A loyalty to his district prompted Senate President Thomas Mike Miller Jr. to run again for Senate in 2010 rather than retire.
“Decisions are not always about individuals. It?s not always about what?s best for one self,” said Miller, who choked up at the news conference Wednesday in a Senate office building named after him when he discussed his love for his district of Prince George?s and Calvert.
“You think about people, people that have sustained you. You decide that there are more important things in the world.”
Miller, 65, said he was comfortable with his 2006 decision to retire after “a very bitter and divisive campaign” and spend more time with his five children and 12 grandchildren.
But he said he was more concerned about who would succeed him in his district with substantial infrastructure needs than maintaining his power as Senate president for the past 22 years, though he would seek to hold the job at least for another two years.
He said any of the four committee chairman he appointed were qualified to succeed him.
Several had been quietly rounding up support and raising the sort of money that would be available to fund the Senate campaigns of other Democrats, as Miller had for decades.
Gov. Martin O?Malley?s “hard work, energy, vision, enthusiasm” helped re-energize Miller, and he said he had developed a new working partnership with House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel.
Miller, a 34-year veteran, is the longest serving presiding officer in Maryland history, a job that before Miller changed hands every four to eight years.
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