Duncan Hunter.(REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE)(Biography)

"We seem to be our own worst enemies. We should require critical U.S. infrastructure to remain in U.S. hands."--D. Hunter.

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California Congressman Duncan Hunter was first elected to Congress as part of the 1980 Reagan Revolution. The Vietnam veteran who served in the 173rd Airborne and 75th Army Rangers has faithfully represented his congressional district ever since.

As a U.S. representative, Hunter has been instrumental in pushing through construction of border security fences in the highly trafficked San Diego area. The successes in the San Diego fence program have proven that fences do indeed work in the effort to regulate who and what is coming across our borders. Hunter also wrote the Secure Fence Act, extending the San Diego fence system 854 miles across California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. These fence provisions were signed into law by President Bush on October 26, 2006. Should Duncan Hunter become president, we could expect that the fence would actually be built.

Hunter is currently a ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee--a committee he has been on since coming to Congress in 1980. He served as its chairman from 2002-2006. Hunter has used his committee membership to protect U.S. defense jobs in aircraft, ship repair, machine tools, textile, steel, and titanium. He has vigorously fought to ensure that America has what he calls the "Arsenal of Democracy." Never on board with the so-called free-trade crowd, Hunter believes that the U.S. industrial base should be maintained to provide security for our country in time of war.

On the issue of the Iraq War directly, Hunter clearly states his position: "When people ask, 'Is Iraq worth it?' my answer is, 'Yes.'" Hunter believes creating a stable situation in Iraq is in the strategic interests of the United States and that this can be accomplished through U.S. military intervention. A rarity in the U.S. Congress, his family has backed those words up with noble action. Hunter's son, Duncan Duane, who is running to fill his father's congressional seat, has recently served two tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine.

With regard to maintaining our industrial base, Hunter is adamant that our nation's trade policy has been a disaster. He believes that for too many years our executive branch has been putting bad negotiators on our side of the bargaining table. Rather than allowing the U.S. Congress to regulate trade, though, he does believe that the executive branch is better suited to negotiate trade deals with foreign countries.