Keeping up with Republican Representatives of dubious ethics, Duncan Hunter (R-CA) has changed his plea from not guilty to guilty in the matter of misuse of campaign funds, joining former Representative Chris Collins (R-NY) in the club of admitted felons. The San Diego Union-Tribune has the story:
After years of denials and claims he was the target of a political witch hunt, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday morning to plead guilty in a sweeping campaign finance investigation.
The announcement was posted on the U.S. District Court docket Monday morning, then KUSI aired an interview with Hunter in which he said he will plead guilty to one of the 60 criminal charges against him. He suggested that he is likely to spend time in custody.
“The plea I accepted is misuse of my own campaign funds, of which I pled guilty to only one count,” Hunter told the station. “I think it’s important that people know that I did make mistakes. I did not properly monitor or account for my campaign money. I justify my plea with the understanding that I am responsible for my own campaign and my own campaign money.”
And he suggests he’ll be resigning or not running for re-election. It’s important to note that the other 59 charges to which he didn’t plead guilty don’t become automatically moot, although he may have plea-bargained them away. The article goes on to chronicle his various alleged misdeeds, including extra-marital affairs funded with campaign funds.
It’d be interesting to see him run again, just to see if his constituents would continue to vote for him. He’s from a political family, so maybe they would. They have low standards, if true.
Wrapping up, the original three Representatives were the aforementioned Collins and Hunter, who ended up pleading guilty, and Rep Rod Blum (R-IA), who admitted to nothing but ignorance in a House Ethics investigation, and claimed he was the victim of a “crusade” by the left. Victimhood didn’t work for him as he lost his re-election bid in 2018, suggesting his constituents were fed up with him. He lost to Abby Finkenauer (D-IA) by 4 points; in his 2016 race he won by 8 points, suggesting a 12 point swing in support, fairly large for conservative Iowa.
So all three are, or will be soon, out of elective office.
