Rep. Duncan Hunter hardly registers in polls. But his backers say the San Diego County, Calif., congressman's resume and record on illegal immigration deserve more attention than they have received from the media and voters.
BIRTHDAY: May 31, 1948 (59) HOMETOWN: Riverside, Calif. RELIGION: Baptist
FAMILY: Married to the former Lynne Layh, 1973; two sons, Duncan Duane and Sam
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree and law degree, both in 1976, Western State University College of Law (now Thomas Jefferson School of Law)
EXPERIENCE: Vietnam veteran; practicing attorney, 1976-1980; U.S. congressman from California, 1981-present
YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW: He just finished rebuilding his East San Diego County home, which burned down in an October 2003 wildfire.
CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL WEB SITE WWW.GOHUNTER08.COM
DECISION TO RUN:
The former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee believes the time is right for a political veteran whose career has been made on issues of national defense to run for president.
MAJOR THEMES:
Calls for a strong national defense and "enforceable borders." Favors deporting millions living in the United States illegally. "For the people that say we can't deport these people, we deport thousands of people every month from this country." Says he differs from the Republican field by opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement and similar treaties. "It's a myth that the Republican Party embraces free trade. The multinational companies do."
IN NEVADA:
Has no official campaign presence in the state, but has visited Nevada several times.
IN THE POLLS
NATIONALLY
When national polls do list Hunter, he is consistently in the low single-digits among Republicans.
NEVADA
A Dec. 9 Review-Journal poll of likely caucus-goers showed Hunter with 2 percent of the vote.
POSITIONS
WAR/NATIONAL SECURITY
Says we must remain in Iraq until Iraqi troops are trained well enough to win the war against insurgents.
HEALTH CARE
Says current law requires individuals and small businesses to purchase health care plans offered in their state of residency, holding customers hostage to state legislators and regulators who impose sometimes costly mandates. As a result, an individual policy can cost more than $6,000 in one state and less than $2,000 in another, he says. If people were allowed to buy insurance across state lines, the price would go down, he says.
IMMIGRATION
In 1994, Hunter proposed legislation that led to construction of a 14-mile fence on the California-Mexico border. Hunter says the double fence with a high-speed road in between, dramatically reduced the smuggling of people and illegal drugs and cut the crime rate in San Diego. He proposes 854 more miles of fencing that he says would be built within six months of his being elected president.
NEVADA ISSUES
Opposes gambling, which he calls on his campaign Web site "a serious problem in today's society, every much as addictive and destructive as alcohol and illegal drugs." Also, in 2006 he supported federal funding for a Web site promoting Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the site for a nuclear waste repository.
ENERGY
During a May Republican debate, Hunter said: "We should bring together all of our colleges, the private sector, government laboratories and undertake what will be a great challenge to remove energy dependence on the Middle East. ... We need to take taxes down to zero for the alternative energy sources. We need to make sure that all the licensing from our laboratories goes to the American manufacturing sector for these energy systems."
TAXES
Believes reform of the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, is the most pressing tax issue facing Americans. Lawmakers hoped the AMT would guarantee high-income Americans pay at least a minimum amount of taxes. But the tax, created in 1969, was not indexed for inflation, forcing more Americans to pay it as incomes rise.
CRITICS
His campaign has been ridiculed for not being visible enough to break into the top tier of candidates. He was demoted from lightweight to "flyweight" among the Republican field by MSNBC.com.
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