Tom Miller, after winning over $1B for Iowa, ends 40 years in office

DES MOINES — As he leaves the office after a national record-setting four decades, Tom Miller considers the work he did alongside other states’ attorneys general to be among his greatest accomplishments.

The 78-year-old Miller, a Democrat originally from Dubuque, is serving his final days as Iowa Attorney General. The longest-serving state attorney general in U.S. history, Miller lost his latest re-election campaign in November to Republican Brenna Bird.

Miller’s last official day on the job is Tuesday. He spoke with The Gazette about his 10 four-year terms.

Miller said one of the things of which he’s most proud is his work on multistate lawsuits on behalf of consumers. Over his 40 years in office, Miller worked on many such lawsuits, and his office was asked to take the lead in a few major cases that resulted in billions of dollars in settlement funds to Iowa.

“It just struck me that, particularly in a state like Iowa but virtually every state, you could do so much more as a group of states than you could individually. Particularly, large corporations just could have out-resourced us. And that changed when we did things together,” Miller said.

Miller was Iowa Attorney General since 1979, aside from a four-year break when he ran unsuccessfully for governor. While there were many such lawsuits over the span of his career, Miller highlights three in particular:

“Multistate (lawsuits) became a big part of my career. Because we could do some really big things for Iowans that we couldn’t do alone,” Miller said.

In recent years, Miller has led the Iowa Attorney General’s Office in multistate lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies who are alleged to have contributed to the nation’s opioid crisis. Thus far, the settlements have resulted in new regulations of opioid distribution, and are expected to bring to Iowa nearly $350 million in settlement funds over the next 18 years, Miller’s office said.

In 2019, Miller struck a deal with Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds by which he agreed to get her blessing before joining a multistate lawsuit. Reynolds, in turn, agreed to veto legislation passed by the Republican-majority Iowa Legislature that would have put such a requirement into state law. The legislation was produced because Iowa Republicans did not like Miller’s office joining multistate lawsuits against then-Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.

Miller said he agreed to the deal with Reynolds in order to prevent future Iowa Attorneys General from being hamstrung by state law. His successor, who said she would not abide by the same agreement as did Miller, campaigned on a platform that included suing the Democratic Biden administration over what she called overreach

Bird has served as the county attorney for Fremont, Guthrie and Audubon counties. She worked as former Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King’s counsel and chief of staff until 2010. After that, she worked as Gov. Terry Branstad’s legal counsel until 2015.

Miller said he believes the hallmark of his time in office has been his willingness to do the right thing regardless of the political implications.

Miller’s office has defended the state in lawsuits brought by Democratic-minded organizations, only occasionally withdrawing from cases over potential conflicts of interest. But in 2018, Miller for the first time withdrew from a case based on his ideology: He declined to represent the state in its case defending legislation that would have required a 24-hour waiting period before a woman could have an abortion. The law was never implemented because it was struck down by the state courts.

Miller repeated the action in 2022, when he withdrew the office from legal wrangling over the case when it was resurrected in the wake of abortion rulings by the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Courts.

“This decision is consistent with my disqualification in the fetal heartbeat case in 2018,” Miller said in a statement after his decision in 2022 to once again withdraw his office from the case. “In that case, I stated that I could not zealously assert the state’s position because of my core belief that the statute, if upheld, would undermine rights and protections for women.”

On the whole, Miller said, he has been willing to work across political party lines and act in the best interest of Iowans, regardless of the political consequences.

“We’ve done it our way in the sense that I’m willing to work across party lines, willing to compromise,” he said. “But in terms of values and principles, we never compromised. We did it our way, which was basically doing the right thing, no matter what the political circumstances were at the time.”

Miller said he’s not sure what will come next. He said he plans to take some time off “to catch up and recharge,” but that he expects to stay at least somewhat active in causes that are important to him.

“I don’t want to totally retire, but I want to have some time off,” he said.

As for the future of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office under Bird, Miller said he’ll be watching to see how the state manages the opioid settlement funds, and the office’s future work on that issue.

“It’s really a great office. It’s, in my view, the best office in state government for a variety of reasons,” Miller said. “She’ll have some opportunities to do some really good things. And obviously that’s up to her.”

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com