(strong stuff from our netroots candidate, Ron Shepston.  His candidate website is here. – promoted by David Dayen)

I haven’t been around much in the past few months. In fact, I’ve been busy getting ready for our bust-out campaign. Call time and endorsement pushes are very time consuming especially when you have to still work to put food on the table. With this post I am back.

Today, I called on Rep. Gary Miller (pg2) to reimburse the taxpayers $1.28 million for an earmark that he placed in the 2005 Highway bill.

I am sick and tired of letting career politicians who care more about their personal business than the peoples’ business run our country.  

For those of you that don’t know the Gary Miller story, in 2005, Rep. Miller inserted an earmark into the Highway bill.  This earmark paid for street improvements near Diamond Bar Village.  This is a local commercial and residential development.

The catch? The development is co-owned by Mr. Miller and his largest campaign contributor, ,Lewis Operating Corporation.

I don’t think our tax dollars should be used to personally enrich Gary Miller or his biggest campaign contributor. According to law, Members of the House are prohibited from, “taking any official actions for the prospect of personal gain for themselves or anyone else.”

This is not the first and only time Rep. Gary Miller has blurred the lines.  In a 2006 LA Times story, members of his Congressional staff say there was “never a clear line between what was Congressional business and what was just business.  The expectation was that you would do both.” (The Times link is dead. If you have it please let me know.)

The problem for Gary Miller is, there is a clear line between right and wrong and he’s crossed it.

Here is what we want to do.  Our goal is to raise $16,384 to help defeat Rep. Gary Miller.  That’s 128 contributors at $128 dollars per donor.  But I realize $128 is too much for many people so here’s how you can let everyone know that you want to highlight Gary Miller actions – add $1.28 to each contribution. If you want to help hold Gary Miller accountable then contribute now.

When we launched this campaign we did it because we believed it was time to hold Gary Miller accountable.  We believe that it is time for the first candidate for a federal office from the netroots to run for Congress.  

We need your help right now.  Sign up and Contribute. Link to this diary and tell our friends. I promise that I will work hard each and every day and build a local grassroots campaign for Congress that has not been seen in Orange County in a long time but I need your help. I can’t do it without you.

WAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

The list by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington names 18 Republicans and four Democrats.

Doolittle, whose connections to lobbyist Jack Abramoff are the subject on a Justice Department investigation, said the listing was an underhanded attempt to attack him from a liberal Democrat organization funded by billionaire activist George Soros.

“I just really think it’s unfair and wrong for an underhanded and vile organization like CREW, who disagrees with me because I’m a conservative Republican, to attack me on that,” he said. “Because of the atmosphere right now, it’s a very impactful thing.”

Doolittle has said he has done nothing wrong and wants the Justice Department investigation to come to a conclusion to clear his name. With a new congressional election coming in November 2008, Doolittle is already facing a Democrat challenger who ran a surprisingly strong campaign against him in 2006.

There’s the obligatory Soros reference, the dismissal of any criticism as partisan, but also the admission that CREW’s list, which includes 4 Democrats along with 18 Republicans, is “impactful.”  That’s because he can’t argue with any of the findings so he attacks the source.

By the way, Auburn Journal, it’s a DEMOCRATIC challenger.  And his name is Charlie Brown.  You can donate to him through the Calitics ActBlue page and then come down to one of our Q3 Quarterly events tonight.