Convince Stan Hunterton to run, NV-3
Stan Hunterton, former mob-hunter, recently got the call:
When Las Vegas attorney Stan Hunterton heard that U.S. Sen. Harry Reid wanted to talk to him, "I thought the senator was calling to ask for money."But this time, Reid asked for something other than a campaign donation: Would Hunterton run for the House seat held by Republican Jon Porter?
... Hunterton said he's not looking to spend a year of his life on a fool's errand.
"The end goal is not to end up in Congress. The end goal is to assist a lot of people to put an end to war and keep Social Security secure."
So today, he's floating a trial balloon to see whether anyone agrees with him.
I agree with him. On face, Stan sounds like a hell of a candidate: strangely echoing Sen. Reid's own mob busting days and he is planning to run on two issues that I'm convinced will tend to win in the West, and the nation, in 2006. The war in Iraq and Social Security.
Westerners are smart enough to know that an East-coast, fake Texan, lied to get us into Iraq and they don't trust Wall Street. Lets home Nevada Democrats are smart enough to get Stan Hunterton to run.
The only knock on this guy is that he doesn't actually live in the 3rd District, but the 1st. Apparently, in Nevada, that doesn't matter though. At least Stan has a good answer to that one already:
Will he move into the district?Not likely. "If I was to move into the district this week, it wouldn't make any difference. Why would I engage in that kind of charade?"
Emmett O'Connell | August 2, 2005 | Comment on This Post (3 so far) |
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Comments
Does he live within two blocks of the district? Does he work in the district? Is it gerrymandered like a spiral?
I don't like the idea of running a non-resident in a district anywhere; it might lose you three our four points in a close race when that's the first thing some voters hear about you.
On the other hand, legislatures have been drawing some modern-art districts lately. Some folks outside the district might live closer to the residents than any of the residents themselves
Posted by: Brian Watkins | Aug 3, 2005 2:31:15 PM
It is important to contest every Congressional District with a quality candidate like Stan. If not Stan, then another quality person. Paul Hackett came out of the blue politically (out of Iraq geographically) to run a strong race in a very tough district in Ohio. Running a moderate and making the election a referendum on Iraq and Social Security is a good strategy. This does involve sacrifices of time and money by the candidate, since winning is far from guaranteed even with a good candidate and good issues. Having a second home or an apartment in the district would be a small sacrifice to make and possibly a good real estate investment. NV-3 is in Clark County and includes parts of Las Vegas and surrounding communities.
Posted by: Leo Brown | Aug 3, 2005 5:32:29 PM
The residency issue is a non-starter. Porter used it effectively against his last opponent, by saying the guy really lived in CA. But a) this district includes a large portion of the new arrivals to Clark County, something like 40% of whom didn't live there 5 years ago and b) Hunterton has "old Vegas" appeal which means he'ld come off as much more echt than Porter.
There are several reasons why Hunterton should run and can win. Most importantly, Porter is an empty shirt. He's been propped up in his last 2 elections by Delay's NRCC, which funded slime attacks on his opponents. This time around, he's again getting a lot of support from Delay which will come with a much steeper political price.
Moreover, he's effectively run to the left of his last two opponents -- framing Herrera as a spoiled rich kid and Gallagher as a corporate tool. Hunterton already has a public profile and the outlines of his story are great -- mob prosecutor, cracked down on white collar crime, and a leading defense attorney.
And with Reid's support, he should be able to raise enough money to compete with Porter, which neither of Porters' prior opponents did. Plus he can build on the very real organizational work that state and county Dems did in 04 to mobilize this district.
He's obviously hesitating because of Porter's disgusting track record of character assassination but I'm sure he's tough enough to take him on and beat him.
Posted by: desmoulins | Aug 6, 2005 7:22:42 AM
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(and yes, we know that sometimes they're very, very wrong. Other times, they're right on.)
