Carolina Politics Online

Democratic U.S. House candidate Rob Miller proposed slashing Congressional pay and perks, part of a plan to win back voter trust.

Miller’s plan would also cut federal spending by 3 percent to 5 percent, exempting military, veteran’s affairs and homeland security budgets.

“Hard working South Carolinians, men and women, have lost faith in Washington,” Miller said. “Everybody is tightening their belts. It’s long past time for Congress to lead the way.”

Miller’s plan would cut Congressional pay by 10 percent, and he said he would reject any raise until the federal budget is balanced. Miller would also eliminate Congressional perks, such as cars, cell phones and some paid mail, known as franking.

The State

Gutsy plan.  Very gutsy, but I’m liking it.  Words are one thing, though.  The real question is what is Miller’s plan to build a consensus in Congress to get this achieved?  Can he get 217 other members of the House and 51 members of the U.S. Senate to take a ten percent pay raise?  I’m skeptical.  I do think, however, that the proposed three to five percent cuts in Federal spending are fairly realistic, but even that is a tall order.  We know how the Congress critters love to spend other peoples’ money.  Nevertheless, these goals will not be achieved without members of Congress who will push for them.  You get one elected here and one elected there and eventually you have the numbers you need.  If Rob Miller were to stay true to his word it puts us one step closer to some type of reform.

Congressman Joe Wilson (R) and his Democratic challenger Rob Miller are trading barbs as the race for South Carolina’s Second Congressional District is heating up.  Miller sent out a press release yesterday accusing Wilson of accepting $5,000 in campaign donations from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.  Likewise, the Republicans have attacked Rob Miller for accepting thousands in donations from the radical leftist group Moveon.org.  South Carolina Adjutant General Stan Spears condemned Miller yesterday morning for accepting donations from the very same group that ran the “General Betray Us” ads in 2007.  Miller is retired from the U.S. Marine Corps.

The Republicans are claiming that Miller’s accusations of Wilson accepting Abramoff money are false and I searched around the FEC Web site and was not successful at finding any myself, however I did find several donations from Moveon made to Miller.

COLUMBIA — Conservatives in U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s district are facing facts: They’re angry that he voted for the 2008 Wall Street bailout, but they know opposing him could send his Democratic opponent to Congress.

Exhibit A is GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, who declared in April that Wilson should “absolutely not” get another term but said Thursday that she now supports his re-election.

“This is about electing the most conservative candidate,” Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said. “In November, Congressmen Wilson is clearly the most conservative of those two candidates.”

Wilson, best known for shouting “you lie” last year while President Barack Obama was addressing Congress, is in a rematch against Democrat Rob Miller.

Wilson beat him two years ago with 54 percent of the vote, and this year’s contest is one of the nation’s most expensive U.S. House races, mostly because of the money that poured in to him and Miller after Wilson taunted Obama. Wilson’s most recent campaign finance report, filed May 19, shows he’s raised nearly $4 million while Miller has raised nearly $2.4 million. Their next reports are due next week.

Jane Kenny, organizer of the Tea Party Patriots of Bluffton at the foot of Wilson’s district near Beaufort and Hilton Head Island, said there’s no question that tea party activists are unhappy about Wilson’s bailout vote.

But, she said, “at this point in time we have a choice between Mr. Miller and Mr. Wilson. Mr. Miller is telling us he supports the Obama agenda, so by default, Wilson is our man.”

The Post and Courier

I don’t think Joe Wilson has a whole lot to worry about.  Unlike Barrett, who in my opinion ended his political career when he voted for the bailout, I agree that Wilson will escape the fury.  The first point is what Ms Kenny already stated.  If you are a conservative or even a moderate in Wilson’s district and your alternative to Wilson is a candidate who supports the incredibly unpopular Obama agenda, who are you going to vote for?  You’re going to vote for Wilson.

