Posted on 07/08/2013 7:39:37 PM PDT by TexGrill
Now that Rick Perry has taken himself out of the 2014 gubernatorial race, Texas on the Potomac is looking at the two early contenders for the Republican nomination for governor, Attorney General Greg Abbott and former Texas GOP chairman Tom Pauken. This profile of Pauken was written by Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune
Tom Pauken has chosen a hard road.
He’s a Republican running for governor in a race that could feature either the longest-serving governor in state history, one of the best-financed potential replacements in history, or both.
He says that Gov. Rick Perry and Greg Abbott, the state’s attorney general, are exemplars of a leadership style that’s more about the politicians than the policies, and he wants to change all of that.
First, he will have to get people’s attention.
Pauken, who got his political start in the Reagan administration, is a former Army intelligence officer and Vietnam veteran, and a former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. He ran for Congress and lost twice to Jim Mattox. Years later, he ran for attorney general and finished third in a race eventually won by John Cornyn, now a U.S. senator.
Perry appointed him to a spot on the Texas Workforce Commission, and Pauken used that, in part, as a forum for his argument that the state’s public schools aren’t getting youths ready for careers.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.chron.com ...
It was a funny story how I discovered Free Republic 3 years ago. I recently moved to Beijing and at the time working as a copy editor for China Radio International. A Chinese colleague would come up to me every day and ask me silly questions such as, “Does Obama really eat golden aborted fetuses every morning? Do all Americans store their food in nuke shelters? After a few weeks, I got fed up with him asking me these questions that are easy to debunk. He said he was assigned to read conservative Websites to know what Obama’s foes are thinking. He said he was reading Alex Jones as his source. I suggested we Google Search and find a better and more reliable conservative Website. We kept searching and searching until bam we found Free Republic. The Chinese official loved it so much a few weeks later he said that Free Republic converted him from a Leftist ideologue to wish he could move to America so he could vote against the Democrats.
I didn't follow Pauken after he was not Chairman. He has been the Chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission. I've just finished reading more about his candidacy for governor and we will see how the voters respond to his agenda.
There will be debates but those are usually on PBS and they go by with very few seeing them. Maybe it will be different this time. I'll stay on top of that and will know when these happen and will post the dates/times.
Yehuda, I don't have a formal list but I'll make sure I ping you if I post something political - or do you want notice of my prepper posts and/or gardening posts? Or do you want pinging to everything I write? There are a few I ping to most everything because they put up with me. Sockmonkey, do you want pinging and if so, to what? I should make a list or I'll forget someone.
That statement does not sound true. If you have the smarts to post a thread and post pictures on that thread, it wouldn't take over 3 years for you to find out you could register and make comments.
It doesn’t sound believable, and I was the one to post comments about Barry asking, “would I lie to you?” Nonetheless, I have to say that’s what happened. I also posted a comment earlier about how I discovered Free Republic 3 years ago. But thanks for saying I’m “smart.” It’s nice to receive a compliment every once in a while. But something for you to consider, I lived in China for 3 years, and the Chinese are some of the most clever people you will ever meet. If you want to succeed in China you have to be clever too. My mind also works like a jigsaw puzzle. When I saw your post Mr. Pauken is a “disaster,” since I already took my stand on him, as a native Texan, I felt obligated to defend him. My initial rebuttal was to say this sounds like a Rove attack, but then I decided to do a Google Search just to verify before posting the Freeper “post” button. I apologize if you misunderstood my rebuttal and assumed I was calling you a Rove operative. However, I still stand behind my posting the photo of Abbot and Rove.
Abbott is a giant in a wheelchair. In my opinion, Pauken is not worthy to push that wheelchair.
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Thanks for all of your postings on this thread, Marcella!
You have provided info on Pauken that I was not aware of previously. ....Abbott should easily win the Gov. slot.
The Castro twins from San Antonio should be run out of that town on a rail. Very far left liberal and La Raza types, based on what I’ve read and seen (the Dem convention comes to mind).
ps... I think TexGrill doesn’t even live here in Texas, since most of the original posts of his involve foreign items in Asia or the Pacific.
It was a funny story how I discovered Free Republic 3 years ago. ...
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Thanks for that explanation. I’ll try to refrain from judging your comments on Texas politics until I read more.
