Voters Haven’t Forgotten the Condit Scandal

Like a lot of people, Lynne Premi stepped back after the horrible events of Sept. 11 to try to put the big and small things in perspective.

And after some thought, Premi decided her contempt for Rep. Gary Condit was no small thing.

“I just don’t trust him,” said the 50-year-old kindergarten teacher, standing Wednesday outside a downtown Starbucks. “He expressed all these family values and yet he never came forward” to explain his relationship with intern Chandra Levy.

“I don’t think her family is a little thing,” Premi said. “I don’t think his constituents are a little thing.”

On Monday, Condit quietly launched his reelection bid by taking out petitions to qualify for the March 5 primary. A strategist said the signature drive would be a way for Condit to gauge his political support and decide whether to pursue an eighth term--a quest made more difficult by the district’s new boundaries.

After months of tabloid treatment, the case of the Central Valley Democrat and the missing Levy dropped from the headlines as soon as hijacked jetliners smashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

The shift in media focus as well as the gravity of the current climate would seem to help Condit’s political cause. As poignant testimony to that effect, the Modesto street where Levy’s parents live is now devoid of the media army that camped there over the summer. The yellow ribbons tied around mailboxes and sign posts flap tattered alongside freshly hung American flags.

But a series of random interviews across Condit’s prospective district--in both old and new political territory--suggests that the Levy scandal has hardly been forgotten.

The terrorist attacks “let him off the hook because he was splashed all over the papers every day before Sept. 11, and now it’s all gone away,” said Mark Warren, 52, a former Condit supporter from Los Banos. “But it doesn’t make us think he’s an OK guy again.”

Condit, who entered Congress in 1989, has regularly won reelection by landslide totals of 65% or better. He has never faced a serious primary opponent and seemed a sure bet for reelection in 2002.

Then, last spring, Levy vanished.

Relatives of the 24-year-old Modesto woman have said she and Condit were having an extramarital affair. Condit has told the public only that the two were “very close” and vehemently denied any involvement in her disappearance.

Although he has been repeatedly questioned by authorities, Washington police have said there is no indication that he was involved in her disappearance.

Still, Condit has seen his political support collapse--on Capitol Hill and at home. In the most serious sign of his perceived vulnerability, he will probably draw at least one major rival in the March primary, Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza of Merced, a former staff aide to the congressman. Other Democrats are also looking at the seat.

Redistricting added another wrinkle. The congressional redrawing excised many of the rural precincts dubbed “Condit Country.” They were replaced by liberal parts of Stockton, to the north, that are more akin to South-Central Los Angeles than the conservative Central Valley. Nearly half of next year’s voters would be new constituents for Condit.

And in interviews this week, most of them seemed to know little about the lawmaker beyond “the Levy deal,” “the affair in Washington,” “the sexual scandal” or simply “Chandra,” as his entanglement was variously described.

“One knows what they see on TV or read in the newspaper,” said Ray Casper, a 74-year-old Stockton retiree. “He hasn’t always been honest with the press.”

But Casper admitted: “I don’t know much about his record.”

There are still people willing to give Condit what they called a fair hearing. Jamie Bennett, 36, suggested that the congressman “should have come out and said everything he possibly could” about his involvement with Levy “right from the start.”

Even so, “he’s innocent until proven guilty,” Bennett added, saying he would wait to see who else runs before deciding whether to back Condit.

Several, like Paul Porter, believe that Condit is no different from a lot of other politicians. Porter volunteered a distinction between public and private fidelity.

“I’m not at all upset about his philandering,” said the 81-year-old Porter, a retired chemist. “I’d say at least 30% of congressmen behave like that. As long as he votes for the things I want, that’s his personal life.”

Still, Porter has not decided whether to back Condit for another term. “I think he’d be a little dumb to try it,” Porter offered, “because I don’t think the sentiment is there.”

Some die-hard support remains. “I’ve voted for him five or six times, and I don’t think that’ll change,” said Carl Shoults, a 72-year-old Modesto handyman.

Condit even has a few new backers. Among them is Mark Lawson, who dismissed “the media circus” that had surrounded the embattled lawmaker.

“I’ll support him,” the 38-year-old Stockton schoolteacher said as he stuffed his purchases from Costco into the saddlebag of his Harley Davidson. “Whether he was with that girl or not is not that big a deal to me. He seemed to be doing all right.”

But Lawson was in a distinct minority. Most of those interviewed said there was no chance they would vote for Condit. “If he’s not faithful to his wife, how can he be faithful to us?” asked Maria McCaffrey, 39, a Stockton housewife.

If anything, Kristi Hendren worries that the events of Sept. 11 may have taken too much attention away from Condit and the scandal that surrounds him.

The terrorist assault “makes you look at the big things in life,” said the 29-year-old Modesto woman, who wore a small flag made up of red, white and blue safety pins. “But if you really feel in your heart he’s a liar, like I do, people will remember. Even after the tragedy happened, it’s still important. We need to get him out of office.”