Rep. Gary Miller (R) Elected 1998, 3d term
Born:	Oct. 16, 1948, Huntsville, AR
Home:	Diamond Bar
Education:	Mt. San Antonio Col. 1971, 1988-89
Religion:	Christian
Marital Status:	married (Cathy)
Elected  Office:	Diamond Bar City Cncl., 1989-95; Diamond Bar Mayor, 1992; CA Assembly, 1995-98.
Military Career:	Army, 1967-1968.
Professional Career:	Businessman, real estate developer, G. Miller Development Co., 1971-98.
Additional Info
Recent Articles · Offices · Committees · Ratings · Key Votes · Election Results District Demographics
More On California
At A Glance · State Profile District Map Redistricting · Almanac Home

The fastest growth in the Los Angeles metropolitan area over the last 20 years has been in the Inland Empire at eastern end of the Los Angeles Basin. Mostly orange groves and dairy farms a few decades ago, this territory now is the site of a booming economy, personal upward mobility, and ethnic and cultural harmony. The main ingredient of this economic growth has been small entrepreneurial businesses, usually started by people with no particular connections or advantages--often, of Asian or Latino immigrant background. California has never been a land of leisure, as stereotype would have it, but rather a place for hard work, where the fertility of the soil and the productivity of the people have prospered with considerable effort and tolerance toward newcomers. California hasn't always welcomed people from distant places: anti-Asian sentiment expressed itself in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese American internment camps of 1942-44. But since World War II this has been one of the least prejudiced and most welcoming places on earth, which helps to explain why it has received more immigrants than any other state.

The 42d Congressional District is one place where such trends are visible. It is centered in the Inland Empire on the point where Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange Counties come together. In San Bernardino County it includes Chino, site of a low-security prison, and Chino Hills, full of new subdivisions. In Los Angeles County it includes Diamond Bar, La Habra Heights and the eastern part of Whittier. More than half the district's population is in Orange County. Here it includes Yorba Linda, site of the birthplace of Richard Nixon in 1913 (when Orange County had only 40,000 residents) and now his presidential library; Brea and La Habra to the west; the eastern part of Anaheim; and, connected only by uninhabited mountains, the newer condominium communities of Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita. Ethnically diverse, its residents are 24% Hispanic and 16% Asian, believers still in traditional values (the 42d has the highest percentage of married people in the state), working their way up through the private sector--and leaning toward Republicans. The 2001 redistricting made significant changes to the district, removing Pomona in Los Angeles County and Ontario in San Bernardino County and added territory in Orange County; it raised the Bush 2000 vote from 51% to 59%.

The congressman from the 42d District is Gary Miller, a Republican first elected in 1998. He was born in Arkansas but grew up in Whittier. In his early 20s he became a homebuilder and developed planned communities. He began his public service in 1988 when he was appointed to the Diamond Bar Municipal Advisory Council. A year later, after Diamond Bar was incorporated, Miller was elected to the city council and served as mayor. In May 1995 he was elected to the Assembly in a special election to replace Republican Paul Horcher, who was recalled after he supported Democrat Willie Brown for Assembly speaker. In Sacramento, Miller became chairman of the Budget Committee in his freshman year.

In 1997 he decided to run for the House against scandal-tarred incumbent Jay Kim, who lived just two blocks away in Diamond Bar. Kim and his wife had pleaded guilty to accepting and concealing $230,000 in illegal campaign contributions between 1992 and 1996. In March 1998 he was sentenced to house arrest, confined to the House and his apartment in suburban Virginia, and was required to wear an electronic bracelet around his ankle for two months. As a result, he could not campaign back home for the June primary. Local leaders appealed to Miller to run; he was endorsed by Governor Pete Wilson; the NRCC, which normally endorses incumbents, remained neutral. Miller emphasized standard Republican themes--lower taxes, tougher penalties for crime, improved local education--and largely financed his own campaign. The result was unambiguous. Two-thirds of the votes in the all-party primary were cast for Republican candidates, and Miller won 48% of Republican votes to 26% for Kim. This was not a seriously contested race in November; Miller won 53%-41%.

Miller has a very conservative voting record in the House and advanced some original proposals. He was sponsoring anti-spam legislation in the California Assembly well before it became a notorious problem; in Congress, he sponsored a bill to allow Internet Service Providers to decide whether they want to allow spamming and, if not, to give them a cause of action against spammers, with $500 per message in damages. The House passed this measure, combined with other anti-spam provisions to encourage the FCC to regulate spammers, but it died in the Senate. A Civil War buff who discovered that nearly 20% of the major battle sites have been lost, he successfully sponsored in 2002 a bill to preserve Civil War battlefields by authorizing matching grants to local governments and nonprofits for unprotected sites. In 2003, he became the only California Republican on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which gave him the daunting task of representing the state's diverse interests on the highway bill. Miller shares his Virginia apartment with his daughter Elizabeth, an activist with Witness for Peace; he reports, "We have some very interesting discussions at the dinner table."

Miller has been easily reelected against token opposition.

Recent News Coverage
Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, House Race Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form below:

DC Office
1037 LHOB 20515, 202-225-3201; Fax: 202-226-6962; Web site: www.house.gov/garymiller

State Offices
Brea, 714-257-1142; Mission Viejo, 949-470-8484.

Committees

• Financial Services (25th of 37 R): Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Housing & Community Opportunity.
• Transportation & Infrastructure (18th of 41 R): Railroads; Water Resources & Environment.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	0	7	0	13	93	100	64	95	100	91	100
2001	0	--	0	0	--	--	71	100	100	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	0%	--	94%		0%	--	91%
Social	0%	--	81%		0%	--	75%
Foreign	4%	--	87%		0%	--	85%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Gary Miller (R)	98,476	68%	$443,707
	Richard Waldron (D)	42,090	29%
	Other	4,680	3%
2002 primary	Gary Miller (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Gary Miller (R)	104,695	59%	$482,491
	Rodolfo Favila (D)	66,361	37%	$81,937
	David Kramer (NL)	6,560	4%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (53%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	139,655	59%
	Gore (D)	92,169	39%
	Other	5,157	2%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Forty-Second District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +11
• District Size: 317 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,088; 98.7% urban; 1.3% rural
• Median Household Income: $70,463; 6.0% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 15.2% blue collar; 74.1% white collar; 10.7% gray collar; 9.6% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 54.4% White, 2.9% Black, 15.9% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.2% Hawaiian, 2.4% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 23.8% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 10.2% German, 7.4% Irish, 7.4% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.