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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name=Kent Allen Caperton | nationality=American | office=Texas State Senator for District 5 (All of Austin, Brazos, Bur..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Kent Allen Caperton
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| office=[[Texas]] State Senator for District 5 (All of Austin, Brazos, Burleson, Colorado, Grimes, Houston, Leon, Madison, Milam, Robertson, Trinity, Walker, Waller, Washington, and Wharton counties and portions of Harris, Montgomery, and Williamson counties)
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|term_start=1981
|preceded=William T. "Bill" Moore
|succeeded=James W. "Jim" Turner
|office2=President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate
|term_start2=1989
|term_end2=1989
|preceded2=[[J. E. "Buster" Brown]]
|succeeded2=Craig A. Washington
|birth_date=August 2, 1949
|birth_place=Place of birth missing
|residence=[[Austin]], Travis County, Texas
|occupation=[[Attorney]]; [[Lobbying|Lobbyist]]
|religion=[[Lutheran]]
|spouse=Divorced
|children=Kathryn C. Gabbert<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Woods Allen Caperton<br>
Dorothy Steglich Caperton
|alma_mater=Caldwell (Texas) High School
[[Texas A&M University]]<br>
[[University of Texas]] Law School}}
'''Kent Allen Caperton''' (born August 2, 1949) is an [[attorney]] and political consultant in [[Austin]], [[Texas]], who served from 1981 to 1991 as a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] state senator for District 5, which then encompassed twenty-one counties from The Woodlands to Crockett, and Caperton's then city of residence, [[Bryan, Texas|Bryan]], Texas.
==Background==
Caperton was one of four children born to Woods Allen Caperton (1920–2009) and the former Dorothy Steglich (1925–2005), a [[Lutheran]] couple in Caldwell in Burleson County locaed west of Bryan. Caperton's older brother, Mark Steglich Caperton (born 1946), is also an attorney and from 1975 to 1983 was the county judge in Caldwell. He was succeeded by their father, Woods Caperton, who retired after nearly three decades with the United States Soil Conservation Service, since renamed the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the agency which offers technical assistance to [[farmer]]s and ranchers. Woods Caperton was the county judge from 1983 to 1995 and also a long-time member of the Caldwell school and hospital boards. Kent Caperton has a sister in Austin, Roxanne C. Varner, married to Rodney Varner. A second brother, Clay Jason Caperton, died in 1987.<ref name=wac>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?n=woods-allen-caperton&pid=136060029|title=Woods Allen Caperton|publisher=''The Austin American Statesman''|date=November 17, 2009|accessdate=September 7, 2011}}</ref>
In 1967, Caperton graduated as student council president from Caldwell High School. He considered accepting a scholarship in [[golf]] from several smaller colleges, but the senior Caperton insisted that Kent attend nearby [[Texas A&M University]] in [[College Station, Texas|College Station]].<ref name=houch>Mark Smith and Roy Bragg, "Caperton leaves his mark on state politics," ''Houston Chronicle,'' June 6, 1990, State section, pp. 1–2.</ref> There in 1971, Caperton obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and was the student body president. Thereafter, he was an aide to the TAMU president prior to obtaining his legal credentials through the [[University of Texas]] Law School in Austin. In 1975, he was admitted to the bar and served for a year as an assistant state attorney general. In 1976, he returned to Bryan to enter private practice, with the firm Gandy, Mauro, and Caperton. After a stint too as the municipal judge,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/scanned/members/texas_senators/Public/Texas_Senate_67.pdf|title=Texas Senate|publisher=Texas Legislative Research Library|accessdate=March 21, 2020}}</ref> Caperton in 1980 unseated veteran state Senator William T. "Bill" Moore, a [[conservative]] Democrat, in the primary election with 52.6 percent of the ballots. Known as the "Bull of the Brazos," Moore had been in the Senate since 1949, the year of Caperton's birth.<ref name=houch/>
==Senate service==
Caperton had said in 1980 that he would serve only ten years in public office,<ref name=houch/> and he therefore did not run again in 1990.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberdisplay.cfm?memberID=319|title=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberdisplay.cfm?memberID=319|title=Legislative Reference Library of Texas: Kent A. Caperton|publisher=lrl.state.tx.us|accessdate=September 5, 2011}}</ref> The Senate seat went to another Democrat, James W. "Jim" Turner of Crockett in Houston County (not to be confused with the city of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]]), later a [[U.S. Representative]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=57&searchparams=chamber=S~city=~countyID=0~district=5~first=~gender=~last=~leaderNote=~leg=72~party=Democrat~roleDesc=~Committee=|title=Jim Turner|publisher=Legislative Reference Library of Texas: Jim Turner|accessdate=September 5, 2011}}</ref> Turner defeated the [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Lou Zaeske]], an engineer from Bryan and the founder of the American Ethnic Coalition, an organization in the forefront of the [[English]]-only movement. Zaeske had initially planned to oppose Caperton who spoke out against English-only.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1988_583490/english-backer-cites-supporters-advocate-plans-to.html|title=English backer cites supporters/Advocate plans to run for office|date=November 12, 1988|publisher=''Houston Chronicle''|accessdate=September 5, 2011}}</ref>
In 1981, ''Texas Monthly'' magazine named him "Rookie of the Year." In 1982, he was an advocate of utility regulatory reform, an issue which may have helped the Democrat [[Mark White]], the state attorney general at the time, to oust the Republican [[Governor]] [[Bill Clements]]. In 1983, Caperton was a negotiator for House Bill 72, which sought to upgrade public education and required athletes to pass all course. In 1985, in his second Senate term, Caperton headed the newly created Senate Criminal Justice Committee. In 1987, then Lieutenant Governor William Pettus "Bill" Hobby named Caperton to the Legislative Budget Board. In 1989, Hobby asked Caperton to lead the fight to increase funding for higher education. He soon headed the Senate Finance Committee, the most powerful chairmanship in Austin. He was a conspicuous advocate of sunshine laws, open meetings, and open records<ref name=houch/> In 1989, Caperton was one of five senators to serve as the President Pro Tempore; others included fellow Democrats Craig Anthony Washington and Hugh Q. Parmer, and Republicans [[J. E. "Buster" Brown]] and Bob McFarland.
