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'The 50th' Tells Story Of Hunter Resignation, Race To Replace Him

 January 20, 2020 at 10:38 AM PST

Speaker 1: 00:00 The scandal that led to the resignation of Duncan Hunter from Congress and the race to replace him is the subject of a new documentary series called the 50th, a scandal, a dynasty and election Speaker 2: 00:14 congressmen. Any planning or design board? Gosh, I don't think anybody believes that. And Hunter will survive this last election. These fees, Speaker 1: 00:36 the documentary is from the San Diego union Tribune, Sam Hodgson, the producer and photojournalist behind the series spoke to midday additions. Jade Heinemann, here's that interview. So can you first remind us of what led to the resignation of Dunkin Hunter? Speaker 3: 00:51 Yeah. Congressman Hunter was and dated a few years ago under charges that he used more than a quarter million dollars of his campaign cash to pay for his personal expenses. So things like trips to Italy, um, flying his pet rabbit across the country, you know, video games and things like that. And ultimately he was forced to plead guilty and resign. Speaker 1: 01:11 And the union Tribune broke the story about Hunter misspending campaign finance funds, as you mentioned. How did reporter Morgan cook discover that? Speaker 3: 01:18 So she got a letter put on her desk by her editor from the FEC that had, uh, raised some questions about some video games that he had purchased. She looked at the letter, she was writing a quick story about it. She said to the editor, you know, I want to go back and just make sure that this was was a one off, uh, that there weren't other funds that might've been sort of misappropriated. And uh, she pretty quickly found out that it was not a one off. And the story on raveled from there and the union Tribune, you know, you all have Speaker 1: 01:47 told the story in print as it progressed. What made the newspaper want to tell the story in a video series as well? Speaker 3: 01:53 Yeah, well, I started to look at the race to replace him and I started to see all these heavyweight California Republicans coming in and almost putting like a pressure campaign on him to step aside. And I started to think about the fact that Hunter was heading to trial while he was going to be running for reelection. And I just said, someone has to make a documentary about this in the moment that I thought that I realized that I was probably in a better position than just about anyone in the world to be able to tell that story. I had access to all the reporters who had broke the information. I had this great leeway to take some time to spend on a project and I grew up in California's 50th congressional district. It wasn't the 50th back then, but, but what is now California's 50th congressional district. So I just thought, I'm going to have to do this. I went to my editors and I said, I don't know what's going to happen with this story, but whatever happens is going to be fascinating. Speaker 1: 02:43 I'm curious to know, does the documentary a series include any previously unreported information? Speaker 3: 02:48 I think there are small bits of, uh, unreported information about how the race is shaping up. Uh, certainly you get to learn about the candidates and their personalities in a way that I don't think has really been reported out fully in terms Congressman Hunter, there's no new information. But when you put the totality of what has happened with him, what has happened with his family in this district over the past 40 years, that they've been in power there and you, you juxtapose that with all the national political undercurrents that are happening in America right now, and you juxtapose it with the race to replace him. It all takes on a new life. You've worked on this series for five months. Can you tell me a bit about your process and how you worked with the rest of the newsroom, including Morgan cook, who, as I mentioned, broke the story. Speaker 3: 03:29 Yeah. My process is very fly on the wall. Just it is when I'm a being a still photographer at the paper. Uh, and so it's that way when I'm working with Morgan or when I'm working with other reporters in the newsroom or when I'm following candidates around. I think that that makes for an interesting documentary. It makes it take on this nice life because these candidates, these reporters, everyone that's involved in this and Congressman Hunter, they're all just real people. And so when you're just hanging out with them as a, as a real person as well, their personality starts to come out. And so that's why I like to interview and document that way. And as you mentioned, this series also covers the race to replace Duncan Hunter. Why do you think the area he represented California's 50th district is unique? Yeah, I say this in the documentary that when people think about California, they think about the Palm trees and the Teslas and the liberals and the 50th district. Speaker 3: 04:18 Isn't that at all? That's, that's not all what all of California is about. Um, so this is a story about a side of California that people don't always see. This is one of the last conservative strongholds in the state of California. There's only seven congressional seats that are represented by Republicans and it's had a Duncan Hunter representing it for more than 40 years. So we could see all these, uh, national issues at play out there. Immigration is huge out there. National defense is huge out there, uh, abortion. Uh, and so you see all of these national issues at play in this one sliver of California's countryside. And remind us of the area the 50th district encompasses if you could. Yes. So it stretches from the Western edge of [inaudible] and out very far East and then up into Ramona Escondido and even stretches into a small part of Riverside County. Speaker 3: 05:08 So it's San Diego is Eastern North County essentially. Would you say the series profiles, those who are running to replace him? