O.C. Man Gets Clinton’s Ear, Puts Bug in It

Given an unusual opportunity to talk to President-elect Bill Clinton by telephone, unemployed defense-industry worker Ken Hunt of Santa Ana got to the point.

He asked Clinton for a job.

A single father of six and a lifelong Republican, Hunt used his persistence--with the help of his speed-dialing telephone--to get through to Clinton and offer firsthand knowledge of unemployment during the first day of the President-elect’s economic conference.

And in the process, Hunt became an instant media celebrity.

“I don’t know what I said,” Hunt told a reporter later, somewhat bewildered by the national media attention he was receiving after voicing his opinions. He was among the first of national television audience members to reach Clinton during what was part seminar, part town hall and part call-in forum from Little Rock, Ark.

His message was simple. Having been laid off from his tool-making job at the McDonnell Douglas plant in Long Beach in September, Hunt needs a job. He believes the defense industry cuts should have been phased in over several years to give people like himself time to retrain for other employment.

“I am 47 years old, not in the best of health, and I cannot swing a shovel and build a road,” he told Clinton.

Along with the economic experts, corporate chief executives and labor leaders invited to speak at the conference, Hunt reminded the incoming President that eliminating defense industry jobs hurts others as well.

“People forget that it affects everybody,” he said. “Clothing manufacturing--uniforms--you cut the military service, the people that make the uniforms are going to be out of a job because there’s not any soldiers to put uniforms on them. Lately, the latest status symbol in America seems to be a job.”

“You gave the problem in the most stark and personal terms,” Clinton told Hunt.

Pointing to aviation technology as one of the areas expected to grow in coming years, Clinton added: “We need people who do what you do. We just need you to do it in different areas of aviation.”

And as the President-elect wrapped up his comments on the need to create investment in those fields, Hunt used the opportunity to ask for a change in careers.

“If you have a job opening for me, I’m available,” he told Clinton as the audience in the Robinson Convention Center in downtown Little Rock broke into laughter.

“I may,” Clinton responded. “I’ll tell you what. If you can present every problem as well as you presented that one, you are a lot better than some of us here.”

Later, with each ring of the telephone in his rented home in Santa Ana, Hunt would ask, “Is it Clinton?”

A month ago Hunt would not have been asking that question.

Embittered by President Bush’s reluctance to deal with the economy, Hunt said, he voted for Texas billionaire Ross Perot and did not really give Clinton a second thought.

“President Bush could have done that (economic conference) six months ago,” Hunt said. “But President Bush decided to go fishing in Kennebunkport, Me.”

But Monday morning, as he sat at his dining table (an old door that was converted to a table) and read a newspaper article about the economic conference, Hunt decided to call.

“Mr. Clinton is impressing me,” Hunt said. “I am encouraged by the fact that he is trying. He has his heart in the right place. I wanted to give him the input from the blue-collar worker.”

Separated from his wife 1 1/2 years ago, Hunt said he now struggles to make ends meet for his three children and three foster children, whose ages range from 10 to 18.

Even with the salary drawn by his live-in girlfriend and his short-term disability pay, Hunt said, the family recently was forced to return its newest car to the dealer, and payments on the family van are in arrears.

In keeping up with the bills by “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Hunt said he paid the power company Monday afternoon, just in time to avoid having the electricity cut off.

But if anything good has come out of the recent financial difficulties, he said, it is that the family has pulled together and that his sons and daughters have learned valuable lessons.

“They are starting to learn what earning a dollar is all about,” he said.

And things may be looking up. Among the numerous telephone calls he received Monday was one from a Los Angeles County businessman who does marketing for restaurants, who offered the possibility of a job.

Should the telephone call from Clinton arrive, Hunt has his job proposal ready.

“I could be a liaison between blue-collar workers and the President,” he said.