Posted on 10/23/2007 7:48:38 AM PDT by pissant
WASHINGTON ---- He doesn't draw throngs like Barack Obama or Rudy Giuliani, but U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter has admirers in his longshot bid for the presidency.
The El Cajon lawmaker, who hasn't been able to move his campaign from the bottom tier of GOP candidates, met one of those fans in his Capitol Hill office recently.
"I really admire you and I'm glad you're running," Joe Sangiorgio, a George Washington University political science student and congressional intern, said while getting his picture taken with his choice for president. "I plan to vote for you, and I would give your campaign $50 million if I could."
Sangiorgio must not be paying much attention to the polls or standings in the race for campaign cash: Hunter is polling no more than 3 percent outside California and has raised a relative pauper's sum of less than $2 million.
Despite those numbers, the congressman told the North County Times earlier this month that he has no thoughts of dropping out.
Hunter also reflected on his record in Congress during the last 26 years, saying he is proud of his efforts on behalf of the military and defense industries, and that he believes large numbers of U.S. troops would leave Iraq next year.
Tough odds
Hunter's odds of getting elected president are pegged at 200-1 in Las Vegas, and his chances of raising anywhere near $50 million that Sangiorgio wished for, or suddenly winning favor among a large portion of the electorate, are seen by most observers as slim and none.
Despite that, the affable Hunter has nothing to lose by staying in the race, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College who specializes in national politics.
"There's really no reason for him to withdraw yet," Pitney said last week. "He gets to take part in national debates standing next to the party's eventual nominee. This could be his last chance for national television exposure, so why give it up?
"He's retiring from Congress, where his party is now in the minority, so staying in and taking part in the primaries is all gain and no pain."
The low numbers Hunter has been getting don't appear to bother the folksy politician, whose 52nd Congressional District includes parts of Poway and Ramona. The former chairman and now-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee claimed he's had no thoughts of abandoning the effort and suggested surprise at even being asked the question.
"I'm not afraid of an election," he said. "To get out before the first numbers come in doesn't make any sense."
In debates, Hunter speaks forcefully about his desire to protect American jobs, and the needs to improve border security and maintain a strong military.
As the major candidates raise many millions to pay for media buys and dozens of political operatives, Hunter's Oct. 15 campaign finance report shows he has raised a paltry $1.7 million with only $132,741 in available cash. That compares with another bottom-tier candidate, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, who dropped out of the race Friday despite having raised more than twice as much as Hunter.
"We don't have a bunch of consultants that we have to pay," Hunter said as he munched on a turkey sandwich during a break in a series of votes taking place on the House floor. "We run a highly efficient operation."
'Great effect'
Rather than spend his campaign cash on media buys and staff, Hunter gets his message out through the "free media" at presidential debates and as a frequent guest on conservative radio and television. He travels to campaign events by commercial airliner, often relying on volunteers or a single paid staffer to shuttle him around once he's on the ground.
And despite only winning a couple of straw polls, the hawkish conservative will look you straight in the eye and say he is in to win.
"The real contest doesn't start until the January primaries, and I intend to do well in those elections," he said during a conversation in his congressional office, a large room adorned with numerous mementos and pictures of Hunter and his supporters during his time in office.
Hunter said he believes he has influenced the debate, pointing to his criticism of U.S. trade policy with China, which he says gives the Asian giant an unfair advantage over American manufacturers. He also claims to be the first to call for pre-emptive military action against Iran if it's shown that country is near production of an atomic weapon.
The leading GOP candidates have followed suit on Iran, building a fence along the majority of the border with Mexico and improving the trade and economic climate for U.S. manufacturers to preserve American jobs, he said.
"I think we're having a great effect. I'm out there every day trying to do the best I can to communicate my ideas and see if we can't draw a crowd."
But the crowds haven't responded in the way he had hoped. Nonetheless, he said plans to stay around after the first round of primaries and caucuses.
How long after that?
"If you get to the point where you're not getting any numbers at all and can't possibly recover, you don't stay in just for symbolic reasons," he said.
Congressional career
As he wraps up the penultimate year of his congressional career, Hunter said he will always be proud of his relationship with the military.