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We spend a lot of time with, um, with Carl DeMaio, with the Mark camper to Shar with Senator Brian Jones. And while we don't ever do a sit down interview with him, we see a lot of former Congressman Darrel Eissa as well in the series. And can you talk to us a little bit about those candidates? Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so I, I go to a few different town halls and things, uh, events around with Carl de Mio. Uh, he's a really interesting figure. Uh, you know, he, he was a San Diego city Councilman and then he spent a lot of time as a successful talk radio show host. And it's been interesting to watch him because I think that talk radio show has really provided this great feedback loop for him where he really understands what people are angry about at an East County. Speaker 3: 05:55 And he's really sort of tapped into that anger. And as he'll tell you, he's angry about those things as well too. So you see that sort of feedback loop at work. Uh, when you see him campaigning. Uh, Congressman Darrel Eissa was a very powerful man on Capitol Hill. Uh, he was chairman of the house oversight committee, led the hearings it to Bengazi, uh, and ultimately stepped down from his, well, he didn't step down to here. He ultimately didn't run for reelection and, uh, his seat in the 49th, uh, so he's now coming in and, and uh, trying to run in the 50th, uh, state Senator Brian Jones. He's actually from East County. He lives in San te. Uh, the other two contenders, Congressman Eissa and crowds in Maya don't actually live in the district, which is not a requirement in California. And so he sort of has been puffing up his back country bonafides, right? Like explaining to people, look, I'm from here, I understand the issues that matter to you. And then there's, uh, there's the Democrat and Mark [inaudible] who came within spitting distance of beating Hunter last time as you sort of rode that blue wave but ultimately didn't quite get there. He's running for reelection again. He's also from the district and you see him very much playing up that fact as he's out on the campaign trail. Speaker 1: 07:04 How many episodes are in the series and how did you go about deciding what would be covered in each one? Speaker 3: 07:09 So there's five episodes that have been completed right now we're actively working on episode six, which will look at everything that happens between the time that Congressman Hunter took his plea deal and, and primary night we decided what to cover. Just sort of by, by what happened. I mean we knew we needed to get into Hunter's family legacy. And so we talk a bit about that in episode one we knew we had to get into the Republican fight to try to defend this seat. So you see a lot of the candidates posturing to do that. In episode two we knew a Mark Hampton Hazara would be a big part of the storyline. So he's an episode three, episode four, which is my favorite title, a knife fight at the grand old party, just Chronicles one night when all four of the Republicans including Dunkin Hunter were on stage together, uh, duking it out and you really see where they each are staking their claim as candidates. And then episode five is the United States of America versus Dunkin Hunter. We always imagined that that episode was going to be about Dunkin Hunter going to trial while he was seeking reelection. That obviously all got up ended when he decided to take a plea agreement. So what episode five does now is it sees all the events that took place as, as he took his plea agreement and as he agreed to resign and report a Morgan cook who broke the story, really walks us through that entire scene. Speaker 1: 08:29 I've been speaking to Sam Hodson, the producer and photo journalist for the 50th documentary series. Thank you, Sam. Thanks for having me. This series, the 50th a scandal, a dynasty and election will be screened Wednesday evening at the California center for the arts and Escondido. It will be followed by a Q and a with Sam Hodgson and Morgan cook. The series will also be available@sandiegouniontribune.com starting on Thursday.

The scandal that led to the resignation of Duncan Hunter from congress and the race to replace him is the subject of a new documentary series called "The 50TH: A scandal. A dynasty. An election." The documentary is from The San Diego Union-Tribune.
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