By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun

     RAMONA — Four candidates who seek the District 52 Congressional seat long occupied by Rep. Duncan Hunter gathered in Ramona last weekend to tout their qualifications to constituents and to answer questions.
     Democrats Derek Casady, Connie Frankowiak, Karen Otter and John Rinaldi, and Libertarian Michael Benoit, are all vying for the East County seat, which has been held by Hunter, a Republican, for the past 26 years. A fifth Democrat candidate, the Rev. Peter Moore-Kochlacs, says he has stopped campaigning and is endorsing Rinaldi, but will stay in the race to get his message out.
     In a district that has been predominately Republican, the challenging Democrat, to be named in a June primary election, and Libertarian will have a tough battle. Hunter has bested all challengers in the last 13 elections for his congressional seat. 
     Despite his winning record, Hunter said that he never takes any election for granted: “There's no easy or safe, secure election,” he said. “I always go 100 percent, regardless of what year it is.”
     Hunter did not attend the forum in Ramona, the last of three held throughout the East County, but was at the one held in Alpine on Sunday, May 7. Benoit, Casady, Frankowiak and Otter all attended the Ramona forum, each arguing that he or she is the best person for the job.
     The challengers say they believe Hunter is more vulnerable this year because of his ties to disgraced former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, and his allegiance to President Bush, whose approval ratings have plummeted.
     “Duncan Hunter is right in bed with the guy. He votes 90 percent of the time with Bush,” Casady said.
     “It's just a matter of time before Duncan Hunter is going to go down in flames,” said Otter.
In an interview Monday with The Alpine Sun, Hunter said that he welcomed challengers for his seat, but joked that, “Maybe they should look and see what I really do. They might realize they don’t want this job.”
     Duncan Hunter has been a leading voice for a border fence for many years, but has gained new momentum and support since 9/11, as politicians consider the specter of terrorists bringing weapons across the southern border.
     All the challengers said they strongly oppose the war in Iraq and the idea of stretching a border fence between the United States and Mexico to deter illegal traffic.
     “I just would say one word about the border fence, and that word is 'tunnel,'” Casady said, referencing the recent discovery of a 2,400-foot-long tunnel between a warehouse near Tijuana's airport to an Otay Mesa warehouse.
     “To put a multi-million dollar wall on top of a tunnel is just ludicrous,” Otter said. “It’s a just a huge waste of money.”
     The candidates also argued against any sort of criminalization of illegal immigrants.
     “The majority of the illegal immigrants in this country are currently employed by companies that are blatantly breaking the law,” Casady said. “This is what we need to deal with. We need to make these employers follow the rule of law in this country.”
     Many members of the public at the Ramona forum wanted to hear what the candidates will do to curb the government’s mining of data on citizen’s phone calls as well as its wiretapping programs.
All four at the meeting argued that this program is just another in a long line of illegal activities by the government, meant to strip Americans of their rights.
     “The real tragedy right now is that people aren’t taking enough interest,” Frankowiak said. “But people are finally starting see what’s happening and are waking up. There’s a lot of anger and frustration about much of what this government is doing. Let’s hope that that will translate into votes for a person who does represent the people.”
     Hunter argued that the wire-tapping program is very specific, targeting only people associated, or in contact, with terrorist organizations.
     “This is no worse than what Woodrow Wilson did in World War I, and what FDR did in World War II,” Hunter said, adding that the efforts have helped to prevent another attack in the U.S.
America’s oil dependence was another major topic and all agreed that the U.S. must work toward oil independence and the creation of alternate fuel sources.
     “The world is running out of oil,” Casady said. He said he advocates an Apollo-type program to create a huge number of jobs and keep billions of dollars in the country while searching for new forms of fuel. “Energy independence is the key to national security for our country,” Casady said.
     In general, Hunter agreed with his challengers, saying that alternative fuel sources must be found. He also argued that, rather than looking overseas for oil, the government must refocus its efforts to tap sources on this continent, including the vast oil-sands in northern Alberta, Canada, a field within the Rocky Mountains, and in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.
     “If we had been able to open up Alaska to drilling a few years ago, we could have easily handled all of the pressure on the system that we are seeing right now,” Hunter said.
     None of the challengers will have the official support of the Democratic party going into the primary election in June. The winner of the primary will face off against Benoit and Hunter during the November 2006 election.
     Congressman Duncan Hunter is a Vietnam veteran, who served in the 173rd Airborne and 75th Army Rangers. In 1973, Hunter attended Western State University Law School in San Diego. Opening a law office in San Diego, Hunter assisted many in the Hispanic community free of charge and without government compensation.
     In 1980, he was asked to run against Congressman Lionel Van Deerlin, an 18-year incumbent. In a 2-to-1 Democrat district, Hunter won the seat, where he has remained for the past 26 years. Hunter and his wife, Lynne, are Alpine residents.

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