Gary Miller, Still Not Indicted, Still Not In Prison... But Closer Every Day

Rep Gary Miller blames the wife for his latest corruption scandal

A few months ago it seems like California's most reactionary member of Congress, Inland Empire kook, Gary Miller, was battling a scandal a week. And then he went all quiet on us and it looked like the he would ooze back into office. Ole Gary's in the news again: more scandals-- and this one's huge. Miller has been using the tried a true Republican Culture of Corruption trick steering of taxpayer dollars into a private highway (tollway) that he is a part owner of.

Miller is a real estate developer who has been very nimble over the years in using his office to increase the value-- at taxpayer expense-- of his properties. Generally viewed as a barnacle on the ass of southern California politics, if the man spent even a fraction of the time serving his constituents that he does serving his own interests, his district, the first to officially fall into recession, would be far better off. The Orange County Register, generally considered a reliable Republican Party mouthpiece put it like this:

One of Congress' strongest supporters of the Foothill tollway's controversial southern extension steered taxpayer money to and lobbied for the project while holding a financial interest in a connected tollway.

Financial disclosures for Rep. Gary Miller, a land developer who represents Orange, San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties, show he purchased $20,000 in Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency bonds in 2000. The bonds pay investors a fixed rate and are repaid by drivers' tolls.

The Eastern and Foothill (241) toll roads run from the 91 freeway to Irvine and Rancho Santa Margarita. The proposed southern extension, known as Foothill South, is the final 16-mile segment of 241 and would run from Rancho Santa Margarita to the I-5 near San Clemente, if it overcomes public and official objections.

Unconvincingly, Miller pleads ignorance and blames the bonds on his wife. Although, critics note, it is Miller, not his poor wife, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which he has used time and time again to enrich himself. He is in clear violation of House ethics rules, which "bar lawmakers from appropriating money or using their official position to benefit projects and organizations in which they have even a small financial investment.."

"Ethics rules say members of Congress are supposed to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest because you want the public to think you're working for them and not for your own interests," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, another nonpartisan watchdog group.

Miller has an untested opponent but he is steadily making his own ethical misconduct the main issue in a race that should be an easy win. The PVI is R+10 and Miller has almost a million dollars on hand, mostly donated by the big corporate interests he serves so consistently, Real Estate and Insurance being way up the list. Miller, a big backer of warrantless wiretaps and retroactive immunity for criminal telecoms just happens to have AT&T as his #3 biggest donor, just behind the National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Realtors.

The long-suffering residents of CA-42 (Chino, Diamond Bar, Yorba Linda, La Habra, Brea, Mission Viejo) are used to crooked, scandal-plagued congressmen. In fact the only way a lowlife like Miller was even able to get elected in the first place was by challenging his Republican predecessor, a predecessor (a neighbor), Jay Jim who couldn't campaign because he was confined to his home and under house arrest after being found guilty of, the most polticiany of crimes: taking bribes. After Miller, maybe they can elect Mike Carona.