They might have had a way out of this.

San Diego Republican leaders were presented with a backup plan earlier this year in case Rep. Duncan Hunter got indicted, but they balked.

As the investigation into the misuse of campaign funds by Hunter and his wife, Margaret, ground on, El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells entered the the congressional race this year not so much to offer himself as a Republican alternative, but as a fail-safe option.

Under California’s primary system, the two candidates with the most votes advance to the November general election, regardless of party affiliation. It was more than plausible that both Hunter and Wells could have won in the super-red 50th Congressional District that covers large swaths of east and north inland San Diego County and part of southern Riverside County.


If Hunter went down, Republicans could turn to Wells.

But Hunter’s father, former Rep. Duncan Hunter, pressured potential contributors not to donate to Wells, effectively drying up his funding. Republican leaders appeared to stay out of it.

It might not have taken a lot to get Wells on the November ballot with Hunter. The incumbent finished first in the June 5 primary with 47.3 percent of the vote. Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar finished second with 17.8 percent, trailed by Wells with 13 percent.

“If they had put up a little effort, or at least not blocked me as hard, I think we would have saved the seat for the Republicans,” Wells said Tuesday.


Wells still thought Hunter had a shot of winning in November and emphasized that he deserves his day in court. If Hunter wins and is convicted and has to step down, Wells said he would run again.

Now there’s no way to get another Republican on the November ballot. Under the top-two primary system, write-in candidates are only allowed in the primary, not in the general election, so that’s not an option. Even if Hunter resigned between now and November, his name would remain on the ballot, unless ordered off by a court for some reason.

In any event, Campa-Najjar may have advanced to the fall even with a more robust Wells campaign. He’s not the kind of sacrificial Democrat that typically has run against either Hunter in the past. Campa-Najjar, a former public-affairs official in the Obama administration’s Labor Department, is a new generation Democrat who leans progressive but has a pragmatic streak necessary to run in a heavily Republican District.

Importantly, he has raised a lot of money, is articulate on the stump and waged a serious campaign. He began attracting support from outside groups and is certain to get a lot more help from the national Democratic Party this fall.


This is a potential bonus district for the Democrats. Of the California Republican districts the Democratic Party initially believed it needed to win in order to gain the majority in the House of Representatives, the 50th wasn’t one of them.

“I would think the (Democratic National Committee) is licking its chops,” said Republican John Dadian, a consultant long involved in East County politics.

“...I won’t go as far as saying (Hunter) can’t win,” he added. “But clearly one of the strongest Republican districts in the nation could could go Democratic.”

Dadian, who has known the Hunters for years, said the breadth of the indictments is stunning and, stating the obvious, suggests that the congressman in in big trouble.


“I’ve got to be honest. I don’t think they get it,” Dadian said. “(Rep. Hunter) honestly didn’t believe he’d be indicted. He honestly didn’t think he did anything wrong. I don’t know if he’s in denial or what.”

The congressman, whose wife also was indicted, claimed on Tuesday the investigation was politically motivated. It’s a theme he raised weeks before the indictments. In a hard-edged speech on the House floor at the end of July, he accused Department of Justice officials of partisanship and said the agency “is corrupt, answerable to no one and uses the law to extort the American people and effect political change.”

Mayor Wells said that resonates among some voters in the district.

“I had people angry at me, scold me, for being involved because they perceive this as a conspiracy, much in the same way they do with the president,” he said.


As the investigation dragged on, it seemed that Hunter’s constituents gave him the benefit of the doubt. The Hunter name had long been respected in East County, in large part because of his father’s tenure in Congress. The father essentially handed his seat off to his son in the 2008 election without much fuss from anybody. Voters knew the younger Hunter had much of his father’s conservative point of view and appreciated the family’s strong sense of duty.

The father was an Army Ranger who fought in Vietnam and the son was a Marine artillery officer who waged battle Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus, of all the sordid details alleged in the indictments, this one may sting the most:

“On or about March 20, 2015, when Duncan Hunter told Margaret Hunter that he was planning to ‘buy my Hawaii shorts’ but had run out of money, she counseled him to buy the shorts at a golf pro shop so they could falsely describe the purchase later as ‘some [golf] balls for the wounded warriors.’”

The election still must play out. But patience with the Hunter dynasty in East County may be wearing thin.


More columns on Hunter:

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