RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Rep. Brad Miller said Monday he's not interested in challenging U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, scratching his own name from an early list of prospects as the search for candidates begins.
Democrats are eager to take a run at Burr, who is up for re-election for the first time in 2010, and the party hopes to maintain momentum that swept them to the brink of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate this year.
Miller is a three-term Democratic lawmaker whose district stretches from Raleigh to Greensboro. He was courted to challenge Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole for last month's election. Miller declined to run against Dole and went on to comfortably win re-election to the House.
When he passed on the bid last year, Miller explained that the campaign would have turned his life upside down at a time that he was focusing on important issues in the House. This time, Miller was a little more blunt, saying he's not even interested in going through the process of considering the bid.
"I don't want to spend 18 months of my life having people in Washington tell me how to be Southern," Miller said.
Miller was one of several Democrats to avoid Dole, and some Democratic strategists had suggested that she should get a pass because of her broad name recognition and lengthy experience in Washington. But state Sen. Kay Hagan ended up joining the race to challenge Dole and in November, unseated the GOP senator by a comfortable margin as Democratic leaders in Washington spent millions on negative ads targeting Dole.
Miller has said he has no regrets about his decision to stay in his seat.
http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/4145618/
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