‘The Right Thing to Do’

Duncan Hunter’s announcement surprised even his own supporters. On Monday, the California Republican Congressman who chairs the House Armed Services Committee declared his plans to run for president in 2008. At a news conference on San Diego's waterfront before about 100 supporters, many of them waving American flags, Hunter, 58, who’s represented parts of San Diego County in for 26 years, said, “it is going to be a long road, it's a challenging road, there's going to be some rough and tumble, but I think it's the right thing to do for our country.”

Some analysts are calling his announcement—a week before the midterm elections—ill timed and his bid a long shot. But Hunter, a resolute supporter of the war in Iraq and the most conservative in a GOP presidential field that to date is identified by more moderate contenders like John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani, thinks he has as good a chance as anyone. Successful or not, Hunter’s presidential campaign promises to be neither nuanced nor nebulous.

The veteran pol, who’s expected to easily win re-election to Congress next week but could still lose his position as House Armed Services chair if Democrats take control of the House, has been an outspoken champion of the military since arriving on the Hill in 1981. A decorated Vietnam veteran whose son served in Iraq, Hunter recently lashed out at CNN for airing a video depicting the death of an American soldier provided by an Iraqi insurgent group. He also once said that Congress was spending too much time investigating the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison.

Hunter, a hardliner on border and illegal immigration issues, co-authored the 700-mile border fence bill, which President Bush recently signed. He’s forming an exploratory committee of friends and advisors that will determine if he can raise the kind of money needed for a presidential campaign. But Hunter has plenty of friends with deep pockets; his benefactors include virtually the entire defense industry, including some of the same military contractors and lobbyists embroiled in the ongoing scandal surrounding his longtime friend and former fellow San Diego-area Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham.