Miller Won't Rule Out Gubernatorial Bid

Advance America's Eric Miller isn't ruling out a run for governor next year as some media previously reported according to Brian Howey of the Howey Political Report. Howey gave Miller an opportunity to make a Shermanesque statement on his candidacy and he passed on it in an interview this week. Here's Howey's question and Miller's response:

Howey: Are you willing to give the Gen. Sherman treatment that "I will not run; I will not serve"?

Miller: What I've tried to share with people is that I will do everything I can to help them protect their home, their family, their farm, their business, their future and work to repeal property taxes. With regards to the governor's race, that is not my intention to run at this time.

That's not the sort of answer you would expect to hear from a guy who supposedly makes a living running a nonprofit organization, which bars him from legally engaging in any partisan politics. But let me add, this matter of the Internal Revenue Code hasn't gotten in his way in the past. This is a guy who emblazons his own name on his organization's property tax repeal effort like it was a political bumper sticker.

If Miller does choose to challenge Gov. Mitch Daniels in next year's GOP primary, I would look for the Daniels' campaign to run a much more aggressive, hard-hitting campaign against Miller than it did during the 2004 primary. The Daniels' campaign has a treasure trove of research produced by this blog, which documents how Miller has used the nonprofit Advance America organization to personally enrich himself, skirted the disclosure requirements of Indiana's Lobby Law and flaunted the organization's nonprofit status by engaging in questionable partisan politics on numerous occasions.