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Ron Paul
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 14th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3 1997
Preceded byGreg Laughlin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 22nd district
In office
January 3 1979 – January 3 1985
Preceded byRobert A. Gammage
Succeeded byTom DeLay
In office
April 3 1976 – January 3 1977
Preceded byRobert R. Casey
Succeeded byRobert A. Gammage
Personal details
Political partyRepublican; Libertarian
SpouseCarolyn "Carol" Paul
ChildrenRonald "Ronnie" Paul, Jr.
Lori Paul Pyeatt
Randall "Rand" Paul
Robert Paul
Joy Paul-LeBlanc
ProfessionPhysician, Politician

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935), is a 10th-term Republican United States Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, a physician, and a Republican candidate for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He has represented Texas's 14th congressional district (1997–present) and its 22nd district (1976–1977, 1979–1985) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Paul placed third in the 1988 presidential election with 0.5% of the vote, running as the Libertarian Party nominee while remaining a registered Republican. After his 1961 graduation from Duke University School of Medicine and a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, he became an Air Force flight surgeon, serving outside the Vietnam War zone.

Paul has been called conservative, Constitutionalist, and libertarian. He advocates non-interventionist foreign policy, and voted against the Iraq War Resolution. He favors withdrawal from NATO and the United Nations; supports free trade but rejects NAFTA as "managed trade"; and opposes amnesty and birthright citizenship for illegal aliens. Having pledged never to raise taxes, he has long advocated ending the federal income tax and reducing government spending by abolishing most federal agencies; he favors hard money and opposes the Federal Reserve. He opposes the Patriot Act, the federal War on Drugs, and gun control. Paul is pro-life, advocates the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and affirms states' rights to determine the legality of abortion.

During his 2008 presidential campaign, Paul places in the top tier in Republican straw polls and fundraising, but commands significantly lower support in phone polls of Republican voters. He has generated strong online support and is the top presidential candidate Internet search term as measured by Hitwise, Alexa, and Technorati; he has several times more YouTube subscribers than any other presidential candidate. Supporters "guard image against what they see as a purposeful marginalization by the media", and cite his victories in 2008 GOP debate sponsors' online and phone text polls to argue he deserves more mainstream recognition.

Early life and education

Paul was born in Green Tree, Pennsylvania, to Margaret "Peggy" Paul (née Dumont) and Howard Caspar Paul, son of a German immigrant. He was the third of five sons born during seven years in the Great Depression. His family owned a dairy farm in the small town, which lies just outside of Pittsburgh. Paul's father had an eighth-grade education and was co-owner of Green Tree Dairy, along with his brothers Lewis and Arthur. Paul began working at his father's dairy at age five. Later he delivered newspapers, worked in a drugstore, and became a milkman when he was old enough to drive. One of the customers on his milk route was baseball legend Honus Wagner.

He graduated from Dormont High School in Dormont, Pennsylvania, in 1953 with honors. He excelled in track and field, winning the Pennsylvania state championship in the 220-yard dash and coming in second in the 440-yard dash as a junior. He also was on the wrestling team, played football and baseball, and was president of the student council.

Paul paid for his first year at Gettysburg College with saved newspaper-delivery, lemonade-sale, and lawn-mowing money. Paul delivered mail and laundry on the side while in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; for one year, he managed the college coffee shop. He gave up track after a knee injury but joined the college's swimming team instead after taking this sport up as therapy. He had been offered a full scholarship to run for the track team but declined it, concerned that he would not regain his previous speed. Paul was inducted into the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, where he served as steward and house manager. He received his Bachelor of Sciences degree in 1957, majoring in biology.

Family

Paul married Carol Wells on February 1, 1957. Carol had asked Ron to their first date to a Sadie Hawkins dance, and they kept in touch while attending colleges in different states. The couple married in Paul's senior year at Gettysburg College. While they lived in Detroit for his residency, Carol ran a dance school in their basement.

