Candidate profile: Evelyn Miller

The seat was supposed to go to Gladys Robinson.

Evelyn Miller recalled during an interview at the McDonald’s restaurant in the Adams Farm Shopping Center in Greensboro yesterday that she talked to Katie Dorsett, the current occupant of the NC Senate District 28 seat, about running. The sitting senator said at the time, according to Miller, that she intended to run for reelection, but that if she didn’t do so she would endorse Robinson. Dorsett did file for reelection.

Miller was leaving the board of elections office about 10 minutes before the deadline when she ran into Dorsett and Robinson. Dorsett was withdrawing from the race, and Robinson was getting in.

“When I went to file, I made the decision to go based on the desire to serve,” Miller said. “It wasn’t because someone had anointed me or some PAC had told me: ‘This is what you should do.’”

The 60-year-old Robinson edges Miller out in state-level policy experience, although neither candidate enjoys particularly good name recognition. An employee of Greensboro real estate giant Koury Corp., the 40-year-old Miller’s government experience consists largely of serving on the Greensboro Zoning Commission. Miller describes herself as “the new kid on the block,” makes a point to meet face to face with as many voters as possible, and emphasizes accessibility and accountability in her campaign.

Along the way, she has won some respect. Miller told me that former Mayor Yvonne Johnson and Guilford County Commissioner Bruce Davis are supporting her candidacy. Davis was angered by Dorsett’s about-face, and has launched a signature drive to try to get on the ballot in November as an independent. Miller added that Davis told her that after the primary, if she wins, “the gloves will come off.” She said she understands.

Throughout the campaign Miller has attempted to turn one of Robinson’s strongest assets, her service on the UNC Board of Governors, into a liability, pointing out that the board raised tuition rates eight times in the past 10 years.

On Monday, at a candidate forum hosted by the Guilford County Unity Effort, Robinson said she wanted to rebut Miller’s charge, and read off a series of statistics on tuition increases. In fact, they appear to back Miller’s claim: Statistics provided by the University of North Carolina system show a 20.5 percent increase in 2001-2002, 24.6 percent in 2002-2003, 5 percent in 2003-2004, 13.5 percent in 2004-2005, 12 percent in 2006-2007, 5.2 percent in 2007-2008, 1.2 percent in 2008-2009 and 2.8 percent in 2009-2010.

“We need to rein in tuition increases,” Miller said during our interview. “I have a 17-year-old daughter. Thank God she’s able to go to GTCC, but if she wants to go to a four-year college, I don’t want her or any student to have to work full time and take out student loans just to go to school.”

Miller describes her governing philosophy as “fiscally prudent and socially responsible.”

As a means of getting more revenue into the state budget to avoid future tuition increases, ensure that elderly citizens get proper support from Medicaid, and give local, small business owners a tax break, Miller favors a tax reform initiative known as combined reporting that requires out-of-state corporations to report all income derived from activities within the state under one umbrella and is supposed to keep them from shifting profits into various subsidiaries to keep them from being taxed.

Combined reporting has been championed by economist Elaine Mejia, with the left-leaning NC Justice Center in Raleigh. The Raleigh News & Observer has reported that Wal-Mart has been using the courts the fight a state tax bill from the NC Department of Revenue for $33.5 million, for profits hidden in various subsidiaries. The newspaper also reported that the Department of Revenue “identified an estimated $373 million underpaid in corporate returns” in 2008.

Miller is also a proponent of zero-based budgeting, a concept favored more often than not by conservatives. That approach entails building a budget from the ground up rather than making assumptions on department or programmatic spending based on levels in previous years.

Miller’s cautious approach carries over to light-rail, a public transit initiative requiring a significant upfront investment that has been embraced by Marcus Brandon and Ralph Johnson, two NC House challengers from Guilford County.

“I wouldn’t put so much investment in it right now,” Miller said. “I don’t think it will create so many jobs as others are saying.”

Miller’s view of road building is similar.

“I wouldn’t vote for any increases to finish up the Urban Loop,” she said. “We need to keep applying the funds that have been allocated to it, but not pour more money into it than we need to. We have enough roads to get where we need to go.”

Miller said she’ll work hard to represent all constituents in the district, especially those who live in High Point and have felt forgotten in the past.

“No one owes me anything,” she said. “I want [the voters] to know that I’m not owed anything. I think that’s the difference between me and my opponent. The first couple of times I’ve heard my opponent speak, she talks about what I have done for you. Not ‘I’ in a humbling sense, but you owe me. People need to know that you’re approachable. They’ll find that I’m passionate and strong and firm.”

Triad Elections '10