Whittier Daily News: "3 Dems vie to run against Miller" Two years ago, Democrats in the 42nd Congressional District didn't have a challenger against Rep. Gary Miller. This year, three Democrats, two from Orange County and a third from Montebello, are seeking the right in Tuesday's primary to run against Miller, R-Diamond Bar. All of them say - despite a 48 percent to 30 percent registration edge for Republicans - they can beat Miller. "It is a district where Republicans outnumber Democrats," said Ed Chau, a Montebello school board member. Chau, 50, an attorney, is running against Ron Shepston, 61, an avionics engineer from Silverado, and Michael Williamson, 49, a police sergeant from Mission Viejo, for the right to meet Miller in the November general election. "However this year, many decline-to-state (voters) and some Republicans are leaning toward voting Democrat," Chau said. "Things are changing and demographics are changing. People are beginning to see Democrat ideas are good." But Sylvia Southerland, chairman of the 58th Assembly District Republican Central Committee, said Miller seat is safe. "I applaud their enthusiasm, but it's unrealistic," Southerland said. "The numbers are not there. Gary is a very popular sitting congressman. How can you beat an incumbent, Republican or Democrat?" The biggest issue - other than who is best able to meet Miller - might be Chau's residency. He lives in Montebello outside the district. Federal law only requires that a candidate live in the same state, not the actual district. Williamson has placed a Web ad on You Tube attacking Chau for not living in the district. And while Shepston said he isn't bringing up the issue, he doesn't think that Chau's residency looks good. "It's an issue registering with voters," he said. "Republicans will tear him up on that." Chau said he doesn't think where he lives is a big deal. "Voters are more concerned about the issues," he said. "As a member of Congress I will be making policy that will impact the entire country. These are federal issues that impact everyone. I only live a few miles from the district. It's not that important." There appear to be few differences on issues between Chau and Shepston. Both also have spent about $54,000. Williamson, who hasn't filed a campaign finance report because he hasn't reached the $5,000 limit, seems to be the more conservative candidate. "I fall between the two," he said, referring to the two parties. "I'm more like a Joe Lieberman or Zell Miller." Chau and Shepston said they are for universal health care and oppose the war in Iraq. Instead, their debate is over experience. "I approach problems not from a partisan point of view, but how do we solve them," Shepston said. "I'm a person who builds coalitions to understand a common goal," he said. "I'm pretty good at talking to people and their issues."

The New York Times, March 27, 2007 Republican Rep. Gary G. Miller, who represents California's 42nd District, does not stand out as particularly vulnerable to defeat. Miller represents a strongly Republican-leaning district in the suburbs of Los Angeles in which the Democrats did not even bother to field a candidate in 2006, when Miller won a fifth term. But Democratic campaign officials are vowing to target Miller in the 2008 campaign, brandishing what they claim are "ethical questions" about the congressman and his real estate transactions. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which oversees campaign strategy and candidate recruitment for the House Democrats, on Tuesday made public a seven-year-old video of Miller that shows him repeatedly asking the city council in Monrovia, Calif., to purchase property that he owned. The committee says the video footage directly contradicts Miller's claim that he was "forced to sell" his property under eminent domain - a government power to seize private property for public use. The Democrats' video is the latest iteration of the strategy the party employed in the 2006 election of portraying Republican lawmakers of having fostered a "culture of corruption" during the 12-year period of House Republican rule that the Democrats reversed last November. "One of the objectives of the video is to jog Congressman Miller's memory," DCCC spokesman Doug Thornell said. "To remind him that he's in Washington to represent constituent interests instead of fatten his own wallet." The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets have reported that Miller, a real estate developer, is under investigation by the FBI for land deals in Monrovia - which is located in the 26th Congressional District, represented by Republican David Dreier, not in Miller's own 42nd District - and in Fontana, another southern California city, and specifically for evading taxes by claiming he was forced to sell his property under the threat of eminent domain. But Miller, in an interview with CQPolitics.com on Tuesday, described as "bogus" the claim that he is under FBI investigation. "This is nothing but a political hit piece started by the L.A. Times," Miller said. Miller also said the video clip circulated by the DCCC was "incredibly edited" such that it was misleading. Miller said that one of his responses was to a Monrovia council member who had asked him to donate his property to the city. Miller is shown arguing that the city should buy his property instead of forcing him to hand it over. "But they didn't show the part where I said, 'I'm not giving you my property,'" Miller said of the DCCC video. Democrats say that what they regard as Miller's ethical problems have already helped them attract candidates to run against the congressman in 2008. A campaign in California's 42nd is not an easy sell to top-flight Democratic candidates. California's 42nd, which takes in Mission Viejo, Chino and part of Anaheim, backed President Bush in 2004 with 62 percent of the vote - one of his best showings in the state. The same year, Miller won a fourth House term with 68 percent of the vote, which was a career high until he ran unopposed last year - one of a small handful of Republicans who did not face political opposition from the Democrats. "I've represented my district well," Miller said, adding that Democrats would face a very tough fight in his district. "If the DCCC wants to waste a whole lot of money, welcome to Orange County, and L.A. and San Bernardino County, because you'd better bring a bucket load of gold."