Nine months ago, rising political star Jim Stork found out something that rendered him speechless, left him depressed and caused him to mysteriously flee the state.

Stork, 37, discovered he’s not invincible.

He also found out he could fail, and that indeed, he had.

With little explanation, Stork suddenly dropped his campaign as a Democrat for Congress last year, shattering his image in South Florida and beyond. His departure left his political party in the lurch against longtime Broward and Palm Beach county congressional incumbent Clay Shaw, a Republican, who easily crushed a last-minute replacement.

Because of Stork’s baffling withdrawal, the former Wilton Manors mayor and owner of three local bakeries is no longer a political star of the gay community.

He’s that guy who raised $1 million for the campaign that, ultimately, wasn’t.

“They have a right to be disappointed,” Stork said in a lengthy interview this past week, the first since he dropped out of the race for House District 22. Then he added, “Most people have been supportive.”

At the time, Stork said he thought he might be suffering from stress, diabetes, hypoglycemia or some other malady. Eventually, Stork said, he was diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis, a heart valve infection.

Stork said he was too “down, depressed” and “devastated” about dropping out to face the public.

Instead, he flew to Massachusetts to be with his partner, Ron Ansin. He returned here only once between August and December. In Massachusetts, Stork sheltered himself. He sat around and did nothing. He watched Oprah on TV.

“I got clinically depressed,” Stork said. “I didn’t feel good about myself.”

Recently, Stork has made a few appearances and begun to rehab his reputation. He even says he might run for office again one day.

Some say he’ll never be considered credible again, though, after taking $1 million from more than 9,000 people.

Mike Mings, at the gay-rights Human Rights Campaign office in Washington, said Stork could consider seeking local office, but not Congress again.

“I think it would be difficult to go back to the same funders and ask for money at this point,” Mings said.

Two months ago, Stork threw an “I’m Not Running for Anything” party at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, to thank and apologize to his contributors. At the party, Stork won understanding from friends such as Bill Beaton of Fort Lauderdale, who contributed $2,250 to Stork’s short-circuited congressional campaign.

Beaton’s raffle ticket won him a new T-shirt: “I supported Jim Stork for Congress and all I got was this T-shirt.”

“And you know I’ve heard from people who were very upset their money was not returned to them,” Beaton said. “You know how I feel? I thought it was very selfish and mean. Because they contributed to a very valid campaign.”

Thom Leffler of Wilton Manors gave Stork $1,010.

“It certainly crossed my mind that there were other places where I could have put that money and gotten a tax deduction, where it would have gone to better use,” Leffler said.

But he said he’s not upset over it.

Stork had drawn no opponent for his party’s nomination to run against Shaw and was basking in fund-raising success, as well as national exposure via a televised speech at the Democratic Party Convention in Boston. Even Shaw, a 12-term incumbent, was stunned at Stork’s contributions and considered him a serious challenger.

Stork, however, said his health declined.

“I didn’t know what was wrong with me,” Stork said, describing chills and night sweats, symptoms “similar to stress, feeling weird, off-kilter.”

He slowed down. He took naps. His staff thought he was crazy. He didn’t tell them, didn’t see a doctor.

Finally, in August, he called a meeting, telling his staff he wasn’t well, but that he didn’t know why. He told them he was leaving. Don’t raise any more money, he told them.

It was over.

“Some of them cried,” he said.

Stork told the public he was suspending his campaign to undergo medical tests. But he knew he’d never return to the campaign.

He had agreed with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to postpone his official withdrawal until mid-September, to avoid a costly special election for a new Democratic nominee.

The giant political machine he’d set in motion froze.

Michael Albetta, president of Florida’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Democratic Caucus, said he was swamped with calls “‘Have you heard from him?’ ‘Can you talk to him?’ I put the phone calls in, and they said under no circumstances would he talk.”

In December, Stork sent an apology to supporters.

Stork returned more than $100,000 in contributions, but he’d already spent more than $900,000.

The $44,000 left over is enough to pay himself back, he said. He said he’s holding it for legal fees because he’s still defending a Federal Elections Commission complaint about his campaign advertising.

One new Democratic challenger in District 22 for 2006, state Sen. Ron Klein of Boca Raton, said his money-raising hasn’t been hurt by Stork.

After eight weeks of antibiotics, Stork said he is well, physically. He’s still trying to figure out the why, though.

“There’s a reason for everything,” Stork said. “And God, or I like to call it a higher power, gives you paths in life and allows you to create your own destiny. This just happened to me to allow me to find what to do with my life.”

Brittany Wallman can be reached at or 954-356-4541.

THE MONEY FLOW

MONEY IN

Candidate Jim Stork collected money from out-of-state sources, as well as from national Democratic or gay rights causes, before he dropped out of his race for Congress last year.

Here are a few contributors:

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: $18,500

Association of Trial Lawyers of American PAC: $10,000

Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund: $3,000

Human Rights Campaign PAC: $5,600

Palm Beach County Human Rights Council Federal PAC: $6,995

ActBlue: $968

Loan from Stork’s personal money: $40,000

Total raised through Dec. 31: $1,034,155

Total spent in that period: $988,832

Left in account as of March 31, 2005: $44,257

MONEY OUT

Jim Stork dropped out of the congressional race last year, but he’s still running up “campaign” expenses.

Cash: $44,257 left in account, as of March 31, 2005

Cell phone bill: $311 from January 1-March 31, 2005

Printing costs: $252 in February

Fee to close credit card account: $100

Stork also took some of the money given to him for his campaign and contributed it to other campaigns and causes:

Castor for Senate: $2,000 campaign contribution in October 2004

Broward Young Democrats: $2,000 campaign contribution in November

Democratic National Committee: $2,000 in October 2004

Equality Forum of Philadelphia: $2,000 in November

GLSEN of New York (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network): $2,000 in November

Sunshine Cathedral Foundation of Fort Lauderdale: $2,000 in November

Sunshine Social Services for Fort Lauderdale: $2,000 in November

Returned to contributors: $116,076 to 69 contributors whose funds were earmarked for the November general election. No money was returned to contributors to the primary.