Borris Miles

Borris Miles
Texas State House, District 146
Incumbent
In office
2011 - Present
Term ends
January 13, 2015
Years in position	2
Party	Democratic
Compensation
Base salary	$7,200/year
Per diem	$150/day
Elections and appointments
Last election	November 6, 2012
First elected	November 6, 2012
Next election	November 4, 2014
Term limits	N/A
Websites
Office website
Campaign website

Borris Miles (b. October 23, 1965) is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing the 146th District. He has served since 2011.

Miles was first elected to Texas' 146th District in the 2006 cycle; as part of the 80th Texas Legislature.

Biography

Borris Miles, a life-long Houstonian, once worked as a police officer for the Houston Independent School District Police Department and began an independent insurance agency out of his home. His company, the Borris L. Miles Insurance Agency, has grown to write more than $56 million in policies and is the largest black-owned insurance agency in the state.

Miles had made a point of supporting other minority owned businesses, including leasing space in the office building he nows owns to seven other small businesses owned by minorities. In the area around his office, he has additionally bought and renovated two city blocks.

He is active with the Urban League, the United Negro College Fund, and several other charities. Miles also found both the North Forest Scholarship and an endowment to fight sickle cell anemia.

Recently married, Miles has two children, aged 8 and 5, and belongs to the congregation of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church.

Education

• Sam Houston State University, B.S in Criminal Justice and Criminal Science

Several of his bills dealt with conditions for inmates, services for children, and environmental issues. During his first term, he was assigned to the Government Reform and Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committees, and saw 25 bills (sponsored or authored) pass into law.

Miles defeated Al Edwards, a 26-year incumbent, in 2006. However, his first term was marred by legal issues over Miles' July 2007 shooting of a man robbing his home and, later, of allegations that he brandished a firearm at a December 2007 party he had attended uninvited. Miles holds a concealed carry permit and was not charged in the shooting at his home, after police declared it to be self-defense. He was also cleared of all charges related to brandishing allegations.

During his first term in the state Legislature, on March 20, 2007, Miles voted against CSSB 378, a bill to allow the use of deadly force against intruders with no duty to retreat and with civil immunity if the act of force was found to be self-defense. The bill, however, passed the House 133-13 and passed the Senate unanimously, being signed into law on March 27, 2007.

Edwards challenged Miles in 2008 and won his old seat back. Now, in 2010, the same match-up has given the primary victory to Miles. The primary vote went into a recount and Miles emerged the winner by an impossibly slim eight vote margin.

The back-and-forth fight for the seat has birthed a rivalry between the two men, which quite possibly culminated on a morning radio broadcast on February 11, 2010. Edwards had publicly stated, in an early February interview with local radio host Michael Harriss on KCOH, that he would not debate Miles until the latter passed a drug test, saying Miles' behavior for the past several years had been erratic.

On February 11, when he was participating in the same morning show on KCOH, Borris Miles brought a private drug testing firm with him to the studio, provided a urine sample, and had the sample screened - all on live radio. After passing the drug test, Miles challenged Edwards to take an IQ test.

With no Republican pledged to run for the seat, Borris Miles is essentially guaranteed to be the 146th District's Representative in the 82nd Texas Legislature.

Committee assignments

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Miles served on the following committees:

Texas Committee Assignments, 2013
• Elections, Vice-chair
• Licensing & Administrative Procedures

2011-2012

Miles served on the following Texas House of Representatives committees:

Texas Committee Assignments, 2011
• Agriculture and Livestock
• Economic & Small Business Development

Issues

Medical tourism

Miles has been a proponent for medical tourism, in which people travel to other countries to receive treatment that would be much more expensive in the United States. In November 2010, he offered an all-expenses paid trip to Costa Rica to a majority of Houston Independent School District trustees to look into the cost-savings medical tourism could provide.

Miles, who owns his own insurance agency and is a vendor of HISD, organized the trips at the behest and expense of the Costa Rican government. Miles is an associate of DiCarlo Davis, chief executive officer of the company that organized the medical tourism familiarization event in November 2010.

An HISD trustee, Larry Marshall, twice took up Miles' offer of an all-expenses-paid trip. He attended the November 2010 medical tourism event and held a campaign fundraiser in Costa Rica in April 2010.