They have five children, who were baptized Episcopalian: Ronnie, Lori, Rand, Robert, and Joy. There are eighteen grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Three children are also doctors: Robert specializes in family practice, Joy in ob/gyn like her father, and Rand in eye surgery, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Rand is also founder of Kentucky Taxpayers United and sometimes speaks at events as surrogate for his father. Paul supported his children during their undergraduate and medical school years, preventing their participation in the federal student loan program because the program was taxpayer-subsidized. He has not signed up for a Congressional pension for the same reason. Paul usually goes home to Lake Jackson on weekends.

When her husband was campaigning in the 14th district, Carol Paul decided to help his campaign by compiling family recipes into a cookbook and sending it to constituents. The cookbook, now in its fifth edition, is filled with pictures of the large Paul family. Carol and the family keep a "Recipe of the Week" on her husband's Congressional campaign website.

Military service and medical career

Although he had once considered becoming a Lutheran minister like two of his brothers, Paul decided to pursue a career in medicine instead and was accepted to Duke University School of Medicine, where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1961. He interned and began residency training, both in internal medicine, at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit (1961–1962), and completed his residency in ob/gyn at the University of Pittsburgh (1965–1968).

Paul's medical training was interrupted shortly after his graduation from Duke, when he was drafted into the United States Air Force during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He remained in the military during the early years of the Vietnam War. He served active duty as a flight surgeon, 1963–1965, attending to the ear, nose, and throat problems of pilots in South Korea, Iran, Ethiopia, and Turkey, but was never sent to Vietnam. Based out of Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, Paul achieved the rank of captain. Paul received a higher wage from the Air Force than during his initial residency; while in San Antonio, Paul also moonlighted three nights a week in a church hospital's emergency room in San Antonio for a wage of $3 per hour ($18 in 2007 dollars). He then served in the Air National Guard (1965–1968), while completing his residency in Pittsburgh.

After leaving medical school and moving to Surfside Beach, Texas, Paul specialized in ob/gyn and eventually delivered more than 4,000 babies. Taking over the medical practice of a retiring doctor in Lake Jackson, Texas, he was busy as the only ob/gyn doctor in Brazoria County, saying, "I delivered forty to fifty babies a month and did a lot of surgery." Paul did not accept Medicare and Medicaid payments as a physician; instead, he worked for free or arranged discounted or custom-payment plans for needy patients; he says of these patients, "I just took care of them."

Early Congressional career

After several years as physician, Paul became a delegate to the 1974 Texas Republican convention. He had decided to enter politics on August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon advocated the U.S. dollar's complete departure from the gold standard. Paul said, "After that day, all money would be political money rather than money of real value. I was astounded."

Campaigns

File:Ron Paul and Ronald Reagan in 1976.jpg
Ron Paul led the Texas Delegation to nominate Ronald Reagan (left to right: Ron Paul, Jack Fields and Ronald Reagan).

Paul was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress from the 22nd district of Texas in 1974, against incumbent Democrat Robert R. Casey, in an election where Democratic candidates won heavily. When President Gerald Ford appointed Casey as head of the Federal Maritime Commission, Paul won an April 1976 special election to fill the empty seat. Paul lost six months later in the general election, to Democrat Robert A. Gammage, by fewer than 300 votes out of 180,000; he then defeated Gammage in a 1978 rematch and won new terms in 1980 and 1982. Paul was the first Republican representative from the area. His successful campaign against Gammage took the local Democrats by surprise; they had expected to retain the seat easily, especially since the election came in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Gammage had underestimated Paul's support among local mothers: "I had real difficulty down in Brazoria County, where he practiced, because he'd delivered half the babies in the county. There were only two obstetricians in the county, and the other one was his partner."

Paul continued to deliver babies on Mondays and Saturdays during his entire term as the 22nd district representative. Paul was also one of only four Republican Congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan for president against Gerald Ford in 1976, when Paul led the Texas Reagan delegation at the national Republican convention.

House of Representatives

Paul was the first member of Congress, in the 1970s, to propose term limits legislation in the House, where he also declined to attend junkets or register for a Congressional pension while serving four terms. He proposed legislation to decrease Congressional pay by the rate of inflation. In 1980, when a majority of Republicans favored President Jimmy Carter's proposal to reinstate draft registration, he pointed out the majority's views as inconsistent, stating they were more interested in registering their children than they were their guns.

