Jonathan Paton
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Paton is a former Arizona
Republican
candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona's 8th District
and an intelligence officer
in the U.S. Army Reserve who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Paton was first elected to southern Arizona's Legislative District 30 as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives
in 2004. He won reelection and began his second term in February 2007. In 2008, he was elected to the Arizona Senate
, again representing Legislative District 30. On January 17, 2010, Paton announced he would be challenging Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords
. He subsequently resigned from the state Senate to focus his efforts on campaigning for Congress. Paton lost in the 2010 Republican primary
and endorsed his former opponent Jesse Kelly.
. He grew up on the city's East Side. He graduated from Sabino High School
in 1989.
During his senior year in high school Paton worked at Marie Callender's
restaurant as a busboy
and saved up the funds to go to Germany
as a Rotary
exchange student. He returned home and began his studies at the University of Arizona
. In the coming years he would spend more years overseas studying in Almaty
, Kazakhstan
with the Sister Cities Program, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet in Munich as a Rotary Foundation Scholar and in Moscow
through a program administered by the University of Arizona. He also interned with the Arizona State Senate in 1995.
Paton graduated from the University of Arizona summa cum laude and with honors in German and Russian in 1996. He continued on to the graduate program in German at the University of Arizona.
Paton went on to work for the Southern Arizona Homebuilders Association, representing one of the key industries and job providers in Southern Arizona
. In 2001, Paton began a political consulting
firm in Tucson called Paton & Associates. He has worked with numerous clients in state and local races as well as on initiative campaigns.
. He served in the 5-104th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Huachuca
, Arizona. He was named "Soldier of the Year" for his battalion, brigade and eventually for the entire 104th Division in 2000. After becoming instructor qualified and being promoted to sergeant, he received his commission as a second lieutenant
.
In 2005 after his first year in office, he was called up for active duty for six months in a new Army program called the Basic Officer Leaders Course
, which combines infantry training at Fort Benning
, Georgia with military intelligence
training at Fort Huachuca. He graduated as class leader of the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course in January 2006. He continues to serve as a captain and a qualified 35D all-source intelligence officer.
In late July 2006, Paton announced he was being voluntarily deployed to Iraq
. The announcement received national and international media attention. He was the only state representative to be reelected while deployed in the CENTCOM theater of operations in 2006. Paton served as an intelligence officer involved in operations throughout Iraq. His tour of duty ended at the end of February 2007.
—the first of its kind in the country. He was a key supporter of an extension of state financing for Rio Nuevo, a downtown redevelopment project in Tucson. He was the prime sponsor of a bill eliminating state income taxes for active duty military personnel in Arizona.
In his second term in the House, Paton sponsored legislation that forced the Arizona State Retirement System to divest itself of all funds that included petroleum companies doing business with Iran
. Paton was most known in 2007, however, for a series of hearings on CPS following the deaths of three Tucson children murdered after their parents were investigated by CPS. Paton, along with State Representative Kirk Adams, led the hearings on CPS negligence in the cases. The two sponsored a package of six bills designed to open up CPS case records of murdered children and create more accountability for the agency. All six bills were eventually signed into law by Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2008. Due to his work on open records and freedom of information, Paton was awarded the "Freedom of Information Award" by the Arizona Newspaper Association two years in a row. In 2009 The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry named Paton "Senator of the Year."
In 2008, State Senator Tim Bee
finished his last term in the legislature representing District 30 due to term limits. In a bid for Bee's State Senate seat in November 2008, Paton defeated Democrat
Georgette Valle in the General Election by over 20 points. Incoming Senator President Bob Burns appointed Paton to serve as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a post once held by Tucsonans Elaine Richardson (D) and Patti Noland (R).
Before leaving the Senate to run for Congress, Paton voted in favor of SB1070, Arizona's new immigration law.
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona's 8th District
Arizona's 8th congressional district
Arizona's 8th congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of Arizona and encompasses the extreme southeastern part of the state...
and an intelligence officer
Intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile and/or analyze information which is of use to that organization...
in the U.S. Army Reserve who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Paton was first elected to southern Arizona's Legislative District 30 as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives
Arizona House of Representatives
The Arizona House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its members are elected to two-year terms with a term limit of four consecutive terms...
in 2004. He won reelection and began his second term in February 2007. In 2008, he was elected to the Arizona Senate
Arizona Senate
The Arizona Senate is part of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. The Senate consists of 30 members representing an equal amount of constituencies across the state, with each district having average populations of 219,859 . Members serve two-year terms with...
, again representing Legislative District 30. On January 17, 2010, Paton announced he would be challenging Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Dee "Gabby" Giffords is an American politician. A Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, she has represented since 2007. She is the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress...
. He subsequently resigned from the state Senate to focus his efforts on campaigning for Congress. Paton lost in the 2010 Republican primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
and endorsed his former opponent Jesse Kelly.
Biography
Paton was born in Tucson, ArizonaTucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
. He grew up on the city's East Side. He graduated from Sabino High School
Sabino High School
Sabino High School is located in Tucson, Arizona. It is located on the city's northeast side. Its current principal is Valerie Payne.- History :The school was established in 1972 in response to the boom of Tucson's east side in the 1960s and 1970s...
in 1989.
