Jonathan Paton
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Jonathan Paton is a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives 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 in 2004. He won reelection and began his second term in February of 2007.
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[edit] Biography
Paton was born in Tucson, Arizona. He grew up on the city's East Side, which he now represents in the legislature. He graduated from Sabino High School in 1989.
During his senior year in high school Paton says he dreamed of seeing the world. He worked at Marie Callender’s restaurant as a busboy and saved up the funds to go to Germany as a Rotary exchange student. His year abroad in 1990 was an important time in Germany’s history. He watched the Berlin Wall fall and took with him the images of people experiencing freedom for the first time.
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. One of his most important experiences, however, occurred in Arizona when he interned with the Arizona State Senate in 1995.
Jonathan 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.
In 2001 Jonathan 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.
Besides politics and the military, Jonathan is still interested in languages. His hobbies include reading, brewing beer, working-out and writing.
[edit] Military service
In 1999 Jonathan enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. He served in the 5-104th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Huachuca. 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 Leadership Course, which combined 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 1st lieutenant and a qualified 35-Delta 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 responsible for intelligence operations throughout Iraq. His tour of duty ended at the end of February 2007.
[edit] Legislative career
Paton made two unsuccessful bids for the state House before winning in 2004.
In his first term, Paton sponsored a bill that allowed the state to crack down on human smugglers. 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 eliminating state income taxes for active duty military personnel in Arizona.
