NEW YORK – Political primaries can be very tough, and one never knows what one may end up doing by the end of an election season – especially if you're running the campaign of one of 17 competing Republican presidential wannabes.
And that's true of Donald Trump's new communications director Jason Miller. The Lefty blog Think Progress went digging through Twitter trash this week, and found some rather tart Tweets from Miller about his new boss while he was working for his old boss, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.
The name "Jason Miller" may sound familiar for those Illinoisans who've been either active or actively politically observant going back to 2003. That's the year Miller signed onto the Jack Ryan for U.S. Senate campaign. He went on to eventually win the hard-fought GOP primary for Jack Ryan over competitors Jim Oberweis, Andy McKenna and Steve Rauschenberger.
However, after a non-sex scandal that eventually pushed Ryan off the IL GOP's preferred list, Miller did not stay on with Dan Proft and Bill Paschall to direct the subsequent failed Alan Keyes effort.
On the Democrat side, now-President Barack Obama emerged as the 2004 U.S. Senate nominee.
And, well, the rest is history.
Back to Mr. Miller, the Trump campaign announced this week:
Jason Miller will serve as Senior Communications Advisor, where he will work with the existing team to build out a full Communications Department to deliver victory this November. Mr. Miller will work with several areas of the campaign to ensure messaging coordination and implementation. Mr. Miller has managed campaigns and shaped messages for successful House, Senate and gubernatorial races in addition to serving on the senior staffs of two presidential campaigns.
The Cruz campaign's website described Miller thus:
Communications and Digital [consultant] Jason Miller - Partner and executive vice president at Jamestown Associates from Jan. 2010. Executive at a communications firm. Deputy director of communications in charge of rapid response and surrogate speakers on the Rudy Giuliani campaign from April 2007 to 2008. Deputy chief of staff to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. Campaign manager for Sanford's 2006 re-election campaign; he came to the Sanford campaign after serving as campaign manager for Sen. George Allen's 2006 re-election campaign through late 2005. In 2003-04 Miller was campaign manager for Jack Ryan's U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois, and after that effort ended he worked on Tom Coburn's U.S. Senate campaign in Oklahoma. Campaign manager on Ric Keller's successful 2000 campaign for Congress in Florida's 8th CD, then served as chief of staff to the Florida Congressman. Worked for Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA). Graduate of The George Washington University. Native of Seattle, Washington
Think Progress found some pretty tough comments about his new boss Donald Trump that Miller had deleted from his publicly-displayed account that shows Miller's competitive instincts, loyalty and his determination – three things Trump is likely to appreciate:
and
While Think Progress showed several more found Tweets, they didn't mention whether or not Miller was one of the Cruz campaign insiders Trump accused of being involved in stealing the Iowa caucus from Dr. Ben Carson.
