What to Know
- Hunter and his wife, Margaret, were charged Tuesday with using more than $250,000 in campaign funds for personal expenditures.
- The indictment details instances in which the Hunters illegally used campaign money to pay for personal expenses, including a vacation.
- Hunter represents the strongly Republican 50th Congressional District in San Diego and Riverside counties.
U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, was indicted on misuse of campaign funds charges Tuesday, but it’s hardly the first time scandal has hit the 50th District.
“Instead of being leaders for the people they just do what they want,” said Stephanie Phelps who lives in Lakeside.
The district covers a large part of rural San Diego – from Alpine to Ocotillo Wells and Borrego Springs – but it didn't always have this shape. Redistricting has blurred the legacy of representation there, yet controversial political leaders have touched all of its corners.
In 1989, Jim Bates became the first congressman ever found guilty of sexual harassment by the House Ethics Committee.
Bates was a former Marine who served as a Democratic congressman for eight years.
In the late eighties, Bates was accused of inappropriately touching women he worked with and one woman sued him for sexual harassment but later dropped the case. He was reprimanded by the House with a “Letter of Reproval,” issued when they deem the behavior doesn’t rise to the level of consideration by the entire House. He lost the 1990 election to Republican Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Cunningham served from 1991 until 2005 when he resigned after pleading guilty to bribery, fraud and tax evasion. He accepted $2.4 million in bribes and underreported his taxable income in 2004. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Local
In 1992, Congressman Bill Lowery, Jim Bates and Duncan Hunter, Sr., Duncan Hunter’s father, were ensnared in the House Banking Scandal.
The scandal, also known as Rubbergate and the check-kiting scandal, involved multiple members of both parties overdrawing funds from the House Bank and writing themselves checks for cash. Hunter was later cleared of any wrongdoing and Lowery retired.
Mayor Bob Filner’s scandal (he was a congressman in the district from 1993 to 2003) didn’t fully surface until he resigned over sexual harassment allegations as mayor in 2013. In October 2013, Filner pleaded guilty to felony false imprisonment and two misdemeanor battery charges. He served three months of house arrest.
Mary Perkins lives in Lakeside and says she was “kind of shocked” when she heard about the indictment because she likes Hunter. She’s lived in the district for a long time and has witnessed the various scandals over the years. “It's a constant repetition of this happening over and over,” she says. ”It would be nice if it ended.”
John Dadian, a longtime San Diego political consultant, says this latest scandal reminds him most of the Duke Cunningham saga. “There’s so many similarities,” Dadian tells NBC 7. “The biggest similarity is how blatant it was.”
“It’s amazing how people don’t learn,” he says. "They just laid this out in the indictment. They’ve got everything down to the specifics."
Still, Dadian thinks Hunter has a good chance in November. “In this particular district, the Hunter name is gold,” he adds.
Many of his supporters agree. Although they’re disappointed, they say they will vote for Hunter because of his conservative ideals.
