San Francisco ? As California’s primary rapidly approaches, Rep. Gary Condit faces the toughest election of his crumbled political career and Republicans wage a sharp battle for the right to take on Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

Tuesday’s primary comes after a year of turmoil featuring a sex scandal involving a missing intern, a crippling energy crisis and multibillion-dollar budget troubles.

U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., on Tuesday faces his first test before voters since the Chandra Levy scandal, when primary elections are contested in California.

In Condit’s district, once so supportive it was called Condit Country, the 13-year House veteran faces his toughest challenge from Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, a former aide who has wrested cash and endorsements from former Condit supporters. Polls conducted by Cardoza’s campaign showed the state legislator leading by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Condit’s bid for another term was shadowed by the case of Washington, D.C., intern Chandra Levy, 24, who vanished as she was preparing to move home to Modesto after her internship ended at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Washington police sources have said Condit admitted he had an affair with Levy the third time he was questioned, although in media interviews he has declined to reveal the exact nature of their relationship. Law enforcement officials have said he is not a suspect in the disappearance.

The divisive Republican race for the gubernatorial nomination was dominated by two Los Angeles millionaires, fellow parishioners at the same Santa Monica Roman Catholic church.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, encouraged by the White House to run, once claimed an overwhelming lead in the polls over Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon. However, Simon, who had never before run for political office, vaulted into the lead in the most recent polls.

Simon poured millions of his own personal fortune into his campaign.

Now Riordan has been forced to try to show Republicans that only he, as a moderate, can beat Davis in a state where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans. Simon is pinning his hopes on an expected small turnout of conservatives who can’t abide Riordan’s relative liberalism.