Leadership Quote by Laura Miller

Miller frames reform as combat, and she does it with the clipped practicality of someone who’s already counted votes. “Given the way some fought for the status quo” is both a reminder and a warning: she’s naming opposition without naming names, signaling she remembers who obstructed last time and suggesting those forces are still in play. The phrase “status quo” isn’t neutral here; it’s coded as a defended system, implying that ethics reform threatens entrenched advantages rather than abstract “tradition.”

She then claims authorship twice - “I authored” and “created” - not as ego, but as credibility. In politics, ethics is the easiest virtue to praise and the hardest to legislate, because real rules create real losers. By anchoring her request in concrete accomplishments (a new code, the first commission), Miller borrows legitimacy from institutional work, not just rhetoric. It’s an implicit argument: I didn’t just campaign on integrity; I built machinery that can enforce it.

The pivot to “we are going to need your strong support” turns ethics into a coalition test. “Strong” suggests ordinary approval won’t survive the pressure that’s coming - lobbyists, procedural delays, backroom carve-outs. And “even tougher” does quiet escalation: she’s setting expectations that the next version must close loopholes the old one left, or that opponents exploited. The line reads like a preemptive strike against dilution, an attempt to lock supporters into a posture of resolve before negotiations begin.