairman Andrew's decision.''
''We're sorry this has not been resolved,'' Fabiani said. ''We bent over backwards to find other locations and we've just reached the end of the line.''
In a letter to Sanchez, Andrew said that ''as the father of young children, I tried to convey to you my dismay at the kind of message this event would send,'' saying that it ''was neither appropriate nor reflective of our party's values.''
Earlier yesterday, Sanchez called a news conference at her district office to say she respected Gore's decision not to attend the party, but wouldn't cancel it.
''We selected a high-profile venue to highlight the important work of Hispanic Unity USA. The event is sold out and it will be a great success,'' said the Orange County Democrat, who read a statement and refused to answer questions.
Sanchez stressed that the event will raise money for registering, educating, and empowering Hispanics.
Gregory Rodriguez, an analyst at the New America Institute, a nonprofit public policy group, said that Democrats were taking a risk by ''coming down on a woman that they themselves made an icon of Hispanic political empowerment.''
''It seems to say that Hispanics, despite their numbers and despite the critical role everyone thinks they'll play in the election, are not as indispensable to the Democratic coalition as we're being led to believe,'' Rodriguez said.
