Kentucky State Treasurer Jonathan Miller, a rising star in the Democratic party and the leading advocate for a broader discussion of faith within politics, identifies ten nonpartisan values that unite all Americans, and uses Old Testament stories to highlight them. As an elected official in a "red" and largely Christian state, he has come to understand that although faith is often the source of divisiveness, the language of faith can bring Americans together. Inspiring stories from the Hebrew Bible illustrate Miller's plan to form a Compassionate Community. He shows that these lessons have the power to strengthen our country for future generations.
Jonathan Miller is the former two-term elected Kentucky State Treasurer, the author of the critically-acclaimed The Compassionate Community: Ten Values to Unite America (2006) and the brand new The Liberal Case for Israel: Debunking Eight Crazy Laws About the Jewish State (2012). Miller is also the founder of the bi-partisan political blog, The Recovering Politician, the co-founder of the national grassroots movement No Labels, and a regular contributor to The Huffington Post.
In his nearly two decades of public service, Miller also held several other senior positions in state and federal government, including serving in Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's Cabinet as Secretary of Finance and Administration, as Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Energy, as Legislative Director for Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN), and as a longtime aide to Vice President Al Gore.
Miller waded knee-deep in the political muck from an early age, founding Students for Gore for President in 1988, reviving College Democrats of America in 1989, serving as a Deputy Political Director for the Clinton/Gore 1992 presidential campaign, chairing the Kentucky Democratic Party in 2007, and running successfully twice for State Treasurer (1999, 2003), and unsuccessfully for Congress (1998) and Governor (2007).
To compensate for his political obsessions, Miller has also devoted himself to his faith. As a high school student, Miller served as President of the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY), the Reform Jewish movement's youth organization that his father headed a generation before. For more than a decade, Miller has taught Sunday School to high school students at Temple Adath Israel on the subject of Tikkun Olam, the Jewish mandate to help make the world a better place.
In April 2011, Miller left the political arena to join the private sector. He serves as Senior Adviser to Wellford Energy, a firm dedicated to helping develop and finance affordable clean energy technologies across the country and in Israel, and he practices law at the Lexington office of Frost Brown Todd, a full-service law firm with offices in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Indiana.
Also in 2011, Miller founded The Recovering Politician, a bi-partisan Web site, featuring more than 20 former politicians who share their views on the issues of the day, informed by their service in the arena, but no longer inhibited by the pressures of incumbency. He also is the Co-Founder of No Labels, a national grassroots movement of Democrats, Republicans and Independents who understand that, on occasion, we need to put aside our labels to do what is right for the country.
Miller and his wife of 22 years, Lisa, have two teenage daughters: Emily (18) and Abigail (16), who have begun to follow their own policy passions, without too much noodging from their beaming father.
