Duncan Hunter Ends Campaign
- Posted by Beth on January 19th, 2008 filed in 2008 election, Candidates, Duncan Hunter, Politics
So far, I’ve only seen it at CNN’s Political Ticker, but they quoted Hunter himself.
“Today we end this campaign. The Nevada caucuses reflecting only 2 percent of the vote for me. I ran the campaign exactly the way I wanted to, and at this point not being able to gain traction in conservative states of Nevada and South Carolina, it’s time to allow our volunteers and supporters to focus on the campaigns that remain viable,” he said.
Well, it was bound to happen. It’s a shame that a candidate like Hunter doesn’t do better in the primaries, because you see everywhere people saying “I like Duncan Hunter, but he has no chance.” It was true.
Thank you, Rep. Hunter, for a clean campaign and for allowing people to hear about important issues in the debates.
Lance says:
Alright, already, I’ll comment, sheesh!!
Yeah I like him too & he seemed like one of the good guys with good conservative values & someone with some integrity, unlike you know who!!
I wonder if he would be a good VP to Fred?? I don’t really know that much ’bout him.
Cheers,……….. political dummy Lance
PaulW says:
Now, if only the *other* 2 percenter Giuliani can take a hint and go… away…
Oh sweet Lord. Pardon my Swedish. But how can a guy keep getting flattened like Rudy keeps getting in each primary/caucus to date… and still get treated like a bleeping front-runner?!?! Just buy a clue, MSM, Giuliani is pulling lower numbers than Dr. Doom… uh Dr. Paul! Sheesh.
salfter says:
Aw, crap…right after I voted for him in the Nevada caucus this morning, too. I even put in a few words on his behalf that were well-received. That the people sitting around me hadn’t even heard of him couldn’t have been a good sign, though.
What really scares me is that, according to the billboards along the 215 as I was heading home this evening, that bastard Ron Paul is in 2nd…14% vs. 51% for Mitt Romney), but there are a few things you should know about where the results came from.
I showed up at Chaparral High School (one of the local caucus sites) and followed everyone else to the lunchroom. It was a bit of a mob scene in there, witb a fair number of people getting in line who didn’t really need to get in line. Precincts were assigned to classrooms on a poster that was far smaller than it should’ve been.
Once I knew where my precinct was supposed to meet, I went upstairs to the appropriate classroom. Three precincts (two smaller ones and a larger one) were assigned to the same room; I think the larger precinct was supposed to be in the room next door, but it was locked.
I think the plan was that each group of precincts in a classroom was to be self-organizing; fortunately, someone decided to take charge of running the show and was elected chairman on a voice vote.
You might think the next move would be to figure out where everybody stood in terms of support for a particular candidate. Instead, they went straight into the selection of delegates for the county convention in April.
For the first two (including mine), that ended up being rather uncontroversial. The first precinct had three delegates and some number of alternates to apportion among four people who showed up. One volunteered to be an alternate; the rest ended up as delegates by default. For the second district, 12 people showed up. Four delegate slots were available; four people (including me) volunteered. The alternates were available to whoever wanted them, whether they were from my precinct or in the third, larger precinct that followed.
For the third and largest precinct, 32 people showed up and 12 people volunteered for nine delegate slots. They went to the head of the class and explained their positions on the issues. While only two identified themselves explicitly as in favor of particular candidates (one for Fred Thompson, one for Mitt Romney), the language, demeanor, and dress of most of the Ronulans gave them away. After three rounds of votes, the 12 were whittled down to 9.
It was only after delegate selection was complete that people could speak up for the candidates. The Ronulans had their say first; fortunately, there was a vigorous rebuttal from the rest of us. In particular, since one of them tried to pass off Ron Paul as a fiscal conservative, I brought up the F grade the Club for Growth gave him for the hundreds of earmarks that had his name on them last year (among other things). Others spoke up for Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Fred Thompson; as I mentioned earlier, I put in a few good words for Duncan Hunter. I didn’t have prepared remarks, but half-stammered through a couple of minutes on defense, immigration control, and protecting our industrial base. It was apparently good enough for some applause, and one of the Fredheads had some comments in his favor.
As it turned out, three of the nine delegates selected earlier for the large precinct turned out to be Ronulans. :-( In my own precinct, I think one of the other delegates was a Romney supporter. I don’t know about the other two, but I don’t think there were any Ronulans among us; I think they were mostly confined to the larger precinct.
Yellow ballots had been handed out to everybody with the candidates’ names and circles to fill in. Nobody bothered to mention that the votes for each precinct were supposed to be counted separately. Since we had three precincts, this obviously caused a problem…all of the ballots had been collected, and none indicated the precincts with which they were associated. The Donks were getting impatient to take over the school (our caucus started at 9; theirs started at 11), so there was a bit of a mad rush to get replacement ballots that everyone could fill out.
The results from these ballots are what you’re seeing talked about in the news. I wouldn’t read too much into the numbers, as they’re little more than chew toys for the drive-by media. While there is a pesky Ronulan insurgency that’s apparently bent on taking over the Nevada GOP (the bastards have been running radio ads for months, got their minions to show up for the caucus, and apparently tried to take over the county party just the other day), there’s still an opportunity to smack them down at the county convention in a few months’ time.
Duncan Hunter is, as Sean Hannity would say, a great American. I’d speak up for him again if the opportunity presented itself. Since he’s decided to bow out, I guess that means it’s time to line up behind one of the remaining candidates. I have a list of candidates and the order in which they’re preferred, and Fred Thompson is next on the list. I guess that makes me a Fredhead now. :-)
raz0r says:
Shame he didn’t get traction. But no one knew he was, or rather took the time to find out who was running and what they stood for. He’s a real solid conservative, kind of candidate the Republican party needs.
PK says:
Crap. Move over. Looks like I’m joining team Fred.