Robert Talton

Robert Edwin Talton, Sr. (born June 27, 1945), is a Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 144 in Pasadena in Harris County, near Houston, Texas. His service extended from 1993 to 2009.[1]

Robert Edwin Talton, Sr.
Member of the Texas House of Representatives
from the 144th district
In office
1993–2009
Succeeded byKen Legler
Personal details
Born (1945-06-27) June 27, 1945
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Sue Talton
ChildrenTwo children, including:
Robert E. Talton, Jr.
ResidencePasadena, Harris County
Texas, USA
Alma materPasadena High School

University of Houston

South Texas College of Law
OccupationLawyer
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Air Force Reservist

Background

Talton graduated in 1963 from Pasadena High School and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston.[2] Talton is a former police officer, prosecutor, city attorney of Pearland, municipal court judge in Pasadena. He is currently an attorney in private practice.[3]

Talton holds a law degree from the South Texas College of Law in Houston. He is a former general counsel for the Harris County Republican Party. He and his wife, Sue, have two children and five grandchildren. He is a former United States Air Force reservist.[4]

Political life

In his first election to the House, Talton narrowly defeated the Democrat Donald Peter Fogo, 13,400 (50.1 percent) to 13,323 (49.9 percent).[5] His victory was contested but resolved by the House in his favor on February 15, 1993. In Talton's first term, he represented Deer Park, rather than Pasadena.[1] Talton was succeeded by another Republican, Ken Legler, again by a narrow margin. Legler polled 19,980 votes (51.2 percent) to 19,078 (48.8 percent) for the Democrat Joel C. Redmond.[6] Rather than seeking reelection to the State House, Talton ran unsuccessfully in 2008 for the United States House of Representatives from Texas' 22nd congressional district, but the position went to Pete Olson, a former chief of staff to U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

In his last legislative session, Talton sponsored unsuccessful legislation to allow a peace officer to inquire into the immigration status of a suspect. He served in his later tenure on the Civil Practices and Criminal Jurisprudence committees.[7] Talton voted exceptionally conservative while serving in the House. He was given high ratings by the National Rifle Association, the Young Conservatives of Texas, Texas Right to Life, and Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, which in 2007 dubbed him the "most conservative member of the House". In 2005, Capitol Inside designated Talton the "top conservative legislator" in Texas. When Talton ran for Congress, he was endorsed by Houston Christian Magazine. The interest group, Americans for Prosperity, awarded him the title of "Defender of the American Dream" for his support for reduced taxation and cuts in state spending.[2]

Talton lost a race in 2012 for county attorney in Harris County to the Democratic incumbent Vince Ryan. The position handles civil litigation in the county, while the district attorney deals with criminal matters.[8]

Talton also lost the Republican primary election held on March 4, 2014, in a challenge to incumbent Nathan L. Hecht of Dallas for Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.[3] Governor Rick Perry appointed Hecht to the position upon the resignation in 2013 of Wallace B. Jefferson. After filing for the position, Talton reported that all of the $30,000 he raised for the race came from one source, Houston trial attorney Mark Lanier, who also backed unsuccessful challengers to two other Republican Supreme Court justices, Jeff Brown and Phil Johnson.[9] Hecht won re-nomination with 707,692 (60.5 percent) to Talton's 462,273 (39.5 percent).[10]

gollark: I think the E5504s are awful slow ones. Probably basically anything else would beat them and modern ones tend to use less power.
gollark: If you mean climate controlled as in heating, don't worry! The server can do that for you.
gollark: You could maybe remove one processor (if it does have two) and maybe there's a way to reduce the power use.
gollark: I think the idea is that it's "trusted" hardware key storage.
gollark: I guess it's for PCIe SSD thingies or whatever?

References
  1. "Robert Talton". lrl.state.tx.us. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  2. "Richard Dunham, "22nd District congressional candidates speak out: Robert Talton", February 7, 2008". blog.chron.com. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  3. "Former legislator Robert Talton seeks to unseat Texas Supreme Court justice, December 10, 2013". Dallas Morning News. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  4. "Robert Talton". taltonforchiefjustice.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  5. "1992 General Election 11/3/1992, House District 144". elections.sos.state.tx.us. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  6. "2008 General Election 11/4/2008, House District 144". elections.sos.state.tx.us. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  7. "HB 858, 80th Regular Session". lrl.state.tx.us. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  8. "Vince Ryan for county attorney". Houston Chronicle endorsement. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  9. "David Yates, "Lanier Law Firm funding challengers in Texas Supreme Court's GOP primary", January 27, 2014publisher=The Southeast Texas Record". Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  10. "Republican primary election returns, March 4, 2014". enr.sos.state.tx.us. Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
Preceded by
Missing		 Texas State Representative from District 144 (Harrisunty)

Robert Edwin Talton, Sr.
1993–2009

Succeeded by
Ken Legler
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