Gary Condit | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 1992 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia | |
| In office September 12, 1989 – January 3, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Tony Coelho |
| Succeeded by | Dennis Cardoza |
| Constituency | 15th district (1989–1993) 18th district (1993–2003) |
| Member of theCalifornia State Assembly from the27th district | |
| In office December 6, 1982 – September 20, 1989 | |
| Preceded by | John E. Thurman |
| Succeeded by | Sal Cannella |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gary Adrian Condit (1948-04-21)April 21, 1948 (age 77) Salina, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Carolyn Berry |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Modesto Junior College (AA) California State University, Stanislaus (BA) |
Gary Adrian Condit (born April 21, 1948) is an American former politician fromCalifornia. ADemocrat, Condit representedCalifornia's 18th congressional district in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1989 to 2003. He gained significant national attention after the May 2001 disappearance ofChandra Levy, an intern with theFederal Bureau of Prisons. Condit and Levy were having an affair, and she was subsequently found to have been murdered.
Gary Condit was born inSalina, Oklahoma, on April 21, 1948,[1] the son of Velma Jean (Tidwell) Condit (1929–2017) and Adrian Burl Condit (1927–2021), a Baptist minister.[2][3][4] He was raised and educated in Oklahoma, and graduated fromTulsa'sNathan Hale High School.[5] During the summers of his high school years, Condit worked as aroustabout in Oklahoma's oil fields. In 1967, at age 18, he married his high school sweetheart, Carolyn Berry. An investigation by journalists in 2001 revealed that Condit had provided an inaccurate birth date when applying for his marriage license. At the time, Oklahoma required males under age 21 to have parental consent to marry; by claiming to have been born in 1942 rather than 1948, Condit evaded this requirement.[4]
In 1967, when Condit's father became pastor of aBaptist church nearModesto, his family relocated there.[4] Condit began attendance atModesto Junior College and received anAssociate of Arts degree in 1970.[6] In 1972, he received aB.A. degree fromCalifornia State University, Stanislaus.[6] While attending college and at the start of his career, Condit worked at a variety of jobs, including one at a tomato cannery,[4] one at a factory that made munitions during theVietnam War,[7] and one in the paint department of aMontgomery Ward department store.[4]
Condit served on the Ceres City Council from 1972 to 1976. In 1975 and 1976, he served asmayor, becoming the youngest mayor in the city's history at the age of 25. Condit served on theStanislaus CountyBoard of Supervisors from 1976 to 1982 and was elected to theCalifornia State Assembly in 1982.[citation needed]
In 1988, Condit was a member of the "Gang of Five" – withCharles M. Calderon ofWhittier,Gerald R. Eaves ofRialto,Rusty Areias ofLos Banos andSteve Peace ofChula Vista[8] – that failed to unseatWillie Brown as Speaker of the State Assembly by making a deal withRepublicans. Peace co-wrote and produced the 1988 filmReturn of the Killer Tomatoes, in which Condit appeared in an uncredited non-speaking cameo during a fight sequence.[9][10]
Condit was elected toCongress in 1989 in aspecial election after the resignation of House Democratic WhipTony Coelho. He was elected to a full term in 1990, and reelected five more times without serious difficulty (Condit had no Republican challenger during the general elections of 1992 and 1998). His most important committee assignment was as a senior member on theHouse Intelligence Committee in the months and years prior to theSeptember 11 attacks. Like most Democrats from theCentral Valley, Condit was somewhat more conservative than other Democrats from California. Being aBlue Dog Democrat, Condit voted againstPresidentBill Clinton more frequently than other members of his party in the chamber.[11] Condit took several populist progressive positions such as opposingNAFTA despite intense lobbying from his own district's wine industry and President Clinton himself, voted against the landmark repeal ofGlass-Steagall protections,[12] and against theIraq War andintervention in Kosovo.[13] In the aftermath of Kosovo, Condit was a persistent force in compelling the prosecution ofSlobodan Miloševic.[14][better source needed]
In 1998, during theMonica Lewinsky scandal, Condit publicly demanded that Clinton "come clean" on his relationship with the young woman; a video of this demand was aired almost daily during Condit's own scandal involving a relationship withBureau of Prisons internChandra Levy.[15] Following theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks, interest in the Levy case declined.[16] Condit kept his seat on the Intelligence Committee, retained his security clearance, and was one of a small number of members of Congress who were cleared to see the most sensitive information on the 9/11 attacks. On December 7, 2001, Condit announced he would run for re-election. He lost the Democratic primary election in March 2002 to his former aide, then-AssemblymanDennis Cardoza, and left Congress at the end of his term in January 2003.[17] Condit's most notable vote in his last months in office was the resolution to expel CongressmanJames Traficant after his conviction on corruption charges. In the 420–1 vote on July 24, 2002, Condit was the sole "nay".[18]
In 2001, Condit became the subject of national news coverage after the disappearance of Chandra Levy, a young woman working as aWashington, D.C., intern, originally from Condit's district. Police questioned Condit twice, and both times he denied having an extramarital affair with her; however, Levy's aunt eventually went public with conversations she had with her about their relationship. Police questioned Condit a third time, and he confessed to the affair.[5][19] When the affair began, Condit was 53 and Levy was 23. While Condit was not named as an official suspect in the disappearance, Levy's family suspected that he was withholding important information. His reputation suffered from the contrast between his "pro-family" politics, his adultery with a woman younger than his daughter, and his attempts to mislead the police regarding his affair. In July, two months after Levy vanished, Condit agreed to let investigators search his apartment; hours before the search, police said he was spotted throwing a gift box he had received from another woman into a dumpster in a Washington suburb.[5] This followed news reports that Condit had had an affair with a flight attendant.[20]
