Rep. Hunter faces growing field as felony trial closes in
GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter is still in Congress, but a growing number of San Diego Republicans are betting that the scandalplagued politician won’t be there for long.
Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego councilman and current conservative radio talk show host, has become the fifth Republican to challenge Hunter in the 2020 primary, painting himself as an alternative to “ineffective career politicians.”
“Too many Californians are fleeing our state because of the extreme socialist agenda being imposed on us by Democrat politicians, but I refuse to flee: I choose to stand and fight,” he said in a statement on his campaign website.
But while DeMaio and the other GOP chal
lengers talk about how they will battle Hunter in California’s March primary, most of them don’t expect the race to come to that. In August 2018, Hunter was indicted on 60 felony counts involving his alleged misuse of $250,000 in campaign funds.
The congressman, whose father held the same seat from 19812009, will be seeking his sixth term in office next year. But he is now scheduled to go to court next month in a trial that could end his political career.
That trial might never happen. In June, federal prosecutors said the trial would include testimony about the congressman’s “intimate personal activities unrelated to Hunter’s congressional campaign or duties as a member of Congress,” where he allegedly spent campaign funds. Those activities, prosecutors said, involved five women, including three lobbyists, a GOP staff member and a woman who worked in his Washington, D.C., office.
The court filing was widely seen as an attempt to show Hunter that prosecutors are planning to play hardball and convince him he would be better off taking a plea deal that almost certainly would require him to resign his seat in Congress.
GOP leaders in Congress already have removed Hunter from all his committee seats, leaving him with few actual duties in the House.
If Hunter accepts a plea deal, it could lead to a special election for the remainder of his term.
“For too long, the 50th Congressional District has not been represented by someone who can effectively advocate for them without being distracted by scandal,” DeMaio said.
While DeMaio’s radio show and his role as founder and head of Reform California, a conservative antitax group, has given him plenty of visibility, he hasn’t been able to convert that into political success.
The organization has won some local initiative battles and led the successful 2018 effort to recall Democratic state Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton (Orange County), but it lost a highprofile 2018 effort to repeal California’s gas tax increase.
DeMaio also lost a 2012 race for mayor of San Diego and was beaten by Democratic Rep. Scott Peters in a 2014 run for a San Diegoarea seat in Congress.
Ammar CampaNajjar, a Democrat who lost a surprisingly close race to Hunter last year, said DeMaio’s entry into the race shows that “the number of Republicans who have lost faith in Congressman Hunter continues to grow.”
The Democrat already has about $480,000 in the bank for a planned 2020 rematch against Hunter, who has just under $300,000 available for his reelection campaign.
Other Republicans who have filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to challenge Hunter include Sam Abed, former mayor of Escondido (San Diego County); City Councilman Matt Rahn of Temecula (Riverside County); Bill Wells, mayor of El Cajon (San Diego County); and Larry Wilske, a former Navy SEAL.