I smell an early House election campaign in California

Hypocrisy in action in CA-42:

Gary Miller (not to be confused with George Miller, D, CA-7) was first elected to the House in 1998. In 2006, he ran for election unopposed. His growing seniority has garnered him an appointment as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Investigations on the House Financial Services Committee. (And under investigation as a tax cheat! Yikes!!)

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LUCRATIVE LAND DEAL
Dennis Hastert cleared a cool million for land he sold for a highway development he slipped into an earmark. And the Pombo family in California apparently benefitted from a similar highway related deal. So this kind of thing is not unheard of. But Miller’s real estate windfall was an order of magnitude greater than Hastert’s. A cool ten million! CREW filed a IRS complaint against the Congressman last summer:

In 2002, Rep. Miller sold 165 acres to the city of Monrovia, California, making a profit of approximately $10 million. In 2004, Rep. Miller reinvested the proceeds of the sale in land and building purchases in Fontana, California, and Rancho Cucamonga, California. Rep. Miller again claimed IRC 1033 exemption when he sold some of his Fontana land and building acquisitions in April and June of 2005. He used proceeds from this sale to purchase additional land in Fontana, which he subsequently sold to the city in 2006 for $50,000 more than his original purchase price.

So, ten million profit in a land deal. And federal earmarks for improvements that increased the property value. This has been business-as-usual for entirely too many Republicans in Tom Delay's short-lived "Permanenet Majority." Sigh.

The Democratic party out west might want to start think about lining up a candidate for this one ASAP... Whether Miller manages to hang around until 2008 or not, the campaign is on. The sooner there is a candidate to oppose him the better. Get that "name/face recognition" spinning in the media now.

As a side note: I may not write much the next couple of days... I am trying to do a bit of research to help out ePluribusMedia and it involves WAY TOO MUCH reading! lol