Paul served on the House Banking Committee, speaking against the inflation he saw as due to the Federal Reserve, and against the deregulation of banking rules that allowed for the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. The U.S. Gold Commission created by Congress in 1982 was his idea, and his conclusions from the commission were published by the Cato Institute as a book, The Case for Gold. Paul's chief of staff from 1978 to 1982 was Lew Rockwell. Paul was a regular participant in the annual Congressional baseball game.

In 1984, Paul chose to run for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election to the House, but lost the GOP primary to Phil Gramm. He returned to full-time medical practice and was succeeded by Tom DeLay, formerly a member of the Texas House of Representatives. In a farewell address on the House floor, Paul said, "Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare. Vote trading is seen as good politics. The errand-boy mentality is ordinary, the defender of liberty is seen as bizarre. It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic."

1988 presidential campaign

In the 1988 presidential election, Paul defeated American Indian activist Russell Means to win the Libertarian Party nomination for president. Although he had been an early supporter of Ronald Reagan, Paul was critical of the unprecedented deficits incurred by Reagan's administration, for which Paul's opponent George H.W. Bush had been vice-president. On the ballot in 46 states and the District of Columbia, he placed third in the popular vote with 431,750 votes (0.47%), behind Republican Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis. Paul was kept off the ballot in Missouri and received votes there only when written in, due to what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called a "technicality".

During his candidacy, Paul was viewed as the Libertarian Party "standard bearer", gaining supporters nationwide who agreed with him on many positions—gun rights, fiscal conservatism, home-schooling, and abortion—and winning approval from many who thought the federal government was heading in the wrong direction on other issues. These supporters formed a nationwide support base that encouraged him to return to office and supported his campaigns financially. His 2008 campaign chair, Kent Snyder, first worked for Paul on the 1988 campaign, when, Snyder says, Senator John McCain told him, "You're working for the most honest man in Congress."

Paul said he sought to do more during his presidential run than reach office—he was spreading his liberty-minded ideas, often talking to groups of school and university students, whether or not they were old enough to vote: "We're just as interested in the future generation as this election. These kids will vote eventually, and maybe, just maybe, they'll go home and talk to their parents." He traveled the country for a year speaking about issues such as free market economics and the rising government deficits. He said, "That's why we talk to a lot of young people. They're the ones who are paying these bills, they're the ones who are inheriting this debt, so it's most likely these young people who will move into this next generation in government."

After the election, Paul had a coin business, began his own think tank, the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, published an investment newsletter, and continued his medical practice until he returned to Congress.

Later Congressional career

Paul's Congressional portrait

1996 campaign

In 1996, Paul returned to Congress after a tougher battle than he had faced in the 1970s. He was hopeful of being more effective in Congress after the Republicans took over both houses of Congress in the 1994 election. His primary opponent, Greg Laughlin, had support from Republican leaders, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor George W. Bush. Incumbent Laughlin had switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican side the year before, and the Republican National Committee, hoping to encourage other Democrats to switch parties, threw its full support behind Laughlin. Despite these efforts by the national party, the National Rifle Association, and other interest groups, challenger Paul won the primary. It became the third time he had been elected to Congress as a non-incumbent.

While Gingrich and other Republican leaders visited the district stumping for Laughlin, Paul ran newspaper ads quoting Gingrich's harsh criticisms of Laughlin's voting record 14 months earlier, before Laughlin had switched parties. Baseball pitcher (and constituent) Nolan Ryan, a friend of Paul's, served as his honorary campaign chair and appeared in ads for him, and tax activist Steve Forbes also supported Paul's candidacy. Paul continued to maintain his home in Lake Jackson, but ran for the coastal 14th Congressional district rather than the 22nd district he had previously represented, due to redistricting borders.

