Rep. Candice Miller (R)

The congresswoman from the 10th District is Candice Miller, a Republican elected in 2002. Miller grew up in Macomb County. In 1979, at age 25, she was elected Harrison Township trustee. A year later, she was elected as the youngest and first woman supervisor of the township. In 1986, she ran against Democratic Rep. David Bonior and lost 66%-34%. In 1992, she won an upset bid to become Macomb County treasurer. And two years later, she defeated 24-year incumbent Richard Austin to become the Michigan secretary of state. In 1998, she carried all of Michigan’s counties and set a state record for total votes. Armed with huge name recognition as secretary of state but prevented from running for re-election by term limits, Miller was the favorite to succeed Bonior, who ran for governor in 2002. Democrats were enthusiastic about Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga, who had been in office for 20 years. But Marlinga could not keep pace with Miller’s fundraising. He also called himself a “Hubert Humphrey Democrat”—not a big advantage in this district—while Miller called herself a “George W. Bush Republican” at a time such a claim still inspired voters. She opposed abortion rights, supported free-trade agreements, and favored making the Bush tax cuts permanent—all positions opposite Marlinga’s. Both candidates supported gun-ownership rights. Citing her daughter’s membership in the United Auto Workers, Miller reached out to unions and was endorsed by the Teamsters, but not the AFL-CIO. Miller won handily, 63%-36%, carrying Macomb County 61%-37%. She has been re-elected easily ever since.

In the House, Miller has had a moderate-to-conservative voting record; she tends to be more conservative on cultural issues. By 2007, her support for the Iraq war had softened, and she opposed the president’s strategy for a “surge” of troop strength. But she opposed Democratic restrictions on war funding because of concerns it would demoralize U.S. troops. On the Armed Services Committee, she worked to protect the Selfridge Air National Guard Base, and sought additional Pentagon contracts for local firms, including the General Dynamics plant in Sterling Heights that manufactures the Army Stryker armored vehicle.

Miller takes seriously her district’s proximity to the natural assets of the Great Lakes, and warned a congressional panel, “Do not look to the Great Lakes to solve the nation’s water problems.” She was “very disappointed” with Bush’s veto in 2007 of the Water Resources Development Act, which included $20 million for the St. Clair River. Also in 2007, she condemned as “downright nuts” a proposed permit by Indiana that would allow British Petroleum to dump more pollutants in Lake Michigan with its expanded refinery. Mindful of the state’s dependence on auto manufacturing, she also criticized advocates of tougher fuel-efficiency standards for seeking “to bankrupt Detroit.” In April 2009, repeating assurances from Chrysler and the Obama administration, Miller declared in a floor speech that Chrysler’s imminent bankruptcy would not result in plant closures in her district. The next day, it was revealed that Chrysler planned to close five plants, including one employing 1,400 in Sterling Heights in the district. Miller criticized the plan as “very troubling,” citing Chrysler’s decision to keep open a plant in Mexico with similar production abilities as the Sterling Heights facility.

Miller has sponsored a proposed constitutional amendment to exclude illegal aliens from the decennial congressional reapportionment process, calling it “absolutely outrageous” that noncitizens had “a profound impact on our political system.”

The Ethics Committee admonished Miller after it reviewed the case of Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and his efforts to influence the vote of Republican Rep. Nick Smith of Michigan during the close vote on the 2003 bill to create a prescription drug bill in Medicare. The committee concluded that Miller tried to intimidate Smith to vote for the bill. Miller told the Detroit Free Press: “If a black belt can be intimidated by an overweight, middle-age woman, that’s too bad.”

In 2008, Miller chaired recruitment for the National Republican Congressional Committee, but her efforts were unproductive in an election year that turned against Republicans.