In an August 2001 televised interview withConnie Chung, Condit acknowledged that he had had a five-month relationship with Levy but did not say whether the relationship was sexual. Condit also admitted that, "in 34 years of marriage, he had not been 'a perfect man' and had made his "'fair share of mistakes'". Condit denied having killed Levy and denied having any information on her disappearance.[21]
Levy's remains were not found during the extensive search that followed her disappearance. On May 22, 2002, they were discovered accidentally in a secluded area ofRock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. Levy's death was declared ahomicide. In late 2002, Condit sued writerDominick Dunne ofVanity Fair for $11 million, claiming that Dunnedefamed him by suggesting he ordered Levy killed in 2001. Condit's attorney said that the libel lawsuit was based on comments Dunne repeated on national radio and television programs in December 2001, where he suggested Condit frequented Middle Eastern embassies for sexual activity with prostitutes and that, during those times, he made it clear that he wanted someone to get rid of Levy. Condit's attorney said that Dunne's comments "conveyed that Gary Condit was involved in her kidnapping and in her murder, that friends of Gary Condit had her kidnapped, put in an airplane and dropped in the Atlantic Ocean." Dunne paid an undisclosed amount to settle that lawsuit in March 2005.[22] Dunne said he had been "completely hoodwinked" by an unreliable informant. Subsequently, Condit sued Dunne again, charging him with "revivifying" the slander in an appearance onCNN'sLarry King Live in November 2005. In July 2008 a federal judge dismissed the second lawsuit filed against Dunne.[23]
In July 2006, Condit sued theSonoran News, a free weekly newspaper, for defamation of character after the publication wrote "that Condit was the 'main focus in the Chandra Levy case in 2001, after lying to investigators about his affair with Levy.'"[24] The case was dismissed in July 2007 when the judge ruled that Condit had not proved the statement was false, or that the paper had published it withmalice. Years later, Condit publicly denied ever having an affair with Chandra Levy.[25] Police continued the murder investigation, and in March 2009, a warrant was issued for the arrest ofIngmar Guandique, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had already been convicted and imprisoned for two other attacks on women in Rock Creek Park. He was subsequently indicted for Levy's murder.[26][27] On November 22, 2010, Guandique was found guilty of first-degree murder,[28] and was sentenced in February 2011 to 60 years in prison.[29] Condit's lawyer Bert Fields said, "It's a complete vindication but that comes a little late. Who gives him his career back?"[30] On June 4, 2015,D.C. Superior Court JudgeGerald Fisher granted a motion for the retrial of Guandique after it was revealed that the sole witness against him, a jailhouse informant named Armando Morales, had lied about prior jailhouse testimony.[31] Prosecutors dropped all charges against Guandique on July 28, 2016, after an associate of Morales came forward with secret recordings in which he admitted to falsifying testimony about the murder of Levy.[32][33] Levy's death therefore remains unsolved.
After his departure from office, Condit moved toArizona and operated twoBaskin-Robbins ice cream stores with his wife and son.[34] When the franchise failed, Condit was ordered to pay the company $98,000 in abreach of contract proceeding.[35][36] In 2012, he was reported to be serving as president of the Phoenix Institute of Desert Agriculture,[37] which listed its status as "Dissolved" in the last corporate filing as of June 4, 2015.[38] Condit later returned to California, where he became a registered lobbyist with the J. Blonien law firm ofSacramento.[39]
In 2012, Condit's son, Chad, announced his intention to run for the House of Representatives as anindependent in California'sredrawn10th congressional district. He lost in thetop-two election against incumbent RepublicanJeff Denham and Democratic challengerJosé M. Hernández.[40] In 2022, Chadran for the State Assembly to represent the22nd Assembly district. Chad finished in 3rd place in thejungle primary and did not advance to the general election.[41] After his loss, Chad worked onMarie Alvarado-Gil's campaign for State Senate, and became her chief of staff after she won her election. In December 2023, he was fired from his position, and later sued Alvarado-Gil alleging sexual harassment.[42]
Condit's daughter, Cadee Condit Gray, was previously married toAdam Gray, a congressman representingCalifornia's 13th congressional district since 2025. Gray also served as aCalifornia State Assembly member representing the21st district (2012–2022).[43] In 2020, Condit's nephew Buck was elected to theStanislaus County Board of Supervisors for district 1, defeatingModesto City Councilman Bill Zoslocki 58.77% to 41.23%. Earlier in 2018, Condit's grandson, Channce Condit, ran unopposed for a seat on the Ceres City Council.[44] In 2020, Channce was elected to the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors after he defeated Tom Hallinan 60% to 40%, joining his father's cousin, Buck, on the board.[45]
In 2015, another grandson of Condit, Couper Condit, was appointed to theCeres planning commission but was denied reappointment in 2020 by the council.[46] Couper Condit won a seat on the Ceres City Council later in 2020 by defeating incumbent Michael "Mike" Kline by a 38.19% to 23.52% margin, with two other competitors falling short.[45] After serving for 10 months on the Ceres City Council, Couper Condit resigned with no explanation.[47] Couper Condit has also worked as the district director for AssemblymemberHeath Flora.[47]
In 2023, another grandson of Condit, Gary M. Condit (named after his grandfather), was appointed to the Ceres Planning Commission.[48] Gary M. Condit ran for Ceres mayor in 2024 but lost the race to the incumbent mayor, Javier Lopez, by a little under 5%.[42][49] His wife, Destiny Suarez, worked at the office of State SenatorMarie Alvarado-Gil, but quit about eight months after her father in-law, Chad Condit, was fired from the same workplace.[42]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 15th congressional district 1989–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 18th congressional district 1993–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| New office | Chair of theBlue Dog Coalition for Administration 1995–1999 Served alongside:John S. Tanner (Communications),Nathan Deal,Collin Peterson (Policy) | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