His Democratic opponent in the fall election, trial lawyer Charles "Lefty" Morris, lost in a close margin, despite assistance from the American Federation of Labor and running numerous attacks citing Paul's past votes to repeal federal drug laws in favor of state legislation. With the help of his national network of donors, Paul raised $1.2 million to Morris's less than $0.5 million. Ken Bryan, a Democratic consultant to some of Paul's opponents, has said, "He has one of the largest contributor bases in Congress, outside of the leadership." Most of Paul's contributions are given in small amounts by individuals. That year, he had the third-highest amount of individual contributions of any House member, behind Gingrich and Bob Dornan.

Newsletter article controversy

During the 1996 campaign, Morris also attacked issues of the Ron Paul Survival Report (published by Paul since 1985) that included derogatory comments concerning race and other politicians. The newsletter had accused President Bill Clinton of fathering illegitimate children and using cocaine; called Representative Barbara Jordan a "fraud" and a "half-educated victimologist"; and argued for lowering the legal age for prosecuting youths as adults, using race-based examples.

In 2001, Paul took "moral responsibility" for the comments printed in his newsletter under his name, explaining they were written by a ghostwriter and did not represent his views. He said the remarks referring to Rep. Jordan were "the saddest thing, because Barbara and I served together and actually she was a delightful lady." Texas Monthly magazine defended Paul's decision to protect the writer's confidence in 1996, concluding, "In four terms as a U.S. congressman and one presidential race, Paul had never uttered anything remotely like this." In 2007, with the controversy resurfacing, the New York Times Magazine concurred that Paul denied the allegations "quite believably, since the style diverges widely from his own"; Paul actually criticizes racism as "an ugly form of collectivism".

Campaigns as incumbent

In 1998 Paul again won the primary and the election, outraising his opponent by a large margin, $2.1 million to $0.7 million. Opposing a Democratic rice farmer and former Matagorda County judge, Loy Sneary, Paul won by 11%; he ran ads warning voters to be "leery of Sneary". Paul accused Judge Sneary of voting to raise his pay by 5%, increasing his judge's travel budget by 400% in one year, and creating more government bureaucracy by starting a new government agency to handle a license plate fee he enacted. Sneary's aides said he had voted to raise all county employees' pay by 5% in a "cost of living" increase. Paul countered that he had never voted to raise Congressional pay.

In 2000, Sneary ran against Paul again, with Paul winning 60% to 40% and raising $2.4 million to Sneary's $1.1 million.

Between 2001 and 2003, an online grassroots petition to draft Ron Paul for the 2004 presidential election garnered several thousand signatures. On December 11, 2001, Paul told the independent movement he was encouraged that the petition was spreading the message of Constitutionalism, but did not expect a White House win at that time.

Paul was re-elected to Congress in 2002, in 2004 (running unopposed), and in 2006 to his 10th term (by 20%), outraising his opponent $1.2 million to $0.6 million. In the 2008 Congressional primary, he has been challenged by Chris Peden, a Friendswood city councilman. Eric Dondero, a former aide fired by Paul, had previously said he would challenge Paul in the primary, but has endorsed Peden instead.

Relationship with district

Paul continued to work as an obstetrician in Brazoria County, Texas, delivering many of his constituents' babies even while serving in Congress. In 2001, he was one of only eight doctors in the House (including dentists); even fewer of them continued to practice while in office. The Congressman is occasionally approached by younger area residents to thank him for attending their births.

After 2003 redistricting, Paul oversees a district larger than Massachusetts, with 675 miles (1100 kilometers) of Gulf of Mexico coastline between Houston and Corpus Christi, covering some 22 counties. Even so, Paul opposes programs like federally funded flood insurance, legislation typically supported by coastal and rural representatives: it requires those outside flood zones to subsidize those within, but prohibits those within flood zones from choosing their own insurers. In an overwhelmingly rural region known for ranching and rice farms, Paul opposes farm subsidies because they are paid to large corporations rather than small farmers. Despite voting against bills heavily supported in Congress, like the farm bill, Paul's contrarian nature and devotion to lowering taxes continuously appeals to 14th district voters: when Paul surveyed them, 54% of his constituency agreed with his goal of eliminating the Department of Education.

