Yesterday’s Washington Times headline, "Hunter’s son to run for dad’s seat," kind of missed the point. We already knew that.
Considering the story’s lede clearly points it out, a more appropo headline might have been, "Hunter’s son to run for dad’s seat from combat zone."
As Duncan Duane Hunter told me, "I found out recently that I might be called back to active duty in the Marine Corps and I might deploy this year to Iraq or Afghanistan. This is not affecting my plans on running for Congress, in fact it reinforces my desire to serve the people of San Diego supporting our President and troops in this time of war. If deployed, I will run for office as an active duty Marine serving a combat tour…it will be interesting."
Interesting, to say the least. As one local consultant put it, "If there are a dozen GOP candidates he can win from his fox hole with 15 percent of the vote…especially in that district. Ten percent of the voters will think he is the incumbent and another 5-10 percent will vote for him for being in Iraq."
To be fair, the unnamed consultant also added, "But time will tell."
Yes, time. Along with exposure, a great equalizer in politics.
As I will be doing with anyone running — or talking about running — for the 52nd Congressional, I’ll be catching up with Duncan D. this week with some specific questions about his prospects.
In the meantime, what are your thoughts about a "combat zone campaign for Congress"? Post a comment, or email me here.