Rep. Brad Miller (D)

The congressman from the 13th District is Brad Miller, a Democrat first elected in 2002. Born and raised in Fayetteville by his widowed mother, a school cafeteria bookkeeper, he graduated from the University of North Carolina. He went on to get a master’s degree at the London School of Economics and a law degree from Columbia University. After clerking for a federal appeals court judge, Miller practiced law in Raleigh. In 1992, he was elected to the state House. But he was swept away in the 1994 Republican landslide. He was elected in 1996 to the state Senate where, like many members of the House, he had a hand in drawing his own congressional district as chairman of the Senate’s redistricting committee.

Miller drew a district very much in his own political interest, but he couldn’t be sure he could get the seat. Utah brought a lawsuit against the Census Bureau, arguing that because the census counted service members overseas with legal residence North Carolina, it should count Mormon missionaries domiciled in Utah but serving overseas. Such a count would have increased Utah’s population enough that it, rather than North Carolina, would have gotten the 435th congressional district that year. Utah lost in federal court, and the Supreme Court affirmed the decision.

Four experienced Democrats, including Miller, launched an 11-week sprint to the September primary, which seemed likely to determine the winner in November. Miller raised the most money and got early endorsements from teachers’ and other labor unions, plus the League of Conservation Voters. In the primary, he led with 40%, enough to avoid a runoff, to 24% for former Rep. Robin Britt. In the general election, Miller faced Carolyn Grant, a commercial real estate broker and former head of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. Grant called Miller a tax-and-spend Democrat, and also criticized him for voting to cut prescription drug assistance for the elderly. Miller said that North Carolina had the second-best record of any state in cutting taxes while he was in the Legislature. Grant got little help from national Republicans, and Miller won 55%-42%.

In the House, Miller has a relatively liberal record, especially on economics. He joined the Financial Services Committee, a useful post for home-state banking interests. In November 2006, the Raleigh News & Observer wrote that Miller “remains somewhat uncomfortable with the rituals of Congress” and often sits alone on the House floor reading memos while colleagues chat up each other in the aisles. “He doesn’t make a lot of noise, but he’s doing the work,” Democratic Rep. Bob Etheridge told the newspaper. He also displays flashes of wry humor. Following a congressional delegation visit to Antarctica in 2006, Miller said of his trip to the magnetic South Pole: “I thought, ‘Every other politician who thinks the world is revolving around them is wrong. It actually revolves around me.’”

With Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., he was able to get passed in November 2007 a bill to prohibit predatory lending practices. He spearheaded a proposal approved by the House Judiciary Committee in 2007 to permit bankruptcy judges to lighten mortgage terms to help borrowers avoid foreclosure, although the bill did not come up for a vote. When Democrats became the majority party in 2007, Miller ascended to chairman of the Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, where he explored allegations of politicizing of scientific research in the Bush administration. He clashed with NASA over its inspector general’s job performance and the agency’s refusal to release a study about the safety of commercial aviation. Then-Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, criticized Miller for suggesting that polar bears should be classified as an endangered species.

Back home, he appears safe. In 2006, his Republican challenger was Vernon Robinson, an outspoken and conservative African-American, who criticized Miller as soft on illegal immigration and gay rights. “If Miller had his way, America would be nothing but one big fiesta for illegal aliens and homosexuals,” said Robinson, who was well funded but received little national party assistance. Miller won 64%-36%. In 2008, he seriously considered challenging Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and perhaps wishes now that he had. Dole lost the election to a less-seasoned candidate than Miller, Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan, in one of the biggest upsets of the year. Miller went on to be re-elected easily.