During his senior year in high school Paton worked at Marie Callender's
Marie Callender's
Marie Callender’s is a restaurant chain with 74 locations in seven western states. One East Side Mario’s restaurant also is part of the chain, a remnant of the period when the chain owned the ESM concept, purchased from Pepsico....
restaurant as a busboy
Busboy
Busser, busboy and busgirl are terms used in the United States for someone who works in the restaurant and catering industry clearing tables, taking dirty dishes to the dishwasher, setting tables and otherwise assisting the waiting staff....
and saved up the funds to go to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
as a Rotary
Rotary
-Engineering and Machinery:* Rotary motion* Rotary engine, a type of internal combustion engine from the early 20th century* Rotary engine , other engines called "rotary"** Wankel engine* Rotary latch...
exchange student. He returned home and began his studies at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
. In the coming years he would spend more years overseas studying in Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
with the Sister Cities Program, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet in Munich as a Rotary Foundation Scholar and in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
through a program administered by the University of Arizona. He also interned with the Arizona State Senate in 1995.
Paton graduated from the University of Arizona summa cum laude and with honors in German and Russian in 1996. He continued on to the graduate program in German at the University of Arizona.
Paton went on to work for the Southern Arizona Homebuilders Association, representing one of the key industries and job providers in Southern Arizona
Southern Arizona
Southern Arizona is a region of the United States comprising the southernmost portion of the State of Arizona. It sometimes goes by the name Baja Arizona, which means "Lower Arizona" in Spanish.- Geography :...
. In 2001, Paton began a political consulting
Political consulting
Political consulting, beyond the self-evident definition of consulting in political matters, refers to a specific management consulting industry which has grown up around advising and assisting political campaigns. This article deals primarily with the development and nature of political consulting...
firm in Tucson called Paton & Associates. He has worked with numerous clients in state and local races as well as on initiative campaigns.
Military service
In 1999 Paton enlisted in the United States Army ReserveUnited States Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....
. He served in the 5-104th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Huachuca
Fort Huachuca
Fort Huachuca is a United States Army installation under the command of the United States Army Installation Management Command. It is located in Cochise County, in southeast Arizona, about north of the border with Mexico. Beginning in 1913, for 20 years the fort was the base for the "Buffalo...
, Arizona. He was named "Soldier of the Year" for his battalion, brigade and eventually for the entire 104th Division in 2000. After becoming instructor qualified and being promoted to sergeant, he received his commission as a second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
.
In 2005 after his first year in office, he was called up for active duty for six months in a new Army program called the Basic Officer Leaders Course
Basic Officer Leaders Course
The Basic Officer Leaders Course is a two-phased training course designed to produce commissioned officers in the United States Army. It is a progressive model designed to produce American Army officers with leadership skills, small unit tactics and certain branch specific capabilities.- BOLC A...
, which combines infantry training at Fort Benning
Fort Benning
Fort Benning is a United States Army post located southeast of the city of Columbus in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia and Russell County, Alabama...
, Georgia with military intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
training at Fort Huachuca. He graduated as class leader of the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course in January 2006. He continues to serve as a captain and a qualified 35D all-source intelligence officer.
In late July 2006, Paton announced he was being voluntarily deployed to Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. The announcement received national and international media attention. He was the only state representative to be reelected while deployed in the CENTCOM theater of operations in 2006. Paton served as an intelligence officer involved in operations throughout Iraq. His tour of duty ended at the end of February 2007.
Legislative career
First elected to the state House in 2004, Paton sponsored a bill that allowed the state to crack down on human smugglersPeople smuggling
People smuggling is defined as "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents"...
—the first of its kind in the country. He was a key supporter of an extension of state financing for Rio Nuevo, a downtown redevelopment project in Tucson. He was the prime sponsor of a bill eliminating state income taxes for active duty military personnel in Arizona.
In his second term in the House, Paton sponsored legislation that forced the Arizona State Retirement System to divest itself of all funds that included petroleum companies doing business with Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. Paton was most known in 2007, however, for a series of hearings on CPS following the deaths of three Tucson children murdered after their parents were investigated by CPS. Paton, along with State Representative Kirk Adams, led the hearings on CPS negligence in the cases. The two sponsored a package of six bills designed to open up CPS case records of murdered children and create more accountability for the agency. All six bills were eventually signed into law by Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2008. Due to his work on open records and freedom of information, Paton was awarded the "Freedom of Information Award" by the Arizona Newspaper Association two years in a row. In 2009 The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry named Paton "Senator of the Year."
In 2008, State Senator Tim Bee
Tim Bee
Timothy S. Bee is a Republican politician and business owner who served in the Arizona State Senate from 2003 to 2007. He was first elected to the Arizona Senate in 2001, and left in 2009 due to term limits. In 2008, he was the Republican candidate for Arizona's 8th congressional district seat in...
finished his last term in the legislature representing District 30 due to term limits. In a bid for Bee's State Senate seat in November 2008, Paton defeated Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Georgette Valle in the General Election by over 20 points. Incoming Senator President Bob Burns appointed Paton to serve as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a post once held by Tucsonans Elaine Richardson (D) and Patti Noland (R).
Before leaving the Senate to run for Congress, Paton voted in favor of SB1070, Arizona's new immigration law.
Committee assignments
- Senate Judiciary Committee
- Senate Commerce and Economic Development Committee
- Senate Education, Accountability and Reform Committee
External links
- Senator Jonathan Paton Official Arizona Senate site
- Paton for Congress Official Campaign Website