Davis Lost San Joaquin Valley Ally With Criticism of Condit

For 2 1/2 years, no elected official was closer to Gov. Gray Davis than the conservative Democratic congressman from the San Joaquin Valley town of Ceres, Gary Condit.

But when Davis last week broke his silence and criticized Condit for his conduct after Washington intern Chandra Levy’s disappearance, the relationship came to an apparent end. The breach further exposed the Condit family’s raw wounds and underscored the often transitory nature of political alliances.

For his part, Davis is left without his most trusted link to the Central Valley, which the governor sees as integral as he mounts his reelection campaign. The friendship’s end has also reverberated through the administration, where Condit’s two adult children and several friends had found jobs.

“Condit was the gateway for Davis to the Valley, which is Republican territory,” said Rob Stutzman, a spokesman for the California Republican Party. “He has to find a way to replace that, and he can’t replace it. There is no one who is comparable in stature to Condit.”

Other Democrats, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, had denounced Condit’s actions earlier and more pointedly. But perhaps because of his closeness to Condit, Davis’ words stung most sharply.

“I’ve known Gary and worked with him for many, many years,” Davis said. “So what I’m about to say doesn’t bring me any joy whatsoever. But I’m disheartened that Congressman Condit did not speak out more quickly or more fully.”

In the view of some who know Davis and Condit, the governor commented only after he had come to view Condit as a problem that could affect him. The chatter about Condit had not yet affected Davis’ standing. But if he had remained silent for much longer, Davis ran a risk that his hesitancy to criticize his friend would become fodder for Republican rivals.

“When you become a liability, you become a liability,” said a lobbyist who knows both men. Like most people with business in Sacramento, the lobbyist declined to be identified. “It is testimony to their relationship how long he waited to speak out. He showed incredible restraint.”

While it is impossible to measure the personal impact of the breach, Davis is in a good position to overcome its political fallout. As the sitting governor, he has relationships with other Central Valley lawmakers, among them Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced), a Condit ally who endorsed Davis’ 1998 candidacy. Davis’ political organization is well-funded, with more than $30 million in the bank, and he has a record he can cite in the Central Valley when the campaign heats up next year.

“The governor is in a very different position today than when he was as a candidate or a governor-elect,” said Bill Pauli of the California Farm Bureau.

The most immediate fallout came Tuesday, the day after Davis’ criticisms. Condit’s two adult children, who had worked for Davis since the start of his administration, cleared out their desks and chastised the governor for abandoning their father.

“Friendship should not be based on polls,” Chad and Cadee Condit told Davis in their resignation letter.

They wrote of their loyalty to their father, and reminded Davis of what their father had done for him.

“You may remember our father’s strong public support, endorsement and organizational efforts for you during the bleakest moments of your 1998 primary campaign,” the letter said. “It is that kind of loyalty to friends that has been the hallmark of his career, and is a standard we strive to live up to. Continued employment with the governor’s office after your public statement regarding our father would undercut that standard.”

Davis described the Condit children as “extraordinary,” and called their work “wonderful.” Cadee, 25, was a personal assistant to Davis, paid $52,000 a year. Chad, 34, was Davis’ liaison to the valley, with an annual salary of $110,000 that underscored the importance Davis placed on his work.

“We never had anyone who was a liaison to the governor,” said Ed Taczanowsky, a Republican who heads the Central Valley Building Industry Assn., based in Modesto. “Chad worked extremely hard.”

Davis has never been one to make many friends among fellow politicians. He was especially lonely in early 1998.

In his quest for the Democratic nomination, a job he had sought for a quarter century, Davis was being outspent 8-1 by Northwest Airlines Chairman Al Checchi. Rep. Jane Harman, herself a multimillionaire, would soon enter the race.

Many politicians were endorsing Checchi, or holding back. Organizations that Davis spent a career courting were slighting him.

In the Central Valley, candidate Davis was viewed with particular suspicion, since he had served in the 1970s as chief of staff to Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. Brown had infuriated farmers by creating the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which helped fuel union organizing, and failing in their view to deal with the medfly infestation that threatened crops.

Condit held off on an endorsement, waiting to see whether Feinstein would run. Once she opted to remain in the Senate, the congressman turned to Davis, impressed by Davis’ desire to help the valley. Among other things, Davis had endorsed the creation of a 10th campus of the University of California, in Merced.

Condit immediately opened doors for Davis, introducing Davis to influential people in the valley and donors in the agricultural industry, traditionally a source of big money for Republican candidates.

“Gray Davis was virtually unknown in the Central Valley,” said Taczanowsky, the valley building association director. “Gary took him to every ham and egg breakfast there was. He took Davis to the Fourth of July parades in Atwater and Modesto, which are big deals here.”

When Davis won, the congressman saw his influence soar.

Davis appointed Condit co-chairman of a panel to develop policy on water and agriculture. Condit spoke to Davis weekly, sometimes more frequently, and was Davis’ point person in congressional matters.

Condit also got his friends appointed to posts from county fair boards to judgeships.

Condit introduced Davis to John Harris, head of the family that owns Harris Farms, the cattle and farming operation near Coalinga. Davis appointed Harris, a major Republican donor and a thoroughbred horse breeder, to the California Horse Racing Board.

Perhaps most important, Condit pushed Davis to name William Lyons Jr., a Modesto farmer whose family has long been active in Democratic politics, to head the Department of Food and Agriculture.

At Condit’s urging, Davis has been especially attentive to the valley. With Chad Condit’s help, Davis has convened annual economic summits there, attended by the congressman. In his first three budgets, the governor earmarked $250 million to build the UC campus at Merced.

His Department of Food and Agriculture has led efforts to eradicate the crop-destroying glassy winged sharpshooter. At Condit’s suggestion, the Davis administration has embarked on an advertising campaign urging people to buy California-produced farm products.

In the new state budget, Davis abolished state sales taxes on tractors and forgave penalties on farmers who avoided the tax by buying their machinery in neighboring states.

In mid-April, Davis did something which, for him, is highly unusual: He spent an entire evening at another politician’s fund-raiser, this one for Condit.

Days later, however, Levy was missing, and everything began to change.

Washington police say Condit is not a suspect in the 24-year-old woman’s disappearance, but they say the congressman acknowledged having an affair with her.

Some who know the men said Davis felt forced to speak out after Condit broke his silence in a widely panned ABC interview. Aware that Chad Condit was going to appear on Larry King Live to defend his father, Davis assumed that his relationship with Condit would become more widely known. So when he appeared at a news conference a week ago, he was ready to answer questions about Condit for the first time.

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‘Condit was the gateway for Davis to the Central Valley, which is Republican territory. He has to find a way to replace that, and he can’t replace it.’