Angela Paxton: "I'm There"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's for her constituents, says State Sen. Angela Paxton. Not that she really wants to be part of a legislative action to rid Texas of its renegade Republican attorney general, her husband Ken. He's being impeached and is currently suspended after the State Legislature voted to seek expulsion from a position he's held since January, 2015.

As alleged, the 60-year-old Paxton played games with helping friends who helped him. Several staff members of the A.G.'s office submitted "whistleblower" info to the FBI. Paxton then fired some of them. They filed a lawsuit and won a $3.3 million judgment and Paxton submitted it for payment from taxpayer funds in the Texas Treasury. Legislators understandably balked.

Then they (including high-powered Republicans) targeted him for ouster.

He is scheduled to stand trial later this year.

Wife Angela Paxton, also 60 years of age, would be among those ultimately voting on whether her husband gets to keep his job or whether he is kicked out. She says she'll be there for the wild vote.

Mrs. Paxton, shown with husband in photo below, said Monday she will “carry out (her) duties” as a state senator and not recuse herself ahead of her husband’s upcoming impeachment trial. Angela Paxton, who represents a Dallas-area district, said Texas law compels each member of the Senate to attend the impeachment proceedings on Tuesday when the chamber meets to set the rules for Paxton’s impeachment trial.

The angered Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach the scandal-plagued attorney general in a stunning, unexpected, unprecedented move last month following a lengthy legislative probe that faulted the three-term Republican for a yearslong pattern of corruption, including abusing his office’s powers, retaliating against whistleblowers and obstructing justice.

"As a member of the Senate, I hold these obligations sacred and I will carry out my duties, not because it is easy, but because the Constitution demands it and because my constituents deserve it," Mrs. Paxton said in a statement, indicating that she will not withdraw from her role representing a Dallas-area district that includes Collin and Dallas counties.

Tough tacos talk from the native of New Braunfels, but in keeping with her fighting personality. The Paxtons met while students at Baylor University in the early-1980s. They married in 1986. An adopted child and the first in her family to graduate from college, Mrs. Paxton worked as a schoolteacher teaching secondary mathematics prior to entering politics.

She has represented Texas Senate District 8 (Dallas and North Dallas) since first elected in November, 2018. She is up for reelection next year, 2024.

One would think that she will vote in defense of her ever-recalcitrant husband and allow him to keep his job, only that's a true-blue political risk she would be taking...

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