Miller will not run for governor in 2018 because she wants to remain close to
home in Macomb County, rather than spending many months spanning our vast state on
the campaign trail.
Her (very early) announcement in March that she wants to “come
home” rather than seek another House term on Capitol Hill sparked a flurry of
speculation among political pundits that she would soon run for governor or
senator or … something big.
But I ‘m convinced that she wants to stick close to her
aging, beloved husband, Don Miller, a former Macomb circuit judge and Selfridge
Air National Guard Base commander, in the years to come.
of Inside Michigan Politics, raises the prospect that Miller, a Harrison
Township Republican, has already lined up a new political gig that would be
very, very close to home.
Demas reports that Miller may have cast her eye on her old
job as Macomb County treasurer. The Democratic incumbent, Ted Wahby, is in his
80s and certainly ready to step down. Before you confuse partisanship with this
potential arrangement (this is Macomb County, where the rarest of political
birds, the conservative Democrat, still flourishes) it should be noted that
when Miller took office as county treasurer in 1992 she appointed Wahby, a
former longtime banker, as her deputy treasurer. In addition, she wholeheartedly
endorsed him as her successor in 1994 after she won election as Michigan
secretary of state.
Smooth transition
If he’s ready to retire, Wahby, a former St. Clair Shores
mayor, would no doubt love to have Miller succeed him as treasurer in 2016. The
congresswoman would win election in a landslide – and might not face any
Democratic challenger “at’all” – as Wahby would state it.
about 100 yards from Selfridge, as the A-10 flies — and have a 5-minute drive
along North River Road to her downtown Mount Clemens office, in the county
Administration Building. And she would live happily ever after.
That happiness might include routinely, playfully tweaking
the county Board of Commissioners (“Club 25,” as she once labeled them, now
Club 13) and Democratic County Executive Mark Hackel, presumably another
candidate for governor.
potential Miller run in the 2018 gubernatorial contest:
“Candice Miller — You’ve got to give the congresswoman
credit for being able to surprise Michigan politicos not once, but twice this
year. Shortly after being sworn in for her seventh term, Miller, 61, announced
it would be her last — even though the (10th Congressional District)
seat was probably hers as long as she wanted it.
No term limits
“Then a Miller gubernatorial
candidacy dominated the buzz at the Republicans’ biennial Mackinac Island
confab … sending establishment hearts aflutter at the prospect of a (female!)
reasonable Republican successor to Snyder who could give staunch conservative
Attorney General Bill Schuette a run for his money in the GOP primary.
“And Miller, who hails from southeast Michigan and
consistently overperforms her party’s base, would be a formidable general
election candidate. Schuette’s circle has pooh-poohed a Miller run, but that
might not just be wishful thinking. The latest rumor is that Macomb Co.
Treasurer Ted Wahby will step aside after Miller retires, allowing her to slide
into her old job, which is just minutes from her house and isn’t subject to
term limits.”
