Duncan D. Hunter, son of Congressman Duncan Hunter, is placing his likely-to-be campaign in absentia for dad’s seat in the capable hands of Gilliard Blanning Wysocki & Associates.
In case you missed the absentia part, Duncan D. announced last week he is being reactivated by the Marines and deployed to the Middle East. He plans to campaign for the seat while gone.
For those who ask how one can run a competitive campaign for Congress while serving in Iraq, the response is simple — you may need a better understanding of this staunchly conservative, pro-military East SD County District.
As far as the legality of running while on active duty, which caused some blog-fodder last week (see the Hatch Act), Duncan D. continues to say that this has all been checked out with the Marine Corps and DoD. New Hunter consultant Dave Gilliard also says, "We have checked out all the rules and we will be OK."
As far as other potential candidates, the list could be long — and I believe shorter if Duncan D. does run (sounds like he’s running!) — but no formal announcements at this point. Names mentioned include Mark Larson, Jay La Suer, Steve Baldwin, Joel Anderson, Jan Goldsmith, Charlene Zettel, Dennis Hollingsworth, Eric Roach, Ken King, Brian Maienschein, Jim Madaffer, Bob Watkins, Mark Price and a few others.
My take: The list dwindles if Duncan D. is in it. La Suer and Larson are absolutely out in that case…they are close to the Hunters. Count Baldwin the same. This is not enough of Hollingsworth’s base Riverside district for him to take it seriously. Goldsmith and Zettel may have been away from the fray too long, but Charlene may be considering the "lone female" aspect. The City of SD guys (Brian and Jim) would get their teeth handed to them in a coffee mug in East County. And, the well-heeled lookers (Eric, Ken?) better think about this seriously, prior to moving roots.
Too fun. Your thoughts?
April 17th, 2007 at 12:00 am
There is probably also a danger for a potential challenger that if they got too strong, too early at that point Hunter could change his mind and jump back in except for a very ticked off incumbent congressman. That will probably freeze people for some time and slow down potential challengers.
On the other hand, there are many cases of sons unsuccessfully trying to follow in their fathers footsteps (in my observations both from personal experience and from studying results throughout the country over the last twenty years, they come up short much more often than they make it) so I would assume that with consultants looking for paying clients and encouraging those same potential challengers, you would have a hot and heavy primary with a bunch of candidates, especially as I said before with the term limits era leaving a lot of politicians without an obvious job to jump to and reapportionment having made this a safe seat for the winner. Although legislative seats are nice, the perks of congressional seats along with the decent pay make those jobs just incredible and most politicians will be drawn to even a long shot chance at one of those seats like moths to a flame. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.