Joe Miller - Fiscal conservative, budget balancer, not liverer beyond his means.... and... (wait for it)... buried under mounds of credit card debt, and running a campaign more than $100,000 beyond his means?
Apparently so. Miller, who was supposed to have filed his financial disclosure paperwork for his run for Senate back in April, has finally gotten around to it. No wonder he wasn't in any hurry. It's an interesting disclosure. From Anchorage Daily News:
He owes himself between $100,001 and $250,000 for a campaign loan, according to the paperwork. Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission show that he loaned himself $103,920 for the campaign.
Miller also has a substantial amount of credit card debt, including between $35,003 and $80,000 on three separate charge accounts: two cards charging 10.24 percent interest with Bank of America and one zero percent interest loan with USAA Federal Savings Bank. He also owes student loans valued at $15,001 to $50,000. A federal judicial disclosure report released today by the federal courts from Millers' time as a federal magistrate show that in 2004 he owed between $30,001 and $55,001 for his law school education.
Miller and his wife have between $15,001 and $50,000 in a money market mutual fund IRA with TD Ameritrade, and own his law offices, valued at $50,001 to $100,000. Rent at the law firm brought in $50,001 to $100,000 last year. He has a savings account valued between $15,001 and $50,000.
Miller also declares a $15,001 to $50,000 share in the A Street Apartments in Fairbanks. He and his wife also own undeveloped farmland in Delta Junction valued between $250,001 and $500,000. The land appears to be the same farmland he borrowed from the state of Alaska's Agricultural Revolving Loan Fund.
Now, I'm no economist like Joe Miller, but if I were running on a platform of fiscal conservatism, and talking all the time about how the United States is being managed badly, and about how debt is going to kill our nation, and about how we need to get our financial house in order, the first thing I'd do before standing in front of the microphone and convincing people that I was the candidate for them -- is get out of debt and get my fiscal house in order. Just saying.
No telling how long Joe Miller would have waited to reveal the documents to We the People had there not been inquiries by the press, who keeps track of such things. He says the failure to file was unintentional. Just one of those little things that slip through the cracks while you're off picking out drapes, and daydreaming about prying Lisa Murkowski's name off the office door. If he'd failed to file them altogether, he could have added another $50,000 to his debt in the form of a fine from the Federal Election Commission. The fine for being a month late is $200. No specifics from the Daily News on how much it is if you're six months late.
And no specifics on how this supposed fiscal conservative and budget hawk plans to perform these duties with your money when he can't even do it with his own.
The link above will take you to more details.