Surprise, a new Hillsborough commissioner. So who is Christine Miller?
Christine Miller had some heavy homework over the weekend: reading through Hillsborough County’s $9 billion budget, which county commissioners take up later this month.
And they’ll do it with Miller as their newest member, and a surprise one at that.
“It’s sitting on my kitchen table,” Miller, 52, told the Tampa Bay Times. “Some light reading.”
It’s been a whirlwind in county politics: Miller, president and CEO of the Plant City Chamber of Commerce, was already running in a busy countywide commission race. In June, board member Michael Owen, whose east and south county district stretches from Plant City to Apollo Beach, unexpectedly resigned to run for the state House. Miller quickly switched to the race to replace him.
His abrupt departure left the board, which tilted Republican with four GOP members to three Democrats, at a 3-3 split. Then Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Miller, a self-described conservative Republican, to fill the seat until the November election.
So what will her personality be on a board already full of them?
“I’d like to think I’m a collaborative leader. I’m definitely interested in consensus building,” she said. “I’m willing to learn from those who’ve been there before, but I shouldn’t be underestimated.”
Miller, who’s been meeting her new colleagues, said her work style is that if she commits to something, she’ll get it done: “If the toilet needs to be scrubbed, I’ll do it,” she said.
She grew up in Land O’ Lakes. Her father worked for Tampa Electric Co. and her mother was a homemaker who worked jobs off and on. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Florida State University, worked in Pasco County government, was a State Farm agent and ran United Food Bank.
“When I entered the chamber world, I didn’t like the parties, pageants and parades part of it,” Miller said. “I knew the greatest impact I could have on the community was to have strong businesses.”
Before her appointment, a reporter called to ask her about a rumor that the governor, whom she had met through work, might pick her while he was in town recently to sign the state budget. She made a joke: “If I thought I was going to be appointed, I would have washed my hair,” she said.
She and her husband, vice president of fulfillment at PennyMac Mortgage, have a grown daughter and son, a 10-year-old daughter and a Shih Tzu named Wookiee and live just outside Plant City. In her off time, she likes to do research, travel, take hikes, spend time with her youngest, go boating and ride her horse, Beauty.
She was sworn in at a small ceremony Monday, and said she’s looking for a more public event after the November election.
In the August primary, she’s running against Republican real estate broker Cody Powell. The winner faces whichever Democrat emerges — recent college graduate and activist Jonathon T. Chavez or Nicole Payne, business owner and president of the Hillsborough Black Chamber of Commerce.
As a commissioner, does she see herself crossing the aisle? “I think it would depend on what it is,” she said. “I’m pretty conservative and representing a pretty conservative district.”
“I think when you treat people with respect, even if you don’t vote the same or feel the same about the topic, you can still work well together,” she said.
Harry Cohen, one of the board’s three Democrats, said he looks forward to working with her.
“We met recently and she seems very enthusiastic to do the job,” he said. “We really do need a board of seven commissioners, and it’s just great she’s going to be here in time for the budget discussions.”
