GOP stalwart Tom Pauken to run for governor, says Texas needs “a different style of leadership”

Former Texas Republican chairman Tom Pauken will file today for governor, challenging for the job now held by Gov. Rick Perry. Pauken is a former Reagan administration official who most recently served as Perry’s appointee to head the Texas Workforce Commission. He resigned this month and says Texas needs a new kind of leader who will revamp public education, end crony capitalism and solve problems, not divide people. Perry hasn’t said whether he will seek reelection next year. Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott is looking at the 2014 governor’s race as well.

Pauken says his candidacy is not a slap at Perry. But the decision underscores a larger, growing dissatisfaction with the Republican governor after more than a decade in office. A coaliton of legislators is pushing back against a host of Perry policies and the state cancer-fighting agency is under criminal investigation for improperly dispensing taxpayer money.

The Dallas lawyer and long-time Republican stalwart says state government has for too long neglected transportation needs, boosted bonded indebtedness, failed public education and dispensed taxpayer money in questionable ways, sometimes to politically well-connected interests. He particularly singled out the cancer-research agency currently embroiled in controversy over giving millions of dollars without required scientific vetting. He says he’s against crony-capitalism whether in the Obama adminsitration in Washington or in Austin. He wants to end the Robin Hood transfer of money from property-rich school districts to property-poor districts. He says the state can make up the difference in a “revenue neutral” way by replacing that portion of property taxes with consumption taxes or expanding the sales tax. As Workforce Commissioner, Pauken championed giving high school students different paths to graduate, including more emphasis on vocational education for students who aren’t going to college.

A Vietnam veteran and political conservative, Pauken was tapped by President Reagan to head the community-services ACTION agency, where Pauken developed a reputation as a consevative administrator. He is the author of a book, Bringing America Home, in which he argues that the George W. Bush administration squandered the conservative political capital of the Goldwater-Reagan years. “I was part of the Reagan revolution. And what passes for conservatism these days very often are 30-second sound bites and political consultant-driven phrases. It’s great at dividing people, but it doesn’t get things done.”

More at http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/03/gop-stalwart-tom-pauken-to-run-for-governor-says-texas-needs-a-different-style-of-leadership.html/ .