While Paul votes against most spending bills, he has diverted funds that have already been authorized by other bills into his own district. Paul spends extra time in the district addressing constituents' concerns, to compensate for "violat almost every rule of political survival you can think of", sometimes three to four days a week, often accompanied by grandchildren. He attends graduations, civic ceremonies, and Boy Scout honor ceremonies. In an expansive district, he often logs over 300 miles (500 kilometers) daily, visiting constituents or handling their concerns. He reaches out to 14th district voters on veterans' issues, such as procuring medals for war veterans who lost or never received their medals, and holding medal ceremonies for those whose medals are being presented. He has helped senior citizens of the district get free or low-cost prescription drugs through a little-known drug company program; his staff sends out birthday cards to constituents, as well as condolence cards on the deaths of family members.

Legislation

Paul sponsors many more bills than the average representative, such as those that would abolish the income tax or the Federal Reserve; many do not escape committee review. Nevertheless, he has been named one of the "50 Most Effective Members of Congress" by Congressional Quarterly. He has sponsored successful legislation to prevent the Department of Housing and Urban Development from seizing a church in New York through eminent domain, and a bill transferring ownership of the Lake Texana dam project from the federal government to Texas. By successfully amending other legislation, he has also barred International Criminal Court jurisdiction over the U.S. military (2002), American participation in any U.N. "global tax" (2005), and surveillance on peaceful First-Amendment activities by citizens (2006).

Paul has introduced bills that would apply a $5,000 tax credit per child towards spending on any type of children's education–related expenses, public, private, or homeschool. He has introduced the Family Education Freedom Act in every Congressional session since 1997; the bill currently has six co-sponsors. He has also introduced companion legislation in the form of the Teacher Tax Cut Act, which would provide all elementary and secondary school teachers with a $1,000 tax cut, and the Professional Educators Tax Relief Act, which would give all K–12 school librarians, counselors, and other personnel the same $1,000 tax credit. He has also introduced the Education Improvement Tax Cut Act, which would allow $5,000 deductions for any type of donations to scholarships or to benefit academics at any school.

In March 2001, Paul introduced the "Constitutional War Powers Resolution of 2001", which would repeal the 1973 War Powers Resolution (WPR) and thus prohibit presidents from initiating a war without a formal declaration of war by Congress. Later in 2001, Paul voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which authorized the president, pursuant to WPR, to respond to those responsible for the 2001 World Trade Center terror attack. In order to prevent Congress from yielding its Constitutional authority to declare war to the executive branch, which does not Constitutionally hold that power, Paul introduced legislation in October 2002 giving Congress the opportunity to declare war on Iraq, rather than merely "authorizing" the president to deploy forces without a declaration of war. He said he would not vote for his own bill, but if his fellow members of Congress wished to go to war in Iraq, they should follow the Constitution and declare war. As one of six Republicans to vote against the Iraq War Resolution, Paul inspired the founding of a group called the National Peace Lobby Project to promote a resolution he and Oregon representative Peter DeFazio sponsored to repeal the war authorization in February 2003. His speech, 35 "Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq", was translated and published in German, French, Russian, Italian, and Swiss periodicals before the Iraq War began.

Paul says his fellow members of Congress have increased government spending by 75% during George W. Bush's administration. After a 2005 bill was touted as "slashing" government waste, Paul wrote that it decreased spending by a fraction of one percent and that "Congress couldn't slash spending if the members' lives depended on it." Paul said that between 2001 and early 2004 he had voted against more than 700 bills intended to expand government.

Paul charged his fellow legislators with voting for the Patriot Act without reading it first; more than 300 pages long, it was enacted into law less than 24 hours after being introduced. In response to such Congressional actions, Paul introduced "Sunlight Rule" legislation, which would not allow votes on legislation to occur until ten days after its introduction, with the intent of giving lawmakers enough time to read bills before voting on them. The bill requires allotting 72 hours for House members and staff to examine the contents of amendments.

