There But For Pauken?

Why wasn’t Dallas school board president Sandy Kress among the finalists for Texas Commissioner of Education? Obvious reasons first: Despite strong credentials as a reformer, Kress lacks the management experience of a Michael Moses, the Lubbock ISD superintendent who was given the nod in late February. And Kress is, after all, a former head of the Dallas County Democratic Party. But he swore off partisanship when he joined the school board and enjoys a good relationship with Gov. George W. Bush, who has tapped Democrats for other posts.

Those minuses may have put the kibosh on Kress, but there was another factor: Sources close to both men say that GOP state party chairman Tom Pauken of Dallas, a longtime conservative activist, promised thunder on the right if Kress got the job. “Pauken essentially told George W. that if he gave Kress a high-profile appointment like this one, he’d have a mutiny in his own party,” says one observer. This early in his term, Bush was reluctant to spark intra-party squabbling.