Rep. Duncan Hunter's chances of hanging on to his seat may go up in smoke

Long article with comments from interview. Looks like his fate depends on the outcome of the DOJ ethics investigation.






Rep. Duncan Hunter's chances of hanging on to his seat may go up in smoke

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/11/politics/duncan-hunter-doj-campaign-spending/index.html


By Maeve Reston, CNN

Updated 6:01 AM ET, Wed April 11, 2018
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Santee, California (CNN)California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter's devil-may-care attitude has been a good fit for parts of his rural and suburban San Diego County district for about a decade, matching the Wild West ethos and anti-government bent of his constituents.



Some voters found it amusing when Hunter exhaled plumes of smoke from his vape pen during two congressional committee hearings to protest a proposed ban on e-cigarettes on planes. They shrugged off the eye-popping bar tabs that appeared on his past Federal Election Commission filings. When the congressman, who was one of the first House members to endorse then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, made the aggressive suggestion that the US should pre-emptively strike North Korea, it was excused by some voters as the blunt talk of a hard-charging former Marine.

.........................there is growing unease among Republican voters about Hunter and the Department of Justice investigation into his campaign spending, which has stretched for more than a year............................


................The cloud of suspicion around Hunter, and the huge amount that he's been forced to spend on legal bills, has buoyed Democratic hopes in the 50th District, even though Trump trounced Hillary Clinton here by 15 points.
Hunter's two most formidable Democratic challengers -- former Navy SEAL Josh Butner and Ammar Campa-Najjar, who was a Department of Labor aide in the Obama administration -- believe Hunter's legal entanglements, the growth of the Latino population here and the influx of younger military families have changed the calculus..............................

The California secretary of state has now certified the list of candidates for the June 5 primary, meaning that if Hunter were indicted in the middle of this election year, the only path for another well-known Republican -- such as retiring Rep. Darrell Issa -- to replace him would be a write-in candidacy, according to state officials. Even if Hunter were to resign, the only way to remove his name from the ballot would be a court order..................................

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