In 2005 and 2007, Paul introduced the Sanctity of Life Act, which would define human life as beginning from conception, removing abortion from federal jurisdiction and effectively negating Roe v. Wade. Paul has also introduced a Constitutional amendment with similar intent. Such laws would permit states to declare abortion to be murder and to outlaw new fetal stem cell research and some contraception and fertility treatments. Also in 2005 and 2007, Paul introduced the We the People Act, which would forbid all federal courts from hearing cases on abortion, same-sex marriage, sexual practices, and government display of religious symbols, texts, and images. The Act would make federal court decisions on those subjects nonbinding as precedent in state courts, and would forbid federal courts from spending money to enforce their judgments.

On October 15, 2007 Ron Paul introduced the American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007 which would "bar the use of evidence obtained through torture; require that federal intelligence gathering is conducted in accordance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); create a mechanism for challenging presidential signing statements; repeal the Military Commissions Act, which, among other things, denies habeas corpus to certain detainees; prohibit kidnapping, detentions, and torture abroad; protect journalists who publish information received from the executive branch; and ensure that secret evidence is not used to designate individuals or organizations with a presence in the U.S. as foreign terrorists."

Affiliations

Paul serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee (having been on the Western Hemisphere and the Asia and Pacific subcommittees); the Joint Economic Committee; and the Committee on Financial Services (as Ranking Member of the Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology subcommittee, and Vice-Chair of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee).

Paul served as honorary chair of, and is a current member of, the Republican Liberty Caucus, a political action organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of individual rights, limited government and free enterprise within the Republican Party. He also serves on the Liberty Caucus (or Liberty Committee), a group of liberty-minded representatives from both sides of the aisle, hosting a luncheon for the Liberty Caucus every Thursday. Other members include Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, Jimmy Duncan and Zach Wamp of Tennessee, Virgil Goode of Virginia, Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, and Jeff Flake of Arizona. Paul is a founding member of the Congressional Rural Caucus, which deals with agricultural and rural issues, and the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus.

Unlike many political candidates, Paul receives the overwhelming majority of his campaign contributions from individuals. In 2005 and 2006, individuals contributed 96.8% of the funds he raised. Federal Election Commission records show Paul accepts money from political action committees (PAC's), although much less than most of his counterparts in Congress. Paul received PAC money during the 1998 (5.7%), 2000 (4.5%), 2002 (1.8%), 2004 (5.8%), and 2006 (2.1%) Congressional electoral cycles. In a special report, the group Clean Up Washington listed Paul as taking the seventh-lowest amount of PAC money of all House members, as well as accepting one of the lowest amounts of lobbyist money and taking the fourth-highest percentage of contributions from small donors. Their data studied contributions from the 2000 election cycle to midway through 2006. Of the 2008 Republican presidential candidates, he has accepted the lowest percentage of PAC money.

Paul remains on good terms with the Libertarian Party: he addressed its 2004 national convention. He also was endorsed by the Constitution Party's 2004 presidential candidate, Michael Peroutka. Paul is a potential nominee of both parties, independent of the Republican National Convention's nomination.

Actions in Congress

Paul was on a bipartisan coalition of 17 members of Congress that sued President Clinton in 1999 over his conduct of the Kosovo war. They accused Clinton of failing to inform Congress of the action's status within 48 hours as required by WPR, and of failing to obtain Congressional declaration of war as specifically required in the Constitution. Congress had voted 427–2 against a declaration of war with Yugoslavia, and had voted to deny support for the air campaign in Kosovo. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that since Congress had voted for funding after Clinton had actively engaged troops in the war with Kosovo, legislators had sent a confusing message about whether they approved of the war. Paul said that the judge's decision attempted to circumvent the Constitution and to authorize the president to conduct a war without approval from Congress.

2008 presidential campaign

Template:Future election candidate

Main article: Ron Paul presidential campaign, 2008

On February 19, 2007, Paul formed an exploratory committee to gauge support for a run in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Saying he was "pleasantly surprised" by the committee's findings, Paul formally declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination on March 12, 2007, as a guest on C-SPAN's Washington Journal. Prior to his campaign, in a February 2007 CNN telephone poll, Paul was the candidate with the least name recognition besides John H. Cox.