Second, as much as his behavior at the State of the Union address helped fuel Rob Miller’s candidacy, ironically it may have actually saved Wilson.  While he took a lot of flack over the “You lie!” outburst, people are realizing he was right.  Obama is a liar.  He marketed himself as this enlightened politically centrist figure who could bridge the gap between an increasingly divided America.  In actuality he’s become more polarizing than George Bush and he turned out to be the radical leftist that smart people like me knew he would be.

Right now, Democrat is a dirty word.  We’re in a total 180 from where we were politically the last two election cycles.  The momentum has been and I think will continue to be behind the GOP all the way up to Election Day and that will put Wilson over the finish line regardless of the mistakes he’s made.

That’s the total raised by both candidates combined in the 29 days following “Liargate.”  According to campaign finance reports Rob Miller has raised a little under $1.8 million and Joe Wilson a little under $3 million. While it would seem on the surface that Wilson is the primary beneficiary of his own outburst, remember that Miller does not need anywhere near the amount of money Wilson has in order to be competitive.  He only needs to raise a few million to mount a strong challenge, enough to buy advertising and get the word out about why he would be a better representative for the second district than Joe Wilson has been.  He’s easily going to  raise that amount and more.  So when you get down and really look at the nitty-gritty of things, this isn’t that great of news for Wilson, in my opinion.

The Post and Courier also points out that the bulk of the cash donated to both campaigns have come from out of state, 77% of Wilson’s new backers and 86% of Miller’s.  They may have struck a chord with folks around the country, but money raised from people outside the district really doesn’t reflect the feelings of those in the district and who will actually be voting for who.

This will undeniably be one of the most watched races next year and I expect to see a decent amount of polling on it over the next year to keep track.

Congressman Joe Wilson pulled in a cool $2.7 million this quarter receiving donations from more than 50,000 individual donors from all over the country.  He’ll need every penny of it next year.  The infamous “You lie!” outburst has riled up both his base and that of Rob Miller’s whose third quarter report has not been filed yet.

Upon heckling the President in his speech the other night, both Congressman Joe Wilson and Democrat Rob Miller have lined their campaign coffers with cash for next year’s election.  As of yesterday, Wilson had slightly outraised Miller in the past couple of days, but post polling shows the race now a dead heat.

Republican Congressman Joe Wilson trails challenger Rob Miller 44-43 in the wake of his shouting out ‘you lie’ during President Obama’s speech to Congress on Wednesday night. Wilson defeated Miller 54-46 in the 2008 election.

Public Policy Polling

Now whether or not this lasts remains to be seen.  It’s not unusual nor surprising that Miller would get a huge bump off of Wilson’s gaffe.  Obama has also enjoyed an uptick of support concerning health care after delivering another one of his classic eloquent, yet empty, speeches.  Once the furor over the incident dies down and people start focusing on the real issues again then Wilson will know if he’s in any real danger or not.  Regardless, Rob Miller has a lot of reasons to be smiling right now and Wilson will be on offense for quite some time.

Joe Wilson’s foot in mouth disease had made for some major bank for his Democratic opponent Rob Miller. As of 5:30 PM today, $880,745 has been raised for Miller since Wilson’s outburst a few days ago.

Update: However, Wilson’s cure seems to be a prosperous one.  According to Politico, he’s raised over $1 million in the past 48 hours!

Joe Wilson is now “remorseful.”

A few hours later, he complied in a written statement, saying “I let my emotions get the best of me,” The Associated Press reported. “While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.”

The timing could not have been worse: Wilson’s son, Alan Wilson, launched a bid Tuesday for state attorney general.

And Wilson himself is facing the possibility of a credible rematch of his narrow 2008 victory over Marine Corps veteran and Democrat Rob Miller, which Wilson won with 53.7 percent of the vote.

Miller received a flood of online donations in the hour after the speech, according to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee officials, with one estimate pegging the number of contributions at more than 200.

The AP

Whether or not Wilson’s outburst will hurt him next year really depends on how the voters in his district view Obama.  If his popularity continues to fall then I doubt Wilson’s actions are going to do any harm.  If people are more upbeat about Obama next year, then it could spell trouble and Rob Miller is certain to seize on this.  According to RedState, Miller raised $100,000 in donations in the past 18 hours.

