(Las Vegas, NV).......Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter was featured in a front-page article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper written by veteran reporter Molly Ball. The article detailed Hunter's visit to the city and the reception he received while in her town.
Ball talked to one woman who listened to a Hunter presentation. Audience member Jean Heatherly, a 63-year-old retiree, said she had thought her favorite Republican candidate was the former Massachusetts governor, but had changed her mind. She took an online quiz that disclosed her views to be more in-line with Hunter's. "He's got great ideas," especially on immigration," Heatherly said. "I just like everything about him." Asked whether she thought Hunter had a chance to win, she paused and said, "I think he's got a lot of hard work ahead of him."
Hard work is what Hunter is all about. Fresh out of Viet Nam where he served as a U.S. Army Ranger and faced with impossible odds in his first campaign, Hunter defeated a seasoned incumbent to win his house seat. He has had opposition in virtually every campaign and has had to work hard drafting and driving needed legislation. In this campaign he is literally going day and night, and his schedule looks like a page from a big-city telephone directory. His personal time has been reduced, yet he is vigilant about his Congressional duties, constituents, and obligations. His speeches in Iowa were well received and he picked up a lot of campaign volunteers there. He told Ball that he is still energized by strong finishes in earlier straw polls in Arizona and South Carolina. Ball was quick to point out Hunter's eighth place finish in the Iowa straw poll. Over the weekend, she wrote, "Hunter came in third-to-last of 11 candidates in the Ames, Iowa , Republican straw poll. Out of more than 14,000 votes, he pulled 174," she noted.
"I think we did very well," said Hunter. "Our showing was still impressive because we didn't pay voters' $35 entry fees to the event, as many other campaigns did. My candidacy is distinguished from the rest of the field by my stances on immigration and trade." Ball reported that, "Hunter vigorously opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement and similar treaties. He says he wants to restore America's manufacturing base. 'It's a myth that the Republican Party embraces free trade,' Hunter said. 'The multinational companies do, but the middle class, the heart of the Republican Party, does not."
Ball moved Hunter back to the immigration issue. She reported that, "In 1994, Hunter proposed the legislation that built a 14-mile fence along 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." Hunter has proposed a provision that would build 854 more miles of fencing along the other parts of the Southern border that he says are "smuggling corridors." If elected, he said, he would get the fence built within six months.
At a lunch at Sunset Station in Henderson that was a fundraiser for local Republican clubs, Hunter said he does not favor allowing illegal immigrants currently living in the United States to stay permanently or become citizens. "You have to follow the law," he said. "For the people that say we can't deport these illegal immigrants... we deport thousands of people every month from this country."
Hunter added that visas for highly educated foreigners shouldn't be expanded, because those people could do more good helping to improve their native countries.
Ball noted what she calls, "Something Hunter didn't mention in his Nevada appearances. It was his opposition to 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." Ball asked Hunter about this issue. "Hunter said his opposition is to the 'proliferation and expansion' of Indian casinos. Although his Web site says gambling 'is equally deserving of as much attention in terms of federal policy' as illegal drugs, he said he is a states' rights conservative who wouldn't attempt to ban gambling on the federal level." Ball's article ran with a full color photograph of Hunter speaking at an event in Las Vegas. The article and photo can be seen on www.review-journal.com
Ping your lists
Ping!