Duncan Hunter Presidential Candidates 08'

Duncan Lee Hunter.... Born May 31, 1948 is a Republican member of the House of Representatives from California's 52nd Congressional District in northern and eastern San Diego. during the 109th congress he served as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. His son, Duncan D. Hunter is an Iraq war veteran and is currently a candidate for his congressional seat in 08.

Hunter enlisted in the United States Army and served in VietNam. Afterwards he enrolled in the Thomas Jefferson School of Law utilizing the GI Bill and earned a BSL and JD in 1976. Hunter worked farming and construction jobs to supplement his income while finishing his degree. After graduation, he opened a storefront legal office where he often provided free legal assistance to the area's Hispanic community. He was admitted to State Bar of California in 1976, but has held inactive status since 1983, and may not currently practice law in California. Inactive members have chosen this status voluntarily and may transfer to active at any time upon request. 

Hunter married the former Lynne Layh in 1973. Hunter's son, Duncan Duane Hunter, a First Lieutenant in the US Marines, was deployed to Iraq in 2003. Hunter has another son, Samuel. His family attends first Baptist Church of Alpine, which is affiliated with the San Diego Southern Baptist Association. Hunter's Alpine home burned down during the  2003 Cedar Fire. The loss topped $500,000, but insurance covered most of it.

Hunter became chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in 2002. As such, he has sponsored legislation authorizing defense department fiscal year activities from FY2004 to FY2007. During consideration of the FY2006 Defense Authorization Act, Hunter offered an amendment to the bill clarifying enacted policy restricting women from direct combat units. According to The new York Times, Hunter's efforts would have "barred women from nearly 22,000 jobs.

Hunter introduced H.R. 552, The Right to Life Act, on February 2, 2005. The purpose of the bill is to "implement equal protection ... for the right to life of each born and preborn human person." In the 109th Congress, the legislation collected 101 cosponsors.  Hunter states that The Right to Life Act "would legally define “personhood” as the moment of conception and, therefore, guarantee all constitutional rights and protections, including life, to the unborn without utilizing a constitutional amendment."

On April 28, 2004, Hunter introduced legislation that he said could "turn parents into prosecuting attorneys fighting a wave of obscenity." HR 6390 IH, also called the "Parents Empowerment Act", would allow the parent or guardian of a minor to sue in federal court anyone who knowingly disseminates material "that is harmful to minors", or specifically, "any pornographic communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing, or other pornographic matter of any kind",  if it is distributed in a way that "a reasonable person can expect a substantial number of minors to be exposed to the material and the minor, as a result to exposure to the material, is likely to suffer personal or emotional injury or injury to mental or moral welfare."

In 1994, Hunter legislatively mandated the construction of 14 miles of security fencing on the international land border separating San Diego County and Tijuana, Mexico.

Hunter has repeatedly voted against  NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO. He contends that free trade policies directly impact America's manufacturing base and contribute to the country's trade deficit. Hunter cites that China has a 17% subsidy for its manufacturers, a 17% tax on U.S. imports, and the Chinese devalue  their currency at 40 percent, making Chinese goods cheaper and leaving U.S. manufacturers at a 74% disadvantage.

In November of 2004, Hunter and  Congressman Sensenbrenner withheld their support for a bill creating a National Intelligence Director until specific conditions were met. Hunter argued that the military is the biggest consumer of intelligence and any reforms enacted, including the creation of a DNI, must not endanger the lives of troops on the battlefield. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act was passed by congress and signed into law later that year.

In 2006, Hunter earned an "environmental harm demerit" from the conservative watchdog group Republicans for Environmental Protection for "efforts to downsize Channel Islands National Park by seeking to transfer Santa Rosa Island to the Department of Defense. The organization assigned Hunter an exceptionally low score of -4 for that year, indicating anti-environment action on 10 out of 12 issues deemed critical; however, REP did recognize the representative for voting in favor of designating wilderness areas areas in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire.

On November 18 2005, in response to Congressman John Murtha's resolution to terminate the deployment of United States forces in Iraq, to redeploy the forces already involved in Iraq, and to "pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy," Hunter and other Republicans drafted a two-sentence counter-resolution which read:

Democrats condemned the bill as a political stunt; they made much of the fact that Hunter himself didn't support his own resolution. The bill was defeated, 403-3, in the House of Representatives.

As of July 4, 2007, Hunter had missed 190 votes (31.4%) during the 110th Congress; when he voted, he voted with a majority of the Republicans 88.7% of the time. On March 20th of 2007, he announced that he would officially retire from Congress at the end of the session.

There was a noted discrepancy reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune concerning the size of Hunter's home as it was listed on the tax rolls. It was apparently listed as a two-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home with 2,946 sq. feet, but was actually 6 bedrooms and 6,200 sq. feet. That discrepancy led to Hunter paying significantly less taxes than other similar sized property owners. His response was that all he knew was what the county gave him....the house in question was burned to the ground during the wildfires and the assessment is still being disputed.

Duncan Hunter would like to see Roe v Wade repealed, voted no to expanding stem cell research, supports a balanced budget, supports amendment banning same sex marriage, supports making Patriot Act permanent, supports banning gay adoptions, voted No on $84 Million dollars in grants to Black and Hispanic colleges, supports vouchers, supports mandatory testing in school, voted NO on removing oil & gas exploration subsidies, voted YES on authorizing construction of new oil refineries, is against signing Kyoto, voted against increasing Amtrak funding, voted YES on reforming the UN by restricting US funding, voted NO on protecting whistle blowers from employer recrimination, is Pro-gun rights, voted YES on allowing electronic surveillance without a warrant, voted YES on continuing military recruitment on college campuses, would keep rule barring immigrants from running for president, voted against minimum wage increase. Hunter also believes pre-emptive tactical nukes are ok if Iran keeps centrifuges and that Iran's behavior gives the United States license to act. He also voted against providing $70 Million in Section 8 housing vouchers.