Duncan Hunter Isn't Even Going To Be The Republican Candidate In CA-50

Last year's campaign was fiery-- and so will this cycle's be


Duncan Hunter, a far right congressman from the reddest southern congressional district was one of the first two Republicans in Congress to have endorsed Trump. Like the other one, Chris Collins of New York, Hunter was indicted and arrested on dozens of financial fraud charges, including wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations, and conspiracy. The crux though is that he stole at least $200,000 from his campaign funds and used them for personal expenses including a series of prostitutes and extranmarital affairs. His wife has already plead guilty and has been cooperating with Hunter, who is out on bail. He was hoping to be reelected so that he could use his status as a congressman in a plea deal for a lighter sentence. It doesn't look like he's going get beyond the primary though.

Carl DeMaio had a convincing FEC quarter-- $1,569,929, of which he spent $204,059, leaving $1,205,456. That's a lot more than Duncan Hunter's entire haul for the cycle-- $588,297.97-- and a lot more than Hunter has in his campaign account-- $289,487. State Sen Brian Jones has filed and neither has Darrell Issa, who is independently wealthy and can put as much as he needs into his campaign. When Issa ended his 2018 run he still had an enormous $3,750,024 in his campaign coffers. On the Democratic side, Ammar Campa-Najjar raised another $580,543 in the third quarter and has $852,762 in his war-chest.

Tuesday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the San Diego Republican Party had decided not to endorse Hunter for another term. An endorsement takes a two-thirds majority and none of the candidates came close:

• Carl DeMaio- 21
• Brian Jones- 14
• Hunter- 14
• Darrell Issa- 0

It's the first time in his political career that Duncan Hunter, Jr. didn't get the Republican Party's nomination.

Hunter faces three, high-profile Republican opponents and is preparing for a federal trial on charges of campaign finance violations.

The bi-monthly Republican meeting featured a town hall forum, providing a rare occasion where all four candidates appeared at the same event.

Republican Party Chairman Tony Krvaric moderated the debate, which included opening and closing statements, and he posed five questions to each of the four candidates.

Much of the night centered around Republican unity, with Krvaric reminding candidates several times to “stay positive” and focus on the issues.

“I will not tolerate any beating up of a Republican candidate,” Krvaric said. “To the candidates, we want to hear what makes you different... Do not throw mud at your fellow Republicans in the room.”

The 50th District covers a swath of the county east and north of San Diego, a region previously considered one of California’s most reliably red seats that has shown a strong loyalty to the Hunter name for decades. Hunter is in his sixth two-year term and his father, Duncan L. Hunter Sr., served from 1981 to 2009.

“I’ve been fighting for you for 11 years,” Hunter said to the crowd. “You know where I stand on the issues.”

But Hunter now is considered a vulnerable incumbent. He was victorious against his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, by fewer than 9,000 votes last year-- about 10 weeks after a federal indictment accused him and his wife of illegally spending more than $250,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a trial scheduled for January, weeks before the March primary.

Hunter said he’s ready for the battle.

Even when federal prosecutors “indicted me months before my election and tried to steal my seat, I still won,” he said. “I’m not going to move somewhere and fight for the easy seat... As a United State Marine, what we do is we stand and we fight.”

According to a recent poll, Hunter trails his Republican opponents, with 11 percent of the vote. All four candidates face an uphill climb against Campa-Najjar, who leads the poll with 31 percent.

DeMaio used questions from the forum to highlight many of his five-step plans for the country. He received applause and cheers for his ideas on immigration and supporting President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“We had 39 Republicans cut and run last year,” DeMaio said. “The president needs an entire team who will stand with him and fight, and that is exactly what I plan to do.”

As the host of a daily news and politics radio show, DeMaio already had a platform to advertise his candidacy and a built-in fan base, though it’s unclear how much of that fan base is based in the 50th District. The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA for the Union-Tribune and 10News, shows him leading the GOP candidates with 20 percent.