Veteran Marine, Rob Miller, who challenged Congressman Joe Wilson last year and held him to just 54% of the vote, Wilson’s lowest total ever, is making another run in 2010.   Miller is dedicated to improving education and ridding us of unfunded bureaucratic mandates like No Child Left Behind, rewriting unfair trade treaties like CAFTA, and restoring fiscal sanity for Washington D.C. by supporting a balanced budget.  He even has the National Debt counter on his Web page, which peaks my interest in him more.  In my opinion, our spiraling debt that is making us more dependent on the Chinese and Saudis with each passing day is the biggest threat facing our country.

It’s hard to judge this far out from an election because the political environment can change so quickly, but I think Miller will be in an uphill battle.  As I have stated in the past when discussing possible challengers for Henry Brown, the Obama momentum that propelled so many Democrats to victory last year or brought them considerably close to it will not be present in next year’s election.  Furthermore, public trust in the GOP has slowly been returning as the Democrat’s stimulus plan has failed to produce any results and national spending has skyrocketed putting us further in debt.  If this direction continiues, Miller will have to position himself as more of an independent than a Democrat as the environment could well turn back in favor of the Repulicans next year.  He’ll have to make the focus specifically about Wilson and point out where he has been ineffective and how Miller can do better.  There likely won’t be a nationwide party backlack to assist Miller like there was in 2008 or 2006.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, famous among his congressional peers for his unflagging optimism, refuses to be disheartened by predictions Republicans will lose more seats in Congress on Nov. 4, sliding deeper into the minority-party morass.

Yet the Lexington County Republican is well aware of the threat. He faces the stiffest challenge of his congressional career in Democrat Rob Miller, an ex-Marine Corps captain and Iraq war veteran seeking office for the first time.

The State

Rob Miller is the most formidable challenger Wilson has had so far in his Congressional career.  He’s raised an impressive amount of money for a Democrat in a very conservative district.  I think Wilson is likely going to prevail in the end, but no Republican should assume immunity in this election.  With Obama on the ticket Democrats both old and new are going to be showing up in droves to put him over the top and down ticket candidates like Miller will see some of that trickle down to their benefit.

Second Congressional District Democratic candidate Rob Miller of Beaufort has accepted three invitations to debate his primary opponent, Blaine Lotz of Hilton Head Island.

The winner of the June 2 primary will face incumbent Joe Wilson in November.

Miller has accepted invitations to debate Wilson May 23 on Frank Knapp’s radio program in Columbia; on May 28 in Columbia on Tom Turnipseed’s radio program; and on June 5 in Beaufort in a forum hosted by the Beaufort Chamber of Commerce.

The Beaufort Gazette

While all six of the state’s congressmen face challengers, none of the races will be repeats as the all the major party losers in the general election of 2006 did not file to run for Congress again.

Fifth District Congressman John Spratt went the longest without a challenger. Republican Albert F. Spencer didn’t file to run against the 13-term Democrat until Saturday.

Spencer and Spratt have met before. In 2004, Spencer got 37 percent of the vote. A much better financed and supported Republican challenger in 2006, Ralph Norman, received about 43 percent of the vote against Spratt.

The 5th District stretches along the state’s northern border and rural Pee Dee areas – from Newberry and Cherokee counties more than 130 miles east to Dillon County.

The most crowded race is in the 1st District, which stretches from the Grand Strand to Charleston. Four-term incumbent Henry Brown will face Katherine Jenerette and Paul V. Norris in the Republican primary, while Linda Ketner and Ben Frasier compete for the Democratic nomination.

In the 2nd District, incumbent Joe Wilson will go for his fourth full term. He faces Phil Black in the Republican primary, while Rob Miller and Blaine Lotz are running for the Democratic nomination. That district runs from Beaufort County north into the northern and western suburbs of Columbia.

Gresham Barrett is seeking a fourth term in the 3rd District in the northwest part of the state. He will face Democrat Jane Dyer in the general election.

