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.
DH Ping
I want him to hang in there too.
I don’t get this.
You’ve got to play a bad guitar to win?
Average America is just plain goofy!
Huck is on Meet the press right now, sounding just like Hunter on unfair trade. UGH!!!
Its just an attempt to demoralize his supporters and its pathetic.
“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.”
“doubts he can win”
It’s a Primary for cryin’ out loud. If you like the guy, you believe in what he says, You believe he’d make a great President then VOTE FOR HIM.
It’s not hard to understand. He has a mission. That is what his supporters see that others don’t.
““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.”
She’s is at war. We all are, for the survival of this republic.
Show me the so called Charisma of the other candidates.
He does have charisma. Compared to Fred, Mitt and McCain, he has it in spades.
“Its just an attempt to demoralize his supporters and its pathetic.”
There’s lots of that going around. Remember, this article is by the San Diego Union Trib. where the incumbent Hunter first ran against and beat now works. Every rumor about Hunter has come from this source, all debunked.
When people pick their candidate by their record and the issues, Hunter comes out on top every time.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/race_stats.php?race_id=13
Since Hunter is not an America-hating pro-illegal liberal, the MSM (incl Fox) are not going to give him attention.
Anyone who thinks it takes charisma to be successful in this election cycle must not be aware that Hitlery Clinton and John McAmnesty seem to be media favorites without any sense of charisma
I missed that debate too, but Nixon was elected twice after that debate so there goes that theory.
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.
How about some Chinese-made poisoned toothpaste, toxic petfood, or lead-laden toys for the grand kids???
DUmbass says not interested in Hunter's issues, then goes on to list them....must be fun to walk through life with BLINDERS on!
Now that he is being shut out of the debates, there is no way Duncan Hunter can be successful as a candidate.
He had the exact same chance as Mike Huckabee did to catch on, and he didn’t.
There is no law against running a losing campaign, and Duncan Hunter seems to be enjoying himself anyway.
ROFL
That’s where all the other candidates get their talking points.
From Duncan Hunter
Speaking of guitar...
They’re all stealing his licks!
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