A crowd of DeMaio supporters lined the parking lot entrance of the hotel, donning “Make America Great Again” hats and waving DeMaio signs at passing cars.

“The energy and enthusiasm of the grass roots movement behind my campaign is undeniable,” DeMaio said.

Issa, a nine-term congressman who represented northern San Diego County for nearly two decades, announced in September his bid for the seat, just after his confirmation to a Trump Administration trade position was stalled by Senate Democrats.

The former congressman does not live in the district, which his opponents were quick to point out, but experts say he has the experience and network to target Hunter’s district.

“I’m not running because this is an easy seat. I’m running because I’m concerned about it,” Issa said. “If Duncan Hunter is able to, quite frankly, survive what he’s facing, then we can have a whole different discussion. But if not, you need a conservative on day one that will do the job.”

Issa was the wealthiest member of Congress during his tenure, with an estimated net worth of $283 million, according to financial disclosure forms he filed while in office. The poll shows him holding 16 percent of the vote.

He appealed directly to the delegates in his closing statement, cautioning them to weigh their endorsement choice carefully.

“You have a seated U.S. congressman who has a stellar voting record. You have a state senator who hasn’t done anything wrong... If the delegates tonight endorse any one of us, they endorse against three of us,” Issa said. “Do you want to really say that Duncan Hunter needs to go?”

It’s unclear if Issa’s plea had an effect on the final vote. The former congressman left before giving his final 10-minute statement to committee members.

...Besides Hunter, Jones is the only GOP candidate who lives within the 50th District, a point he stressed several times during the debate. He served on Santee City Council before moving on to the Assembly and then State Senate this year.

He received the most support from the crowd when speaking about gun rights and abortion.

Ending the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade is “one of the most important issues to save America and make it great again,” Jones said.

Last cycle, the race was incredibly close, especially for a district where Trump had beaten Hillary 54.6% to 39.6%.

Aside From Nancy Pelosi, Who Thinks Congress Needs More Clueless Multimillionaires Buying House Seats?

I'm afraid that if Pelosi stays on as House Democratic Leader for another decade-- she'd only be 87, barely older than DiFi when she starts her next 6-year Senate term-- there will be no Democratic members of Congress who aren't multimillionaires. Pelosi's net worth is around $192 million. She likes-- and encourages-- candidates like what she sees in the mirror to run as Democrats. There are at least 5 Democrats in the House in that same super-duper-rich category-- Jared Polis (New Dem-CO- $476 million), John Delaney (New Dem-MD- $369 million), Scott Peters (New Dem-CA- $118.3 million), Suzan DelBene (New Dem-WA- $97.3 million), and Don Beyer (New Dem-VA- $79.8 million). Will you look at that! A bunch of conservatives from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- at least when it comes to economic issues. Multimillionaires tend to be that way. All these sickening New Dems who play footsie with the Republicans and the same corrupting elements who fund the Republicans.

But it's the crappy candidates Pelosi has the DCCC recruiting that get me going. I never saw so many multimillionaires running as I have this year. I want to throw up. See the nice "I'm Running!" video up top-- like from an undergraduate communications class? That was released yesterday by Sara Jacobs, the self-entitled heiress to the Qualcomm fortune. And there's already a completely pointless multimillionaire in that race, Paul Kerr, a crony of one of California's worst (and richest) members, Scott Peters, who persuaded him to run. This is a district where the incredible grassroots work by Doug Applegate and his team last year exposed how weak Darrell Issa is-- and nearly beat him. The final vote wasn't declared 'til January-- last in the nation-- and Issa squeaked through 155,888 (50.3%) to 154,267 (49.7%). So Applegate announced he would finish what he started in 2016. But a vile gaggle of predatory super-rich scumbags, like Peters, started telling their friends it would be easy to roll over Applegate and then let the wave sweep them to victory against Issa with no real effort. Worst of all is Pelosi crony Ira Lechner, a failed Virginia political hack who persuaded one of his pals, Mike Levin-- who never lifted a finger against Issa previously-- to jump in, promising him that a thuggish political operative in Pasasda, Park Skelton, could "deliver" Pelosi and force Applegate out of the race. None of these people were in the Marines and don't understand that you don't "roll over" or "force" a Marine colonel, which is what today's frontrunner, Doug Applegate, is. So now, you have a totally spoiled heiress-- another one who has absolutely nothing to do with the district and still lives in Brooklyn with a bunch of hipsters-- jumping in too. Consultants are getting incredibly rich over the Southern California cash cows they milking for all they're worth.