Fourth District incumbent Bob Inglis is trying for a third term since returning to Congress in 2004. He will face Charles Jeter in the Republican primary, while Bryan McCanless, Paul H. Corden and Ted Christian face off in the Democratic primary.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn will run for a ninth term in the majority-black 6th District. He will take on Republican Nancy Harrelson in the general election.

The State

Because of gerrymandering, don’t expect any of these to flip.

At least two Democrats are gunning for Republican Rep. Joe Wilson’s seat in Congress, though they face an uphill battle in a district that’s been in Republican hands since 1965, when then-Rep. Albert Watson changed parties.The candidates, Democrats Blaine Lotz, 64, and Rob Miller, 33, spoke to about 30 people Wednesday on Lady’s Island at a Northern Beaufort County Democratic Club meeting.”One of whom is sure to knock off Joe Wilson in November,” said an optimistic Alison Davidow, president of the club, amid whoops and applause.The Beaufort Gazette

Sure to knock off Wilson? Not likely. Very few Congressional races in this country are competitive due to gerrymandering and Wilson’s is no exception. The only thing that will oust Wilson is a story breaking a few weeks before the election claiming that he eats babies for breakfast and wears slippers made from kittens that mew when he walks.

Neither Lotz nor Miller are very detailed on their campaign Web sites. They give generalities on what they feel is the proper direction of the country, but they lack specifics on how to get there.

Blaine Lotz believes that a new Congress, together with a new President, can reinvigorate the economy of the country and our state, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, stabilize Social Security and Medicare, honorably end U.S. combat in Iraq, develop a foreign policy that does not rely solely on military force, restore America’s image in the world, respond responsibly to global warming, improve our public schools, adopt a practicable policy toward immigration and install a comprehensive health care program.

Lotz for Congress

How will a new Congress and President reinvigorate our economy? That is a very broad statement. Everyone has their own theories as to how to achieve this. What are Lotz’s ideas? How will we reduce our dependency on foreign oil? Will he vote to open up ANWR? Will he vote to drill off our nation’s coast lines? I’m an environmentalist, but not drilling in ANWR and forbidding to drill off our own shore line when China is doing it is pretty damn stupid. I can ask these same questions on every sentence, but you get the idea. We need to know more about where Mr. Lotz is coming from.

Rob Miller is a more intriguing character and it’s not because he does look a little like Clark Kent. He has a distinguished military career and has twice served in Iraq. I definitely would like to see more military veterans in Congress. Maybe in the future with more representatives who have actually experienced war firsthand our government won’t be so quick to rush into one in the future.

Rob Miller believes in a secure America, where our families and neighbors can live their lives without fear of violence, illness, or poverty. That’s why he put on a uniform more than a decade ago.

Rob believes in an America that thrives with economic security and prosperity, where we can live without fear of losing our homes, our savings, or our retirement and can afford to send our sons and daughters to college. He believes in an America where our children have access to the best health care in the world and an America that has the best schools and opportunities available to every child. He believes in an America that thrives with rivers and lakes and air and land that are clean and that we can be proud to pass on to our grandchildren.

Rob Miller for Congress

I imagine that just about every American would like a world in which Miller’s vision is reality, but it’s not. As long as there human beings there will be violence. As long as there are organisms on Earth there will be disease and as long as there are people who refuse to accept responsibility for themselves there will be poverty.

Furthermore, there is no protection against losing your home, savings, or retirement in a free market world. There is risk and reward. Unless you want an economy that is strictly controlled by the hand of government like most Socialist or Communist nations, then there is simply no such lifeline and in nations like those a lot fewer people have those amenities to even worry about.

American children already have access to the best health care in the world and in regards to education, I agree with him on that one, but if his solution is throwing more money down the drain, as is that of most Democrats, then we’ll just be treading water.

Overall, what I hear from both of these guys is more government intrusion in our lives, not less. We have already experienced the largest growth of government in American history under the Republicans. I don’t want to go into a new Congress where the other party is trying to top them at that achievement.