Condit career hinges on vote

LOS ANGELES, March 5 (UPI) -- Gary Condit will learn sometime Tuesday night whether his California constituents want him to continue his long-running political career or if he will be consigned to retirement by the controversy regarding missing intern Chandra Levy.

The Modesto-area Democrat and his wife, Carolyn, cast their ballots early Tuesday in their hometown of Ceres and began a vigil to see if he will be able to win the Democratic nomination, which a year ago would have been something of a slam dunk.

Condit is seeking to hang on to the 18th District seat he has held since 1989, however, the luster of his image in an area often called "Condit Country" has been deeply tarnished by his reputed romantic involvement with Levy, a Modesto woman who vanished without a trace nearly a year ago from Washington.

The Levy case changed Condit's political paradigm as it mushroomed into a lurid national story that captured the attention of major news organizations and supermarket tabloids alike. Condit has since found himself in a heated race with former political protégé, state Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza.

"If it ever happens to you, you'll learn who your friends are," Condit scolded reporters at a recent campaign appearance in Merced.

Should the beleaguered incumbent win, Condit would next face the Republican nominee in the newly redrawn district.

Condit has been campaigning on a message that news accounts of his alleged affair with the 24-year-old Levy are largely skewed and most often times inaccurate, and that he has served his rural district well and is a senior member of the important House Agriculture Committee.

"I have a proven record and I'm a fighter for the valley," he declared.

Condit has insisted that he and Levy were just friends, but has refused to publicly discuss their relationship in detail because he sees it as a personal matter that he stubbornly insists should not be splashed around in the media.

Carolyn Condit has sued the National Enquirer over a story that alleged she and Levy had engaged in a telephone screaming match after Levy cavalierly answered the phone in Condit's Washington apartment.