Today is the last day Duncan D. Hunter will be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
So today brings an end to a long family history of serving in the government for the Hunter family and the military, which is something that helped him get to Congress.
According to a column in the San Diego Union Tribune over the weekend, Hunter, a Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan Hunter, and who faces sentencing in March for misusing campaign funds, first ran for Congress because of his dad, longtime congressman Duncan Lee Hunter.
“My dad made me do it,” he said in an interview on a military issues podcast. The younger Hunter adding, “Probably the only reason I got in so quickly is because my dad had been in for a long time.”
And dad Hunter was a congressman for a very long time. representing essentially the same district his son had. And he also served in the military just like his son, serving in the Army in the Vietnam War.
Duncan Lee Hunter served in Congress from 1981 to 2009. He even ran for president in 2008, which should not have been a surprise.
You see grandfather Hunter, Robert Owen Hunter who died in 2006 at the age of 90 and also served in the military in the Marines during WW II, had once said his son should run for President one day.
So as grandson Duncan D. Hunter officially resigns from Congress today, a long legacy comes to a sad end, but leaves behind a reminder that serving in public office carries with it great power and great responsibility.