If Ken Paxton were a prizefighter instead of a politician, what happened to him Tuesday in Fort Worth might have been chalked up to “ring rust,” the affliction caused by extended inactivity that dulls a boxer’s reflexes and increases the likelihood of being knocked for a loop.
To recap, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee was joined at a news conference by nearly two dozen county sheriffs who were there to vouch for his law enforcement bona fides and criticize the record of Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico of Austin. But when it came time for reporters to ask questions, they were less concerned with Paxton’s preferred narrative and more interested in getting answers from the three-term Texas attorney general about a few unflattering issues that he had either chosen to ignore or farmed out to staff.
The first question had to do with a New York Times report about Paxton purchasing out-of-state condos and other real estate said to be worth millions of dollars despite earning a government salary of $153,750. The next was about a ProPublica/Texas Tribune article stating that Paxton had voted in at least six elections using an address where he hadn’t lived since he and his wife split up some two years before. The report said Paxton wasn’t even living in the same county where he was registered to vote…