Campaign finances

By May 2007, Paul had come in second in fundraising in Montana and at the head of the pack of then–second-tier candidates in 14 other states. As of July 6, Ron Paul had the third most cash on hand of the Republican candidates with $2.4 million, putting him ahead of John McCain. Over 99% of Paul's funds had come from individuals, with almost half (47%) raised from small contributions ($200 or less).

Federal Election Commission reports indicate that Ron Paul had topped all other presidential candidates in campaign contributions from employees of the armed services for the second and third quarters of 2007. In the second quarter, Paul received 26.2% of military donations, roughly equal to the support received by all other Republican candidates combined.

Fundraising strengthened in third quarter 2007, with an August competition among Paul's local volunteer meetup groups, then numbering over 700, and a fundraising drive the last week of September with a goal of raising $500,000 online by midnight, September 30. When the initial goal was well-surpassed after only three days, Paul raised the goal to $1 million, telling supporters, "Frankly, I'm floored. And very, very grateful." The drive raised $1.2 million in one week, and third-quarter total fundraising was $5.1 million coming from myriads of small donors, giving Paul a quarterly 114% fundraising increase (the top three second-quarter candidates each reported summer decreases); Paul had $5.3 million cash on hand. Paul's fourth-quarter goal was initially set at $12 million.

Several online donation drives have been formed with the aim of coordinating donations to the Ron Paul Campaign. Some of them have lofty goals like the This November 5th campaign which intends to get 100,000 subscribers to donate $100 each on November 5th for a total amount of $10 million and the Ron Paul Money Bomb a mailing list aiming to launch brief "money bombs" with a goal of 40,000 people donating $25 every week for a total of $1 million a week. Ron Paul's official campaign site informs volunteers running donation drives of their need to comply with federal regulations and popular methods used by volunteers to raise money.

Polling

Ron Paul at the Iowa State Straw Poll
Further information: Opinion polling for the Republican Party (United States) 2008 presidential candidates, and Straw polling for the 2008 United States presidential election

In a Zogby phone poll released on May 17, Paul drew 3% of the respondents determined as "likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters", fifth place among Republican contenders. By October, Paul's support had risen to 5%-6% in this early-primary state, according to two polls, as well as 5% in early-primary Michigan and 5% in super-Tuesday Arizona. In October Gallup polled Paul at 5% nationwide among likely Republican voters.

Paul's support at local-event–based Republican straw polls consistently outstrips his phone poll performances. At the Utah GOP convention on June 9, 2007, Paul placed second behind Mitt Romney. On July 28, Paul received 18% and placed second only to then-undeclared candidate Fred Thompson in a Georgetown County, South Carolina, Republican Party straw poll. In the larger Iowa straw poll on August 11, Paul received 9% and fifth place. In the Springfield, Illinois, Republican Straw Poll of August 16, Ron Paul won 19% of the vote, third behind Romney and Thompson.

On August 18, 2007, Paul appeared in two notably favorable straw polls, conducted by the Strafford County, New Hampshire, Republican Party, and by the West Alabama Republican Assembly. In New Hampshire, Paul received first place with 73% while his closest rival, Romney, received 9%. In Alabama the same day, Paul also placed first with 81%, and Romney took second again with 5%. On September 1, Paul placed third in the Texas Straw Poll, with 17% of the vote. Paul's overall head-to-head performance at Republican straw polls is comparable only to that of Romney or Thompson.

Internet popularity

Paul has participated in six Republican presidential debates, five of which he won according to the sponsors' own online or text-message phone polls. After the first debate, ABC News noted Paul's robust online presence: "His supporters have mastered the art of 'viral marketing,' using Internet savvy and blog postings to create at least the perception of momentum for his long-shot presidential bid." U.S. News reported his increasing online popularity: "His supporters have flocked to the Internet with such enthusiasm that Paul is now showing up among the much richer candidates in various measures of Internet traffic". USA Today calls Paul an "online natural", citing as one reason, "Libertarians love the web."