The plague of Pelosi's ridiculous multimillionaire menagerie gets worse as you travel around Orange County. After recruiting several shady characters to run against Dana Rohrabacher, the DCCC decided their favorite is Hans Keirstead, an immensely wealthy Canadian stem cell businessman with no knowledge of politics or anything else beyond how grateful the residents of coastal Orange County should be that he's decided to represent him. He looks good on paper, but completely flopped as a candidate. Other than the people on his payroll, no one likes him at all. But the DCCC had already chased a bunch of multimillionaires who live in the district out to run in other districts. The silliest one of all is Gil Cisneros, the "ex"-Republican Frito-Lay's potato-chip taster who won $266 million in a lottery and has been bribing lowlife Democrats in Congress to endorse him. Does that ever reek of Pelosi! So here's a guy living in a $10 million dollar beachfront mansion in Rohrabacher's district-- with all Republican instincts-- who the DCCC persuaded to run in Ed Royce's district. They also talked a wealthy doctor, Mai-Khanh Tran, also a CA-48 resident, to run in CA-39 too. That one was hilarious because one of the DCCC brain surgeons figured she would do well because CA-39 has lots of Asians, not understanding that Dr. Tran is Vietnamese and that the whole Vietnamese community lives in CA-48, not CA-39, which is heavily Chinese. And then there's another very wealthy guy-- who plunked down $2 million on the day he jumped into the race-- Andy Thornburn, who also lives in CA-48 but is running in CA-39. At least he's an independent operator and not part of the Pelosi/DCCC posse.

As though this wasn't funny enough, some super-rich attorney, Omar Siddiqui actually does live in CA-39... but he's not running there. A self-described "Reagan Democrat," he says he admires CA-39 incumbent, Republican Ed Royce (a far right bigot) too much to run against him so he went in the opposite direction and is running against Rohrabacher instead. Rohrabacher, though doesn't just have the clueless Keirstead, who was, of course, endorsed by the New Dems, trying to win the Democratic nomination to take him on. He also has to contend with a Keirstead type, but with a bit of personality to make of for Hans' total lack of any, Harley Rouda, another multimillionaire (and ex-Republican), also endorsed by the New Dems. Sounds like a circus, right? Good news in that district-- and easy to remember: vote for the woman. Laura Oatman, a middle class architect who's actually from the district, is a long-time activist and an actual progressive.

OK, I'm exhausted now, and you must be too. So I won't go through every damn district from coast to coast where Pelosi and her minions are recruiting these abominable multimillionaire zombies. But let me leave you with just one more clean across the country-- in Maine, but not in the richie-rich southeast coastal Maine district (Portland) but in the totally blue collar part of Maine where the last thing the folks want is some phony baloney rich kid who's mommy, Roxanne Quimby from Burt's Bees, wants him to run because... well, just because. And this guy, Lucas St. Clair, is tight with the Maine donor elite headed by Pelosi-super-donor hedge fund billionaire and slum lord Donald Sussman, former husband of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. The folks in ME-02 hate nothing more than being told how to live their lives by the rich folks in Portland. And there's a solid blue collar candidate in the race too, Maine House Majority Whip Jared Golden, a Marine Vet and and an "of the people" kind of guy, who St Clair hopes to bury under a flood of Burt's Bees and Maine Donor Table money. The only chance Bruce Poliquin, the Republican incumbent, has of being reelected would be if Pelosi can somehow get St. Clair the nomination. But even the DCCC now realizes she's flipped her lid and is trying to keep her from screwing up a good thing in Maine.