Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Miller has stepped up his exploratory effort in recent days as he nears a self-imposed deadline of July 1 to decide whether to take on Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.

Last week, Miller and his wife, Esther Hall, met for more than an hour with New York Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

All of this is from the News and Observer

This was added to in this morning's paper...

A moderate fundraiser (only $15) was held for John Edwards birthday in Chapel Hill.  The event included traditional BBQ/Cookout fixins and was very casual.

The speakers who were very brief were (in order) Brad Miller, Elizabeth Edwards, Dean Smith and John Edwards.

Dean Smith is a very remarkable guy - politically - which I'm sure not many people are aware of.  His dad was a high school basketball coach in Kansas and was the first coach to have a black player on a championship team (1934).  Dean Smith himself was the first coach to have a black basketball scholarship player at North Carolina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Smith

Smith is one of the most prominent liberals in North Carolina politics. Politically, he is best known for promoting desegregation. In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black UNC theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete.[32] In 1965, Smith helped Howard Lee, a black graduate student at UNC, purchase a home in an all-white neighborhood.[8]

He opposed the Vietnam War and, in the early 1980s, famously recorded radio spots to promote a freeze on nuclear weapons. He has been a prominent opponent of the death penalty. In 1998, he appeared at a clemency hearing for a death-row inmate and pointed at then-Governor Jim Hunt: "You're a murderer. And I'm a murderer. The death penalty makes us all murderers." As head coach, he periodically held UNC basketball practices in North Carolina prisons.[33]

Brad Miller gave a nice story of how he met Elizabeth Edwards in a courtroom once and although she was incredibly smart - his side won the case.  

The more interesting thing was how approachable and unassuming Congressman Brad Miller was.  I don't know much about him but when I told him I read the blogs he asked me which ones and pulled out his Blackberry.  DailyKos and MyDD were his top two web pages in his BlackBerry,  PoliticalWire was next (I think).  He seems like a really decent guy and if you check is bio seems pretty smart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Miller _%28congressman%29

He says he's considering running for Senate but hasn't fully decided.  He's got my vote.  (outside of someone who's less progressive (and a brutal campaigner) like Easley running I can't think of anyone better)

Elizabeth Edwards didn't say too much but more or less introduced Dean Smith pointing out his accomplishments.

John Edwards went over some of the same themes he has before.  Very positive no references to other candidates.  The one area he expanded on was a "connecting the dots" type of philosophy between worldwide poverty, lack of education. and terrorism.  Further, trying to get off of oil will force middle eastern countries to develop and invest in and educate their people.  He also mentioned that if biofuels could be developed country's with lots of agricultural land and people in poverty (africa) could benefit by selling goods to Europe.  

I think his best line was "we know what needs to be done, we should make fuel efficient cars in the USA with union workers".  Most of the other topics - mandated universal health care, getting out of Iraq and closing Gitmo on his "first day as commander in chief" have been discussed.  Surprisingly, Mrs. Edwards had not heard that Colin Powell said he'd close Guantanamo his first afternoon.  The line Edwards has used about GITMO can boost Edwards with a reference to Powell.  It's also interesting that in the first debate Mitt "used car salesman" Romney said he'd "Double Guantanamo".  I'm sure that's a youtube we'll see if he makes it to the general.

In their new ratings of the top 5 most vulnerable Republican Incumbents, CQ Politics has put Dole at #5.  This is a huge surprise, not because I dont think she is this vulnerable, but rather it is a suprise because the national media seems oblivious to polls done here.

The full article is here.

The article is a pretty simple run down of the situation on the ground, but it includes this praise for my candidate of choice, Brad Miller.

The area Miller now represents could make him a particularly potent statewide candidate. The 13th District -- which Miller helped draw as a member of the state legislature when North Carolina gained a House seat after the 2000 census -- splits fairly evenly between the parties, with perhaps a slight Democratic lean. It is anchored by urban areas in Greensboro and Raleigh, which are connected by several rural counties along the Virginia border.

My thoughts on Brad's district, and why it makes him strong state wide is available here.

This post just had more and more to report on.  Sorry for the multiple topics.

As many of you know we have been pushing for a top tier challenger to Elizabeth Dole for US Senate.  Well, it has been a busy week.

Wednesday there was a story on the News & Observer's blog about our website.

Then yesterday we had two big boosts.  The first came, oddly, in the form of a poll about a different potential challenger to Dole.  That poll showed a surprising result, with a generic Democrat leading a generic Republican in the Presidential race in North Carolina 47 to 42.

The second came when I emailed this guy you might have heard of that I worked for for a few weeks in the fall last year.

Bumped -- Jonathan... It's good to see the netroots continuing to take such an active role in trying to woo and recruit strong candidates for Senate on down.

In January we started a movement to convince Brad Miller to run against Elizabeth Dole for US Senate.

Since then the movement has grown larger and larger.  We have raised almost 2000 dollars for Rep. Miller, an amount that includes over 50 individual donations.

More importantly, Brad's name has been thrown around the pundit circles, and he has let the newspapers know that he is considering a run.

Normally over on dailykos (and maybe here too) it is a group of Edwards' supporters doing a nightly news round up.  However, there were two big pieces of news that included significant quotes from Brad Miller today that need to earn him some attention.

Recently in North Carolina there has been an (at times) frantic search for a top notch challenger to Elizabeth Dole.  Most of this discussion has focused upon who can beat her, because that is the (obviously) the point.

I know that Dole can be beaten.  There have been 3 polls taken in this race.  Dole's best showing was in a matchup with Congressman Bob Etheridge, where she got 45%.  (Against Brad she is up 44 to 33)

But, the first step in beating Elizabeth Dole is convincing fellow Democrats that you are the right person.  Without convincing Democrats, no matter who wins the nomination will not beat Dole, because he (or she) will not have volunteers, and they wont have donors, and they wont get supporters to the polls, and etc.

So, will Brad be able to convince Democratic activists to work for him?

"Genocide can occur anywhere. It is not an African phenomenon. We must have global vigilance. And never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence" -Bill Clinton in 1998

Amongst all the recent concern over the emerging Genocide in Darfur was a trip to the region led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

This trip included 11 Congressmen, including members of the CBC, who have been leading on the issue, and the ranking Republican from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  Among these Congressmen were both GK Butterfield and Brad Miller.

In addition to actually visiting Darfur, the group met with leaders in Greece, Germany and Egypt to try and move international pressure along.