"The Armed Services Committee is one where you can really get things done," said the Vietnam War veteran, who was the panel's chairman until this year. "I was able to help rebuild the military during the Reagan era and work through the start of the missile defense system and the Contra wars."
In recent months, he has helped speed the development of new mine-resistant armored personnel carriers and increase funding and attention on efforts to defeat roadside bombs.
"We're in a new era of terrorists with technology and we've got to be able to respond. You take the best positions you can and try every day to do something good for this country.
"It's a long war, and there's not going to be any surrender ceremony like we saw on deck of the battleship USS Missouri at the end of World War II."
Despite some accusations of ties to men convicted or charged in the scandal of his friend and former U.S. Rep. Randy Cunningham, that relationship has not dogged Hunter on the campaign trail. Beyond a defense attorney's failed effort to subpoena him and other lawmakers, Hunter's name has not surfaced in any of the investigations linked to the now-imprisoned Cunningham.
When Hunter leaves Congress, his replacement could be his son, Duncan Duane Hunter, a U.S. Marine now serving in Afghanistan. The younger Hunter will face at least two other GOP challengers during the primary in his bid to keep a Hunter hold on the 52nd District and the family philosophy a part of California's congressional delegation.
Iraq and beyond
Somewhat surprisingly, Hunter is opposed to seeing the Marine Corps leave Iraq and assume major combat responsibility in Afghanistan, which Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway is advocating.
Hunter said he would rather see the 25,000 Marines come home from Iraq, as that country's fledgling army assumes responsibility for security with quick reaction forces called in if needed.
"Al-Qaida has been defeated on the battlefield in Anbar because of the hard work of the Marines," he said. "I would like to see the Marines rotate out of Iraq, and Afghanistan should be a place where our NATO allies really start participating in a more robust manner."
He predicted that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq next year will be far lower than the current 160,000. Putting greater pressure on the Iraqis to provide their own security could lead to substantial withdrawal of U.S. troops in the coming months, he said.
"The Iraq army can take over a lot faster than many people think," he said.
“Do you know what Duncan Hunter did when this came down? He announced he would be in his home district and asked people to show up. He got a card table and laid out all the checks and the records for his constituents to see and proved that all you have suggested never happened.
Newt Gingrich was caught up in this too. Know how he handled it? He tried to pass a resolution for no one to find out about him and some others by setting a very high total amount of checks for disclosure.”
Wow, Duncan Hunter is the bravest, most straightforward politician that I have ever heard of.
Tonight I heard Mark Levin saying that the candidates who are really strong on securing our borders are Hunter, Tancredo and Thompson (unlike the other candidates, he hinted).
Now while I’m glad that Levin realizes how strong Hunter is on securing our borders, I wish Levin had also told the audience that Duncan Hunter is the very most EFFECTIVE candidate regarding protecting our borders.
It was HUNTER who built the double fence with border patrol in-between at the San Diego border, and HUNTER who wrote the bill for an 854 mile fence which was signed into law.
While others talk the talk, DUNCAN HUNTER gets things done!
A rational response to a valid question, a rarity around here these days. I will agree mostly with your response, though I do have a few points that I could harp on, but I think enough has been said already. Good luck in the primaries, but like someone else has said, I hope you have a plan B for afterwards. See ya around.
Can a grass roots originated flash fire propel Duncan into the nomination? Well, this political game can change in a matter of days. Everyone has their little scenarios all worked out, that Duncan Hunter is finished. That is a laughable position in the whimsey of this game.
For God and Country, I will stand with Hunter and write him in if I have to.
The wild cards are still in the deck and have not been put into play. So Duncan Hunter will stay the course, and by the grace of devine providence, and the true hearts of the American people, Duncan Hunter can prevail.
If he is nominated, he will be victorious over any Democrat who is in the field now.
And the United States will NOT then fall into the gloom of "progressive conservatives" or their "liberal socialist" counterparts of equally challenged philosophy.
Duncan Hunter is the only hope the nation has, all others, both Democrat and Republican, will lead this nation to disaster.
Yes, Duncan Hunter has been protected from scrutiny by obscurity. Good tactic, though not if you want to actually get elected.
Thank you so very much for your encouragements, dear Kevmo!
Thank you for your encouragements, Calpernia!
No, Thank You!
After my eight years of mulling over all this ie. Fred backing off chinagate (as this Safire article puts it) and taking into account alamo-girls 'Time Line' - I came to the following conclusions:
***
"By thus thinking tactically - about how the hearings ``play’’ - Thompson is making a strategic blunder."
My thinking here is that - Thompson, at this point in time - was realizing that not only had a few of the key witnesses already fled the country, (or struck deals), but perhaps more, if not all of them had fled the country. Hard to know what Thompson had found out about fleeing witnesses in these times before any 'hearings.'
A serious Senate investigation has three purposes: first, to use its subpoena power to expose to public view..."
And with this, Thompson by now had probably found out that all of the **113 chinagate witnesses had fled the country; hence, there would not be - anyone left to subpoena.
"But just when the committee’s exposing purpose was getting traction...Chairman Thompson cut away from the chase....a deal with Trent Lott."
By this time, I'd bet that Thompson had been informed by the House Managers that Lott had flat out told them (the House Mgers) that there 'was not going to be enough votes' in the Senate to convict Clinton on treason (or any other charges).
"Too bad about Fred Thompson’s wimpout. Hope he catches his breath in time."
Thompson, knowing that there'd be no witneses available - knew for sure at this point in time that there would could not be a conviction of Clinton for treason.
And what was left for Thompson to do (for the record)? - Not much - but to go along - -for the rest of the ride. Simply nothing else he could do with no witnesses.
So, I have to disagree with Safire inferring Thompson whimped out. I have to go with the facts that we all have available to us through our varied sources, including alamo-girls fine work - 'Time Lines' to guide us.
***
Of course, in my above, I'm responding to a William Safire article and the time line Safire offers up does not include actual dates/with months and or weeks, or perhaps I could be more precise in my above responses. And then again, my responses are truly irrelevant considering that I am just a layman and speaking from the sidelines.
[and the **113 figure I use above is after 1998; I believe the figure was 85 pre-1998 as stated in '98 Congressional Records]
[Calpernia, I've pinged alamo-girl to look on, but in doing so, we must realize that alamo-girl might not want to respond to any of this seeing that it is a newspaper reporters observations that are being discussed in this post]
(but so far, I still inject here:
Thompson/ Hunter
Hunter/ Thompson
With the knowledge of foreign money coming into political pockets, should that be a factor in voting for MFN status?
No problem. Have a great night!
This trend of pushing "electable" over "principled" gave us Snowe, Spectre, Schwartzenegger, both Bush's, ect... I'm not including "Brady Bill" Bob Dole as he was neither electable nor principled.
If it doesn't stop, add it to the list of things killing this Country.
Hmm. Is the overdraft thing your only reason for disliking Hunter? It was a mistake, but it was legal. And at least he made the effort to pay back the checks (see post #92).
Santorum supported Specter over Pat Toomey.
Allen got the whole macaca moment heaped on him.
Don’t much about Talent.
It was a bad year for Republicans in general, due to public sentiment about Iraq.
But now we’re winning, and I’m optimistic.
Considering your tagline, I thought you’d enjoy post #235.
And Phyllis Schlafly recently stated that the only candidates she is comfortable with are Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo.
Levin including Thompson as border closer is a far stretch:
Fred has voted thus:
1996 - To continue chain migration
1996 - to remove higher fines for businesses which hire illegal aliens
1997 - to grant amnesty to nearly 1 million illegal aliens from Nicaragua and Cuba
1998 - against including worker safeguards
1998 - to allow firms to lay off Americans to make room for foreign workers
2000 - For a foreign worker bill with no anti-fraud measure.
http://profiles.numbersusa.com/improfile.php3?DistSend=TN&VIPID=743
Meanwhile, back in the Conservative World, while ‘others’ flip, Duncan Hunter gets the job done!
Thanks for that. VERY informative. I’ll have to save it in my personal files.
I wish the conservative talk show hosts would start supporting the STRONGEST conservatives, especially when it’s so early.
Like oil trying to interact with pure, sweet water, trying to sully an honest man with dirty innuendo will not succeed.
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