Paul's Internet presence has been measured by his ranking as a top Internet search term by Technorati, Hitwise, and Alexa, which compare popularity in the blogosphere. While some claim a small number of supporters intentionally inflate Paul's rankings and skew the statistics, Technorati spokesman Aaron Krane affirms his company's position that Paul's search popularity is genuine to the best of their knowledge. Paul claims the most YouTube views of all presidential candidates, over 4.4 million, and the most subscriptions of all candidates, having surpassed Barack Obama on May 20, 2007. Paul's YouTube channel is among the Top 40 most subscribed of all time, achieving 32,000 subscribers in October 2007.

Political positions

Paul at the 2007 National Right to Life Convention in Kansas City, MO, June 15, 2007
Main article: Political positions of Ron Paul

Paul's nickname "Dr. No" reflects both his medical degree and his contrarian insistence on "never vot for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution." Paul adheres to the economic philosophy of the Austrian School of economics, which holds that increasing the amount of money in circulation eventually leads to economic ruin; he has authored several books on the subject. He has pictures of classical liberal economists Friedrich Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises hanging on his office wall.

Paul's foreign policy of nonintervention made him the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate to have voted against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002. He voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force in response to the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, but suggested war alternatives such as authorizing the president to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal targeting specific terrorists. He advocates withdrawal from the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for reasons of maintaining strong national sovereignty. Civil liberties concerns have led him to oppose the Patriot Act, a national ID card, federal government use of torture, domestic surveillance, and presidential autonomy; he supports free trade, rejecting membership in NAFTA and the World Trade Organization as "managed trade." He supports tighter border security and ending welfare benefits for illegal aliens, and opposes birthright citizenship and amnesty; he voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

Paul regularly votes against almost all proposals for new government spending, initiatives, or taxes. He has pledged never to raise taxes, and states he has never voted to approve an unbalanced budget. He would totally abolish the individual income tax while achieving revenue neutrality, by scaling back the federal budget seven years. He would substantially reduce the government's role in individual lives and in the functions of foreign and domestic states; he says Republicans have lost their commitment to limited government and have become the party of big government. Paul supports elimination of most federal government agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, and the Interstate Commerce Commission, calling them unnecessary bureaucracies. He argues for hard money such as some form of silver or gold standard, and advocates gradual elimination of the Federal Reserve central bank for many reasons, believing that economic volatility is decreased when the free market determines interest rates and money supply.

Paul supports states' rights, gun ownership, habeas corpus for political detainees, jury nullification rights, and a Constitutional amendment allowing voluntary and unofficial school prayer; he also favors allowing workers to opt out of Social Security, expanding the free market in health care, recognizing private property rights for pollution prevention, and increasing ballot access. Paul opposes the draft, the federal War on Drugs, socialized health care, the welfare state, foreign aid, judicial activism, federal death penalties, and federal regulation of marriage, of education, and of the Internet. He supports revising enforcement of the military "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which he calls "decent", to focus on disruptive behavior and include members with heterosexual as well as homosexual behavior issues. He has voted against federal funding of joint adoption by unmarried couples, including same-sex adoption. Paul calls himself "an unshakable foe of abortion", and believes regulation of medical decisions about maternal or fetal health is "best handled at the state level."

Books authored

File:FreedomUnderSiege.png
Freedom Under Siege
  • Paul, Ron (1983). Abortion and Liberty. Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. ISBN 0912453028.
  • Paul, Ron (1983). Ten Myths About Paper Money. Lake Jackson, Tex.: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. ISBN 11765863. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  • Paul, Ron (1990). Challenge to Liberty: Coming to Grips with the Abortion Issue. Lake Jackson, Tex.: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education.
  • Paul, Ron (1991). The Ron Paul Money Book. Plantation Publishing.
  • Paul, Ron (2007). A Foreign Policy of Freedom. Lake Jackson, Tex.: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. ISBN 0912453001.

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Preceded byRobert R. Casey Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 22nd congressional district
April, 1976 – January, 1977 		Succeeded byRobert A. Gammage
Preceded byRobert A. Gammage Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 22nd congressional district
1979–1985 		Succeeded byTom DeLay
Preceded byDavid Bergland Libertarian Party presidential candidate
1988 (3rd) 		Succeeded byAndre Marrou
Preceded byGreg Laughlin Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 14th congressional district
1997–present 		Incumbent
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