Brad Miller Still Wont Say Hes Challenging David Price
Rep. Brad Miller, who has all but said he is challenging fellow Rep. David Price in next year’s Democratic primary in North Carolina, is continuing to walk a fine rhetorical line when it comes to what he plans to do in 2012.
Two court cases are challenging the new lines, and Miller told Roll Call last Thursday he is standing “shoulder to shoulder” with the Democrats in the delegation in support of them. But he also has been campaigning in the new 4th and admits as much.
“I am the working the district as drawn by the Legislature — [the map] that we’re still contesting,” he said. But he also is appearing at events in his current 13th district, which was reconfigured by GOP mapmakers to heavily favor Republicans. “I’m trying both to represent the district I was elected to represent in 2010 and to get to know people in the district the Legislature has drawn … that I live in now,” Miller said.
Unless the filing deadline is moved, Miller will have to make a final decision on his 2012 plans by Feb. 29.
Last month, Miller, who has emphasized his liberal bona fides, won the endorsement of the Daily Kos, an influential left-of-center website. The endorsement was made under the assumption Miller was running against Price. The site said their choice of Miller wasn’t a knock on Price but “a positive affirmation of everything Miller has done during his career in Congress.”
Price, who told Roll Call earlier this year he is definitely running in the 4th, recently commissioned a poll of the redrawn district that showed him with a comfortable lead over Miller.