I’m a native Texan but live in Beijing. I’ve mentioned it on numerous occassions as a Freeper. Never claimed, “I’m always right about Texas politics,” since I consider humility a virtue. I did meet Abbott once in Dallas and didn’t get good vibes from him. Perhaps, one should not act on one’s intuition but he appeared to be brilliant, but I kept feeling that he doesn’t trust anybody. Perhaps, he’s very emotional and at times he struggles to control it. Maybe I’m wrong, but remember he’s never faced a difficult election before, and we should see how he reacts when some negative attacks fly from the Republican side. I’m suspicious he might be overly sensitive. Mr. Pauken doesn’t have Abbott’s fundraising figures, name recognition and probably struggling with low popularity ratings. In politics, you don’t attack what you don’t fear, so when the Abbott attack machine call Pauken a “disaster” that means Abbott fears Pauken, not because he’s a real threat, but because he’s overly sensitive. That’s not a good trait to have when you’re in politics, especially in Texas.
Paulkin ran for Congress and was wimpy. He worked for No Child Left Behind and we see how that worked out. More of a Bushite than a Reagan Republican. Far too “finger in the air” politician.
I said I was “seldom wrong” about politics. That is the truth, has nothing to do with humility. You do not represent the truth.
You say Abbott may be emotional and you are suspicious he might be over sensitive. I think you should quit describing him since you are totally wrong and uninformed.
You are redundant. I see no reason to converse with you further.
I know you won’t respond, but I’m still curious why Abbott’s attack machine would describe Pauken as a “disaster and destroyer” if supposedly he’s not overly-sensitive about being criticized from Pauken supporters? Don’t you think he’s over-reacting, considering the wealthy donors that support Abbot but not Pauken? Perhaps Pauken really is a threat, who might expose the hypocrisy of Abbott?
“Pauken ran for Congress and was wimpy.”
Perhaps, there’s some truth to your assessment, I contacted the Pauken camp about my simple strategy, say, “Abbott’s a fundraising crook, Dewhurst is a bigger crook, so vote for Pauken, who isn’t a crook.” I was told not to attack Abbott or Dewhurst on behalf of the Pauken camp. But here’s the problem, I’m not good at being micro-managed. Just ask the Chinese media? They offered me a high salary, fancy apartment and easy working conditions so long as I play nice. What was my response, “F*** you,” so I get blacklisted from the Chinese media. That being said, I’m not speaking on behalf of the Pauken camp, but I’m still going to support him publicly. I believe that that the Pauken camp is floundering because his supporters aren’t putting up a real fight and say I’m voting for Pauken, because his GOPer opponents don’t deserve my vote.
“He nearly killed the party. We fought to get him out.”
I see. It’s “the party” you’re concerned about. Myself, I look at what was happening state-wide in races during that time. Republicans went from being in the elected minority to the elected majority, even while the state GOP was having to fight Rove at every turn. Those are the results that I look at.
When Pauken was elected, I take it that the faction you were in lost their hold, and that gave you the take that he was “killing the party?” So then you fought to get him out so that you could once again get a strong hold and regain your power.
This is why I have no love for party politics, and just look at the candidate and what I think they will do when they get in office. Because of what I have seen going on within the Party, I cannot consider myself a Republican but instead a conservative. But, there are factions that are embarrassed by conservatives and don’t care if they push us out, disparage us, and marginalize us. How does THAT not destroy your party?
And FWIW, I have no problem with Abbott and based on what I currently know would have no problems voting for him. Pauken’s problem is going to be Abbott’s big war chest and lack of name recognition.
This occurred/began in 1994, not yesterday. If you don't have a Republican Party, you don't have a primary election except for Democrats. If the Party Chairman is not a good leader, you don't get contributions and the Party goes broke and there is no more Party. So, there has to be an organized party and people willing to volunteer to keep it going.
Pauken ran for US congress twice and lost both times. He became state chairman in 1994 and was reelected state chairman in 1996, but he quit in 1997 to run for Attorney General and lost big time. It's my opinion he will lose this time running for governor.
I do not “know” a lot of big political names, nor have I met many. However, I have met Greg Abbott: A humbler, more sincere, more decent man I have seldom met. He will meet with the “regular folks,” not just the “important givers.” He does not put on airs. But his policies can be tough as nails. The same day that the Supreme Court invalidated the VRA, he implemented Texas’s Voter ID Act and new districts! He is NO RINO!
On the other hand, I know next to nothing about Mr Pauken.
Then go ahead and meet him. Judge for yourself. Don’t take my comments into account. Do you live near Rockwall County. He will be there this Saturday?
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