If you’re wondering what is to become of Duncan Hunter, you might soon be able to reach him at the jailhouse. The former representative from California’s 50th Congressional district will be serving the next 14 months in jail plus three years of probation. Though this scandal has some age to it, it underscores what happens when our politicians forget their ethics and bask in the limelight of arrogance.
Hunter will be cooling his heels in prison after he and his wife were charged with campaign finance fraud. According to CNBC:
“He and his wife were charged with 60 criminal counts of campaign finance violations in August 2018. They were under fire for allegedly misusing campaign funds on personal items such as vacations, gas and groceries.”
As reported by the San Diego Union Tribune, the Hunters were apparently animal lovers because some of the money they stole (about $600) went to airfare for their pet rabbit!
Denying all Charges
There are, of course, strict rules that prohibit politicians from stealing campaign funds. For more than a year Duncan Hunter denied the charges. He called it a “witch hunt.” However, as 2020 approached (according to KUSI News), Hunter said:
“The plea I accepted is misuse of my own campaign funds, of which I pled guilty to only one count. 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.”
Another possibility for his reversal is that when the investigation expanded it was found that the couple had stolen more than $200,000 however going back, it was found that:
“The Hunters relied for years on campaign contributions to pay routine family expenses… [but even more egregious] …used the donations to pay for private school tuition, video games and plane tickets for Margaret’s [Margaret Hunter] mother to travel to Poland.”
Margaret Hunter was her husband’s campaign manager and campaign treasurer. She took a plea deal and in doing so, agreed to take the stand against her husband. He was “cooked” as they say. It was not until January 2020 that he would resign. We should mention that Hunter was a part of a political family. His father served as a state representative for 28 years.
What’s Yours is Mine
The Hunters had a well-oiled political machine. Indeed, they knew what they could take for themselves and what they needed to get re-elected. He was hardly indigent with a daily salary of nearly $500. Undoubtedly, though outside the scope of this blog, the Duncan Hunter political machine took advantage of long-term “relationships” with lobbyists and the like. They had no urgent need for the money.
However, as there was no oversight of the funds, they used the campaign donations as their personal slush fund. There was little concern for being caught in the act of blatant theft. Part of the issue was that this political family had been well-established for more than 30 years. It was a family business established, it seemed, at the expense of those who believed Hunter’s speeches and not his ethical character.
Given the frivolous uses for which they stole money, the need was for one of greed; to see how much they could steal and for how long. It was all about dipping into a pot of gold supplied by the suckers who believed they were on the level. There might be a spark of sadness if we were to learn the money was stolen because of a terrible illness, but when it was learned the money was diverted for expensive meals, video games, vacations for the pet rabbit and such, sympathy went out the window.
Ethically, how could they rationalize their behavior? I believe they felt the money in the campaign fund was their right to take. They owned the franchise as it was essentially given to them by Duncan Hunter’s father who had been in place for decades. They separated the world into “them and us,” forgetting they worked for the voters and were accountable to them. They owed the voters everything not the other way around.
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