Condit Battles Foes, Scandal

In the last days of what may be his last campaign, Gary Condit does his best imitation of the charmed politician who hardly broke a sweat as he glided from City Council to state Assembly to six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Local TV cameras dog his every move, from the Yum Yum doughnut shop in Stockton to an Hispanic Chamber of Commerce meeting in Merced. He makes a coy game of playing past them. His smile still wows the older ladies, and on good hair days he still resembles the cover boy posing astride horses and Harleys for his “Condit Country” brochures.

But Condit is a man chased weary by the ghost of a scandal. Not even TV’s “10 extra pounds” can hide his gauntness.

In his nearly three decades of political office, the 53-year-old Condit has never waged a more personal--and uphill--battle. He is running against the politician he mentored, Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced), and in the after-glare of revelations about his relationship with missing intern Chandra Levy.

Although the 10-month scandal has cost him dearly as a politician, friends and foes say his core of support remains too substantial to simply write off his candidacy. He has never worked harder at reelection, they say, or reached out to a more diverse collection of groups.

In an 18th Congressional District redrawn to include the minority communities of Stockton, it was Condit--not Democratic front-runner Cardoza--who went to black Baptist and Pentecostal churches to ask for support.

“We had him on the hot seat for about 20 minutes and he answered every question, even the ones about the missing intern,” said Floyd Weaver, a black community leader and former vice mayor of Stockton. “It went very well. So well that no one called me afterward and said, ‘Why did you bring that guy to us.’”

Up and down the campaign trail, Condit blames the scandal on the gluttony of a national media gone tabloid silly. In the manner of his interview with TV’s Connie Chung last summer, he dodges questions about any extramarital affairs and what they imply about a man whose past campaigns were built on the themes of family and trust.

Throughout much of the race, his three main opponents have treaded lightly on the issue. They fear that Condit’s anti-media message has struck a chord with voters and that any harping on the scandal might backfire and paint the Condits as victims. In a region where nearly one-third of the population receives public assistance and the unemployment rate remains stuck in double digits, the debate is mostly about jobs and education, how to grow suburbs and light industry while still preserving the engine of agriculture.

Then last week, it was the Condits who went out of their way to return the scandal to front and center. On the same day the congressman met with voters to voice his concern about the San Joaquin Valley’s dreadful air quality, his wife, Carolyn, stood on the steps of the federal courthouse here to announce that she had filed a $10-million libel lawsuit against the National Enquirer.

The tabloid had published a story last August alleging that on the eve of Levy’s May 1 disappearance, the 24-year-old intern and Carolyn Condit had a vicious telephone argument. “Cops: Condit’s Wife Attacked Chandra,” the Enquirer headline read.

Flanked by her lawyers, who stressed that such a conversation with Levy never took place, Carolyn Condit called the article “unjust and very hurtful.” Political experts question the wisdom of filing the suit amid her husband’s campaign.

“The political upside would be that it reinforces the notion of the Condits as victims of a relentless press that bears them ill will,” said Ed Costantini, who teaches political science at UC Davis. “But there’s also a downside. It reminds voters of the sordidness of the whole Chandra Levy scandal and the hypocrisy of a politician who has paraded virtue as one of his credentials.”

Condit may be the most vulnerable of California’s 52 House members seeking reelection, but Costantini and others don’t give much weight to polls showing him trailing Cardoza by eight or more percentage points. They point out that people might be unwilling to publicly admit they are going to vote for Condit--simply to spare themselves a lecture from relatives or friends who oppose him. When the curtain closes on the voting booth, they could very well take glee in marking “Condit.”

“What people say and what they do in the booth is two different things,” said state Sen. Dick Monteith (R-Modesto), the front-runner in the Republican primary for the 18th Congressional District.

“Gary is beating the bushes and taking nothing for granted,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win.”

The news crews that camped day and night outside Condit’s Modesto office and Ceres home are now gone, but both places remain bunker-like with a cadre of die-hard staff, supporters and family encircling the congressman.

His children, Chad, 34, and Cadee, 26, quit their jobs with Gov. Gray Davis (they thought Davis came to their beleaguered father’s side too late and halfheartedly) and moved back into their parents’ cramped house. The entire campaign is a family affair.

The Condits find ways to stretch the budget and decide which reporters the congressman should talk to and which reporters are best kept at bay.

In an appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live” program Monday night , Condit’s children again were at his side.

“They are such honorable people, I don’t know if I can ever repay them,” he said.

Condit again refused to discuss Levy, saying, “I am not going to go into that. I’m just not going into that.” When pressed by a viewer who called the show, Condit said, “I had nothing to do with the disappearance of Chandra Levy, not one single thing.”

The congressman did not return repeated phone calls from The Times seeking comment on the race.

As the campaign heads into its final week, some foes have decided to take off the gloves and raise questions about his personal conduct and whether it has hampered his ability to serve the district.

“There are a host of questions that Gary has yet to answer,” said Doug White, the campaign manager for Cardoza, who has outspent Condit by more than 3 to 1.

“Gary has never apologized to this community for making it a laughingstock. He’s never said, ‘I’m sorry’ to his constituents for making them the butt of jokes on Leno and Letterman.

“He keeps playing the victim, but everything that happened is a direct result of the personal and public decisions he’d made. If he doesn’t have an affair with Chandra Levy, he doesn’t get thrust into a scandal.”