This seems an appropriate time to insert a photo of Cadee's mother Carolyn.
Posted on 02/04/2003 8:09:30 AM PST by at bay
WASHINGTON -- Former congressman Gary Condit paid his children $209,500 last year with funds originally meant to advance his own career, newly released records show. The most recent payments to Chad and Cadee Condit all but emptied the treasury Condit established when his statewide prospects appeared bright. They also illuminate the sometimes controversial liberties politicians can take with political action committees.
"I would consider it unusual and downright misleading for a candidate to use PAC funds to pay his children," David Schecter, assistant professor of political science at California State University, Fresno, said Monday.
But Schecter added, "If the payments were couched as 'campaign spending' for a 'campaign manager' and the like, it may sit better with the givers who understood that Condit probably couldn't get much help from anyone but family at that point."
Classifying both children as "campaign consultants," Condit reported paying Chad $70,000 and Cadee $39,500 sometime during the last six months of 2002. The newly filed report identifies the purpose as "research for documentary."
The required filing does not clarify what documentary Chad and Cadee Condit were supposed to be working on.
Earlier in the year, Condit had reported paying Chad $40,000 and Cadee $60,000 from the same political fund. Together, the payments to family members drained three-quarters of all the money raised by Condit's state fund, now called Justice PAC.
With Condit out of public office, there is no new income coming to Justice PAC. But with Condit also having moved out of his Ceres home and having cut his ties to area Democrats, neither is there much political consequence for his use of the fund.
"Only someone without any hope of political redemption would pull a stunt like this," said Larry Sabato, professor of government at the University of Virginia.
Stephen J. Kaufman, the experienced Los Angeles attorney and campaign finance expert who formerly handled the Condit fund, said Monday he had given up the account several months ago and handed all responsibility back to Chad Condit.
No Condit family member could be reached for comment Monday.
The state Fair Political Practices Commission requires that expenditures from such committees be "directly related to a political, legislative or governmental purpose" of the committee. In the case of Condit's fund, that purpose revolved around influencing California elections and public policy.
"It really depends what the children were doing for him," said Melissa Michelson, also a Fresno State assistant professor of political science. "Was the money really going to help Condit, or was he using the PAC as a slush fund to give money to his children?"
So far as can be determined, neither of the Condit children have worked outside of the family since they quit their jobs with Gov. Davis in August 2001. They resigned after Davis briefly criticized Condit's handling of a television interview with Connie Chung.
"The Condits are a very proud and loyal family, not only in the good times but in the darkest hours," Chad and Cadee Condit explained at the time.
Condit established the fund under the name Keep California Golden in January 2001, as a means to boost his statewide influence. At the time, he was a key ally of Davis on Capitol Hill and in the Central Valley. Keep California Golden enabled Condit to raise funds from heavy hitters and spread them widely as he weighed statewide prospects.
Gambling operations like the Bicycle Club Casino of Southern California, real estate players like AKT Development of Sacramento and the likes of the California Funeral Directors Association all lined up to contribute $5,000 each.
By May 2001, Condit had raised $277,000 for Keep California Golden. The disappearance that same month of former Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy of Modesto, and Condit's handling of the subsequent investigation, started the unraveling of his career and the transformation of Keep California Golden.
Condit no longer denies published reports that he told police, in his third interview, that he was sexually involved with the younger woman. Levy's remains were found in May 2002, and her murder remains unsolved with no known suspects.
By last year, Keep California Golden had become Justice PAC and stopped making contributions to other candidates.
At the same time, Chad and Cadee Condit had stepped in as their father's chief public defenders. In March, they jointly sent a letter to San Joaquin Valley voters harshly denouncing Democrat Dennis Cardoza, who was on his way to defeating Condit in the Democrat primary.
Gary's political influence is zip, nada, zilch, so he can't peddle influence, and I can't imagine he'd have any credibility as a lobbyist either.
I think his daughter is pretty hot if I am not mistaken. She could pose nude or something. Then they can stay sleazy. Going from memory. Pics Please.
FOFL!
This seems an appropriate time to insert a photo of Cadee's mother Carolyn.
It amazes me that people who sit on sensitive Congressional committees don't have to undergo background checks for clearances. In the defense industry, it's a given that you submit to this - otherwise, you don't get a job there.
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