Sept. 11: Inadvertent Aid To Condit?

If Rep. Gary Condit can rebuild his political career, it may be largely because his problems have been overshadowed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, analysts said.

The congressman said Friday he will seek re-election next year despite months of notoriety and speculation over his relationship with missing Washington intern Chandra Levy.

“We have much a larger issue about national security that has subsumed the whole Chandra Levy and disastrous Connie Chung interview,” said Nancy Snow, a University of California, Los Angeles political analyst.

Even Condit's own Democratic colleagues found him evasive in an August television interview with Chung in which he communicated no sympathy for the missing Modesto woman's family.

But less than three weeks later, terrorists crashed four airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.

“National security kind of takes over and becomes a greater concern,” Snow said. “There's a tendency to say, 'Let's move on, we may never know what happened to this young woman. We've got larger life and death issues to be concerned about.”'

Levy has been missing since May, when she ended her internship with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. After three months of public silence, Condit, 53 and married, acknowledged a romantic relationship with her, according to a police source. He has repeatedly denied any role in her disappearance, and police have said he is not a suspect.

Republican consultant Sal Russo said voters who may have grown to dislike Condit have since turned their ire to alleged terrorist financier Osama bin Laden.

Cable TV stations that drove the Condit story 24 hours a day now are full of war news instead.

Condit capitalized on those sentiments in a taxpayer-funded letter to his constituents last week, days before he announced his bid to keep the seat he's held since 1989.

The letter praised President Bush's war on terrorism, reminded readers of his role on the House Intelligence Committee and informed them of Condit's meetings with local security officials to discuss terrorism concerns.

“It was a very difficult decision for me,” Condit said Friday, in announcing his decision to run. “It took some time to think about and I've represented the valley for a long time and I've done a good job for the people of the valley.”

Before Sept. 11, Condit's critics questioned whether he should be allowed to keep the sensitive intelligence committee post. Now analysts said it may help Democrats hold the crucial Central Valley seat.

But voters won't forget Levy's disappearance which will likely be the central issue of the Democratic primary in March, said Lawrence Giventer, a political science professor at California State University, Stanislaus.

Condit's re-election bid sends him headlong into a primary campaign against his former protégé, Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza.

“Sept. 11 doesn't chane people's perception of politicians,” said Cardoza spokesman Doug White, who questioned whether Condit can any longer be effective in Congress.

White noted Condit has raised little money from political action committees, which he said “shows they don't think you're going to be around or they don't want to be associated with you.”

But analysts from both parties said Condit retains a healthy core of support despite Levy's disappearance.

“Incumbents are almost always the favorite and that may still be the case,” said California Republican Party spokesman Rob Stutzman.

© MMI The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed