Posted on 01/13/2008 8:40:43 AM PST by pissant
EAST COUNTY – Even in East County, where they still love Rep. Duncan Hunter, voters are a bit mystified about why he's hanging onto his unlikely quest for the presidency.
With the conservative Republican coming in last place with less than 1 percent of the vote in Iowa and New Hampshire, the prospects of his moving into the White House appear nearly impossible.
Some wonder whether he's running to highlight national defense and border security – his steadfast issues as a congressman – or in hopes of getting a job in a Republican administration.
In an interview while campaigning in Michigan last week, Hunter said he has no plans to drop out of what has become a wide-open race for the Republican candidacy.
“It's easy to quit. It's hard to win,” Hunter said. “We're moving ahead full-throttle.”
Beth Taormini, who owns a bookstore in Hunter's hometown of Alpine, said she has supported Hunter for Congress, but isn't sure who she'll vote for in California's presidential primary Feb. 5. She hasn't heard much about Hunter in campaign coverage and doubts he can win.
“But I wonder whether that's important to him?” she said.
Hunter's supporters bemoan that the national media has largely ignored his campaign in favor of Republican front-runners Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.
“If the rest of the country knew him as well as we did, he'd have a fighting chance,” said Matt Schumsky, a Republican party activist who lives in Alpine.
Elected in 1980, Hunter has since represented the 52nd Congressional District, which cuts a wide diagonal swath from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station to the county's northeastern corner. He has usually beena shoo-in for re-election, often getting two-thirds of the vote or more.
But he has struggled for attention the past year on the presidential campaign trail, and he's raised only $1.9 million, tens of millions of dollars less than the front-runners.
Gary Jacobson, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego, said Hunter hasn't attracted notice because he isn't nationally well-known.
“He starts out totally obscure to most of the world,” Jacobson said. “Hunter is not an especially charismatic character. He doesn't have the charm of a Huckabee. He doesn't play bass in a rock 'n' roll band.”
Hunter's biggest victories so far were in Wyoming, where he won one of 12 delegates in the state caucuses, and in Nevada, where he was endorsed by the state's Republican Assembly.
When Hunter's campaign issued a press release Monday morning saying he had a major announcement, several news organizations predicted he was dropping out of the race. Instead, Hunter used the press conference to complain about being excluded from the most recent presidential debates.
Hunter's family physician, Paul Ver Hoeve of El Cajon, said his relatives in New Jersey hadn't heard of Hunter.
“When I mentioned Hunter's name, they said, 'Who?' ” Ver Hoeve said.
Ver Hoeve said Hunter is running to spread his conservative message.
“He loves his country,” Ver Hoeve said. “He's kind of carrying on the Reagan ideal.”
Signs of support for Hunter's presidential campaign are rare in East County, although one of his neighbors near his home on Peutz Valley Road has a 6-foot-high “Hunter for President” sign in his front yard.
Among Hunter's most fervent supporters are two other neighbors, Lu Ann Slay, 54, and her husband, Ed Roczey, 67. They've spent the past eight months traveling to 23 states to hold up Hunter banners along highways and cheer at his campaign events.
Slay said she admires Hunter and wants to spread the word about him to others.
“I feel like I'm going to war, except I don't have a uniform,” she said. “I feel like I'm fighting for something with a purpose.”
At El Cajon's Parkway Plaza, 67-year-old retiree Burley Dodson said he is supporting Fred Thompson, another struggling Republican candidate, because he feels Thompson is more personable than Hunter.
Dodson said he has little interest in the issues that Hunter has focused on.
“The main thing that concerns me is the economy right here – the food that I buy, the gas that I buy,” he said.
Hunter decided not to seek re-election to his congressional seat as he focused on the presidential bid. His son, Duncan D. Hunter, is among the candidates running for the seat.
Hunter last week denied a persistent rumor that his son is serving only as a placeholder candidate so that he can re-enter the race for his seat. “It's not true,” Hunter said. “You've got my word on that.”
Former La Mesa councilman Barry Jantz, who follows local politics in a Republican blog, said Hunter might be seeking an administration post if a Republican is elected president.
“I can't think of anyone better qualified to be defense secretary or national security adviser,” Jantz said.
The media reminds me of my husband, who was driving the other day. We left Walmart and were going to get something to eat. He told me he wanted to get on home so pick from one of the four, that were close. There was a What a Burger, McDonalds, Burger King and Churches. I said maybe McDonald’s?. He says...”well I really didn’t want a hamburger.
I hear that; but I’ve never met anyone other than school children that actually watch those shows.
Why not have Fred Thompson bow out and endorse Duncan Hunter?
“...67-year-old retiree Burley Dodson said he is supporting Fred Thompson, another struggling Republican candidate, because he feels Thompson is more personable than Hunter...”
Yeah, that’s what really counts, isn’t it? Personality! In that case, Jay Leno should be the frontrunner!
“She’s is at war. We all are, for the survival of this republic.”
Darn straight.
That’s why I do not have any liberal friends. None.
This country is once again at a serious crossroads, and I don’t need to make nice with idiotic fools.
If the “top tier” LIEberal a$$clowns are our only choices, then the GOP is already fractured and become the second DUmocrat party.
No reason Hunter should step aside and endorse a CFR, MFN for China, Clinton-appeasing RINO.
You can’t go wrong if you vote for Sanjaya. LOL
“That’s why I do not have any liberal friends. None.”
I feel your pain! lol....I simply couldn’t suffer the fools any longer. Sadly, the PC mindset applies to most of my family.
“However for the good of the conservative movement and for the good of America, would not it make sense for Hunter to bow out and throw his endorsement to Thompson?”
Thompson is scraping the bottom of the conservative barrel right there with Hunter. On may polls they register the same. Why doesn’t Thompson bow out?
This is a PRIMARY. We will vote the best conservative candidate. That’s what is good for the ‘movement’.
The RINOs are learning real quick that the public wants the issues on the table. At the convention Saturday, Christie Whitman's daughter spoke because she is running for congress. Whitman read close to word for word about Duncan Hunter's plan for employee verification process like she thought it up. Whereas Duncan Hunter has been working on this in the Homeland Security Committee.
Do you remember one of the first debates many months ago when Duncan Hunter referred to some of his fellow candidates as , “THE KENNEDY WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY”?
THAT is why Hunter is out of the media coverage and the debates. He told the truth. CAN’T have that! Not to mention stopping any discussion of China and immigration.
McCain, Huckabee, Rudy....look who they’re giving us...LOOK who the media and globalist pundits are pushing!
I think we should start calling it exactly what it is, don’t you? Hunter, as usual, called it first and called it right.
“THE KENNEDY WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY”
California’s Arnold is certainly a perfect example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUz-AgMGLQA
YouTube - New Hampshire Debate: The Kennedy Wing of the Gop Duncan Hunter Watch video - 1 min 11 sec -
Be sure to read what people say in the comment section when they’re allowed to hear Duncan Hunter.
>>>“He had the exact same chance as Mike Huckabee did to catch on, and he didn’t.”
He did. From BLUE Jersey.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1953008/posts?page=24#24
This is a new analysis of “no Child left behind” and how the candidates feel about it.
Of course the best answer is Hunters:
Would dismantle law’s “expensive and inefficient” mandates. Cosponsored legislation to give each state right to opt out and “assume full responsibility for the educational needs of its students.”
The candidates’ views on No Child Left Behind
January 13, 2008
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080113/NEWS15/80113004/1057/SPORTS09
How long has Mike Huckabee been riding this wave? Not long. There is still time for Duncan Hunter to win.
I still prefer my version of the video:
Compare & Contrast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b81K03dMc98
Worth repeating LOUDLY! and OFTEN!!!!
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