Miles said he has offered the paid trips to Costa Rica to school boards, union leaders and "any people of influence."

Key supporters

Mr. Miles maintains a list of all endorsements and supporters on the Supporters page of his campaign site.

• The Honorable Annise Parker
• The Honorable Ron Green
• The Honorable Jolanda Jones
• The Honorable James Rodriguez
• The Honorable Wanda Adams
• The Honorable Debbie Kerner
• The Honorable Larry Marshall
• The Honorable Paula Harris
• The Honorable Michael P. Williams
• The Honorable Chris Oliver
• Constable May Walker
• Audrey Lawson
• Joe Samuels
• Patricia Rauch
• Alvin Zimmerman
• Carl Davis

Endorsements

• The Houston Chronicle
• The Latino Labor Leadership Council
• Tejano Democrats
• Houston Black American Democrats
• Democracy for Houston
• Houston GLBT Caucus
• South Union Civic Club
• Off the Kuff with Charles Kuffner
• Dos Centavos with Stace Medellin
• Texas Liberal with Neil Aquino
• Brains and Eggs with Perry Dorrell
• Mt. Hebron Baptist Church
• Loyal Missionary Baptist Church

Elections

2012

See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2012

Miles ran in the 2012 election for Texas House of Representatives, District 146. Miles defeated Al Edwards in the May 29 primary election and was unchallenged in the general election which took place on November 6, 2012.

Texas House of Representatives District 146 Democratic Primary, 2012
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Borris Miles Incumbent	57.6%	4,484
Al Edwards	42.4%	3,305
Total Votes		7,789

2010

See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2010

In the March 2 Republican primary, Miles defeated incumbent Al Edwards by a margin of 5,048-5,040. Edwards was seeking his second term. No other candidates have declared for this race. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Miles is guaranteed to win the general election on November 2, 2010.

Texas House of Representatives, District 146 2010 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Borris Miles (D)		25,098	100%

Campaign

On December 18, 2009, Miles issued a press release announcing his candidacy, remarking, in part, "When people are hurting, they want leadership that understands their personal needs and has the ability to orchestrate change. We have missed that the over the past two years and now it is time to get back to work." Miles opened his campaign office on January 16, 2010, stating he was eager to get back to Austin and work for the voters of Harris County.

Miles rubbed some people the wrong way when he put out a press release declaring himself the victor of the primary race at noon on March 12, 2010, even though his opponent, Al Edwards, had until close of business on Monday, March 15, 2010 to make an official request for a recount. While Edwards did ultimately seek a recount, Texas election law also would have given him the avenue to file a lawsuit had he wished to do so after losing the recount.

Miles is also the target of an ethics complaint, filed by Texans for Ethics and Accountability, over the wording of his campaign signs, which urge voters to "re-elect" him. Under Texas law, only incumbent candidates - not former office holders - may use "re-elect" in campaign signs.

Campaign donors

2012

Campaign donor information is not yet available for this year.

2010

To date, Miles had raised $262,425. The $12,425 in excess of self-funding comes entirely from private individuals. 100% of his contributions are in-state, with a remarkable 95.27% being the candidate's own money. Below are listed Mr. Miles' top five contributors.

Contributor	2010 total	Percentage
Borris L. Miles	$250,000	95.27%
Theldon R. Branch, III	$4,000	1.52%
Richard S. Hill	$1,000	0.38%
Terence H. Fontaine	$1,000	0.38%
Darrick H. Givens	$1,000	0.38%

Scorecards

Empower Texans Fiscal Responsibility Index

Empower Texans produces the Fiscal Responsibility Index as "a measurement of how lawmakers perform on size and role of government issues." The index uses "exemplar votes on core budget and free enterprise issues that demonstrate legislators' governing philosophy." Legislators are graded along a standard grading scale, receiving grades A through F based on their performance during the legislative session.

2011

Borris Miles received a grade of F on the 2011 Fiscal Responsibility Index.

External links

• Borris Miles for State Representative 146
• Borris Miles House member page

• February 2, 2010 Interview with Borris Miles at OffTheKuff

• Borris L. Miles at Project VoteSmart
• Borris Miles at Follow The Money

References

Political offices
Preceded by Al Edwards (D)	Texas House of Representatives District 146 2011-Present	Succeeded by -