Signatures fall short for Condit
December 13, 2001 Posted: 05:25:02 AM PST
By BRIAN MELLEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Gary Condit, who once breezed onto the ballot with enough signature to avoid ballot fees, fell nearly 500 names shy by last week's filing deadline and will have to pay to run for the first time in his career.
In a campaign estimated to cost more than $1 million, the $221 Condit owes is spare change, but it shows how his support in "Condit Country" has eroded.
In the past, Condit never had a problem getting the required 3,000 signatures to avoid the $1,451 fee to get his name on the ballot.
The married congressman's popularity has plummeted since news of his affair with missing federal intern Chandra Levy of Modesto dominated national headlines all summer.
"I think he's encountering some of the resistance in the district to his candidacy and to his version of the story," said Bruce Cain, a politics professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
"He's going to have to work hard to get them back in his camp. I don't know if it's doable. When you lose credibility, it's very hard to get it back."
Condit, a Democrat from Ceres, said Tuesday that he had counted 7,000 negative news articles about himself in recent months. But he said there is still support for him.
Over 10 weeks, campaign workers and volunteers collected about twice the necessary amount of signatures, but fewer than half were certified as registered Democrats or unenrolled voters living in the 18th Congressional District.
Wednesday, the tally from elections clerks in Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno and San Joaquin counties totaled 2,543. With about 50 cents credit for each valid signature, Condit will have to pay just more than $221.
Condit signed a blank check to the secretary of state's office to pay the balance when he filed his declaration of candidacy Friday.
Most other candidates collected a few signatures or opted out and paid the full fee.
But Condit's campaign was determined to keep his record alive of never paying a ballot fee. And the petition drive also was designed to help Condit decide whether he has enough support to run, according to political consultant Richie Ross.
Condit's son, Chad, who decided not to run for state Senate so he could help run his father's campaign, took responsibility for a failed grass-roots campaign.
The younger Condit said he and a friend walked precincts every day for five weeks and had nearly 200 volunteers collect signatures on three weekends.
"I take responsibility if we are short," Chad Condit said. "If we have to pay a few dollars, so be it, but we're going to run hard and we think we have a lot of support out there."