Congressional candidate profile: Carol Miller
Independent's nontraditional campaign takes root
10/18/2008
Photo by: New Mexican file photo
As she waits on a recent morning for the KFUN 1230-AM radio show to begin, she walks over to talk to the one person in the small radio station reception room she doesn't know already, striking up a conversation about national parks.
The approach is part Miller's personality — she's an affable and outgoing campaigner — but also part necessity.
As the independent candidate in the race for the state's 3rd Congressional District, Miller needs to get to know all the voters she can.
She also needs to get to know all the towns in the district she can, and is in Las Vegas as part of a swing through Northern New Mexico.
Already, Miller, 61, knows the area well. She came through it when she ran in 1997 for the seat as a Green Party candidate, garnering 17 percent of the vote. Critics credit her with taking enough votes away from Democrat Eric Serna to allow Republican Bill Redmond to win the seat. The following year, though, with Democrat Tom Udall in the race, Miller attracted just 4 percent of the vote.
Miller rejects the idea that she's simply a spoiler. She says she is focused on this year's election, a race in which she says she is focused more on campaigning than fund-raising.
"It's more fun (this time)," she said. "I rejected the traditional campaign because I didn't want to set my schedule around fundraising and then spending a lot of time telling people why they should give me money."
In an Albuquerque Journal poll a couple of weeks ago, 14 percent of those surveyed said they'd vote for her. Republican Dan East got 18 percent, and Democrat Ben Ray Luján had 41 percent. The rest were undecided or wouldn't say.
Miller says those numbers looked good for her, in part because so many people hadn't made up their mind for the Nov. 4 election.
"The response has been fantastic," she said. "Being in Clovis and having people tell me they'd always voted straight Republican and then saying they'd already voted for me," she said. "Or being in Rio Rancho and finding people who've always voted Democrat and having them say they'd voted for me. I think when people look at the Independent next to my name, they like it."
Still, Luján, son of House Speaker Ben Luján, by many estimates is the favored candidate in the heavily Democratic district. He has more name identification than Miller, who fought to be included in a televised debate tonight at 6 p.m. on KOAT-TV, Channel 7. The station originally did not invite her, but Miller quickly mobilized supporters to demand she be included.
Less than a week later, the station changed its mind.
That situation is indicative of Miller's campaign: replete with e-mail activism and grassroots events, without the fanfare of other candidates.
Miller, a public health advocate who lives in Ojo Sarco, has worked for the past decade as the executive director of a think tank called National Organization for Frontier Communities. The group works to provide health and other services to people who live in small communities, including Peñasco.
It's that work, part of which involves lobbying Congress, that she says qualifies her more than the other candidates to work in Washington.
One common theme of Miller's on the campaign trail is that she'll work with people in any party, and her record backs that up. In 2004, she was the state coordinator for Ralph Nader's Independent presidential campaign. Two years later, Miller endorsed Republican Heather Wilson over Democrat Patsy Madrid in the race for the state's 1st Congressional District, drawing ire from Democrats. Along the way, she's worked with members of the state's congressional delegation from both parties, particularly on health-care legislation.
"I'm going to work with people in any party, and thank goodness," she said.
While her campaign isn't loaded with the kind of cash that the other candidates have — she had $5,805 in the bank at the end of September and has loaned her campaign $23,000 — it has something else: dedicated volunteers, including those who drive Miller around the district and help organize events in various towns.
Nancy Childs, a registered Democrat, has known Miller since she ran in 1997.
"Of the people running for the 3rd district, Carol Miller's philosophy and her whole approach and belief system is very close to Tom Udall," Childs said. "When you think of the three candidates, she is the logical inheritor of this seat."
While Childs' thinks Miller is the best qualified for the post, not all Democrats share her view.
Democrats in 2004 sued to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot in New Mexico. And some have worried behind the scenes that Miller could steal votes from Luján this year.
"You can say that, but if all the people who took that attitude instead voted for the candidate, the candidate would stand a chance of winning," Childs said.
Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog, Green Chile Chatter, at www.santafenewmexican.com.
CAROL MILLER, INDEPENDENT
Family: Married to husband Larry for 35 years; daughter Sarah is headed to medical school; large extended family
Hometown: Ojo Sarco.
Education: Bachelor's degree in art, Wheaton College; master's degree in public health, University of California, Berkeley; additional postgraduate studies at Georgetown University and The University of New Mexico
Age: 61
Years in New Mexico: 33
Occupation: Public health advocate
Have you ever been arrested for, convicted of, charged with or accused of a felony or misdemeanor? I was arrested for a misdemeanor trespass with a group of women peace activists in the 1970s for insisting that the U.S. government finalize the Paris Peace Agreement with Vietnam and end that war.
Have you or any company you've owned or own ever filed a bankruptcy petition?
Best meal you can cook from scratch: Anything cooked with food just picked from my garden
Name the last book you read: The Attack by Yasmina Khadra
What alternative energy programs do you use at home? I live in a passive solar house with biomass (wood) backup. We purchase wind power from Kit Carson Rural Electric Coop.
Name the last charity for which you volunteered. Picuris-Peñasco Community Coalition
What role, if any, does spirituality play in your life? I find comfort and mindfulness in nature as well as many different religious and spiritual traditions. I am moved by pueblo dances and the pole climbs at Picuris and Taos, the sung rosarios of Northern New Mexico, Jewish traditions and various forms of meditation.
When was the last election in which you didn't vote? I always vote.
What kind of car do you drive in New Mexico? 2002 Subaru
Campaign Web site: www.carolmillercongress.com
| Republican candidate Dan East |
| Democratic candidate Ben Ray Lujan |
| Independent candidate Carol Miller Video Interviews by Kate Nash/The New Mexican |