The latest candidate to join the race for the 24th Congressional District wants troops out of Iraq, believes the Medicare drug program is a failure and has not ruled out supporting the impeachment of President Bush.

But what might be most surprising about Robert “Ken” Camera is that he's seeking the Republican nomination.

Camera, a Geneva resident who works in the energy industry, this month announced his intention to fill the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep Sherwood Boehlert, R-New Hartford.

Unlike many Republicans, Camera has been disappointed with the Bush administration. He wants troops out of Iraq before the summer of 2007. He wants the Federal Emergency Management Agency separated from the Department of Homeland Security. He wants to eliminate all pork-barrel spending from the federal budget.

“The agenda and the platform is a common-sense approach that normal people would come up with,” Camera said in a phone interview Sunday.

Camera also said he expects President Bush will be impeached after the elections this year.

A former Geneva Planning Board member who once ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in that city, Camera has been writing about his disappointment with the state of the federal government on a Web site he launched about a year ago (www.kencamera.us).

He said feedback from that effort led to his decision to run.

One of Camera's biggest obstacles could be funding. Fellow GOP candidate state Sen. Ray Meier already has $176,000 raised, while Camera has not yet hit the $5,000 threshold that requires disclosure to the Federal Election Commission.

But he hopes he can mount a competitive campaign cheaply. “I sort of view it as dropping a stone in a pond,” he said. “The (ripples) are kind of small right now, but they're growing.”