Interesting development....

California Congressman Duncan Hunter, one of the lower tier Republican contenders in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes, will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives next year. Instead, his 30-year-old son, Duncan D. Hunter, is getting ready to mount a campaign to take over that seat.

I found that interesting because Hunter, during a campaign visit to Electric Boat last year on behalf of former Congressman Rob Simmons "guaranteed' me that money for a second submarine contract would be approved this year. Hunter, at the time, was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee - the committee that "authorized" funding for a second sub in 2009. (But unfortunately, that authorization wasn't backed up with the actual money to do it - raising the question as to whether merely "authorizing" without funding was nothing more than just a political ploy to help Simmons in his re-election bid.)

Hunter is now the ranking member on the committee now that Democrats have taken over control of Congress, and I would suspect he still supports the idea of funding for a second sub. But I'm not sure just how active he is in pushing for that this year with his presidential campaign obviously the major focal point of his thinking at the moment - and now, no future plans to continue in Congress.