Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Is Gary Miller the new Jay Kim?

Until I was gerrymandered into Joe Baca's district, I lived in a Republican district that was represented by Jay Kim. If you don't know the name, Jay Kim was the Congressman who got the rare privilege of wearing a tracking device on his body after running into a little bit of trouble, even with fellow Republicans:

Even Kim's fiercest allies describe their colleague's predicament-the California Republican is restricted to the halls of Congress and his Fairfax apartment as part of his sentence for accepting more than $250,000 in illegal foreign and corporate contributions-delicately.

"It's an awkward situation for everyone. I'm also the first to admit the guy made mistakes," said Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.). But he added quickly, "His plight has not diminished his effectiveness here in Congress."


Even the power of incumbency couldn't keep him in office after that little fiasco, and Gary Miller replaced him.

Even though Miller no longer represents me, he's still in Congress, and I had pretty much forgotten about him until I read an item in the Foothill Cities Blog.

I heard from someone who ought to know that Rep. Gary Miller’s days are numbered. Apparently, a number of investigations into House and Senate members accused of illicit dealings are wrapping up and Miller could soon be facing indictment.

Centinel then linked to an earlier post which linked to an earlier story (no longer available) that I had missed regarding Congressman Miller. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics has the details:

Amid negotiations to buy land from Rep. Gary Miller in 2005 and 2006, [Fontana] city officials provided the congressman with a series of letters advising him to sell and suggesting they could use eminent domain to further their plans.

The city, however, never intended to use the measure to acquire Miller's land, officials there said.

Under the law sellers don't have to pay capital gains taxes on profits from land sales if they were forced to sell by threat of eminent domain and as long as they reinvest the profits within two years.


Both Jay Kim and Gary Miller emerged from Diamond Bar, and Down With Tyranny has no kind words for the people who elected them:

Unfortunately for Miller the City of Monrovia has Miller, a multimillionaire, on tape proving he's a bold-faced liar. Not that any of this will matter to his bizarre suburban constituents, who spend so much time commuting on over-crowded freeways that they are thoroughly brainwashed by the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity-- and pissed off. These are people with very bad lives and their only revenge is imposing the likes of Jay Kim and Gary Miller on the rest of us.

blog comments powered by Disqus