In confirming his retirement from the Senate, Caperton said that he had not grown tired or weary of his legislative duties but was committed to remaining in office only for ten years. Then Texas Secretary of State George Bayoud told the ''Houston Chronicle'' that Caperton "is the one person in this state who I think made a difference" in legislative matters . . . "There's something special about Kent."<ref name=houch/> In reviewing his career, Caperton said that he had sought to "hammer out solutions," rather than engage in "political posturing. It's one thing to sit on the side and harangue and pontificate. But it is equally important to bridge a compromise."<ref name=houch/> In his last regular legislative session in 1989, Caperton was rated No. 1 among 181 total legislators in the House and Senate by ''Texas Monthly'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.texasmonthly.com/magazine/bestworst|title=Best and Worst Legislators (by year)|publisher=texasmonthly.com|accessdate=September 12, 2011}}</ref>
In 1990, Caperton reflected that the outgoing state Comptroller Robert Douglas " Bob" Bullock, Sr. (1929-1999), then running successfully to succeed Hobby as lieutenant governor, had shown political courage regarding long-range economic problems. Caperton called for a revamped tax system, with a state income tax, rather than so much reliance on a regressive system of sales taxes and user fees.<ref name=houch/> Legislators have repeatedly, however, resisted calls for a state income tax, and few candidates have endorsed the issue.
==Austin lawyer==
Caperton is part of the Barnes Group in Austin,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jigsaw.com/scid26566064/kent_caperton.xhtml?ver=5|title=Kent Caperton|publisher=jigsaw.com|accessdate=September 7, 2011}}</ref> a legal and consulting firm founded by Benny Frank "Ben" Barnes (born 1938), the state House [[Speake]] from 1965 to 1969 and thereafter from 1969 to 1973 the state's lieutenant governor. Caperton is heavily involved in politics behind-the scenes and is a donor to Democratic candidates, such as [[U.S. Senator]]s [[Mary Landrieu]] of [[Louisiana]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://littlesis.org/relationship/view/id/104759
|title=Kent Caperton gives money to Mary Landrieu|publisher=littlesis.org|accessdate=September 7, 2011}}</ref> and [[Blanche Lincoln]] of [[Arkansas]]. All of Caperton's donations in 2010 and 2011 have been to Democrats, including his former state Senate colleague Lloyd Doggett of Austin, whowon reelection in 2012 in a reconfigured district to the [[United States House of Representatives]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/lobbyist_contribs.php?id=Y0000041390L&year=2011|title=Kent Caperton|publisher=opensecrets.org|accessdate=September 7, 2011}}</ref>
Caperton is divorced and has one daughter, Kathryn C. Gabbert,<ref name=obit>{{cite web |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theeagle/obituary.aspx?n=louis-w-zaeske-lou&pid=153387503&fhid=7600 |title=Louis W. "Lou" Zaeske, Jr. |publisher=''The Bryan-College Station Eagle''|accessdate=September 5, 2011 }}</ref> the wife of Jeffrey A. Gabbert, of Austin.
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caperton, Kent}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[CategoryAttorneys]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Lutherans]]
| name=Kent Allen Caperton
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| office=[[Texas]] State Senator for District 5 (All of Austin, Brazos, Burleson, Colorado, Grimes, Houston, Leon, Madison, Milam, Robertson, Trinity, Walker, Waller, Washington, and Wharton counties and portions of Harris, Montgomery, and Williamson counties)
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|term_start=1981
|preceded=William T. "Bill" Moore
|succeeded=James W. "Jim" Turner
|office2=President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate
|term_start2=1989
|term_end2=1989
|preceded2=[[J. E. "Buster" Brown]]
|succeeded2=Craig A. Washington
|birth_date=August 2, 1949
|birth_place=Place of birth missing
|residence=[[Austin]], Travis County, Texas
|occupation=[[Attorney]]; [[Lobbying|Lobbyist]]
|religion=[[Lutheran]]
|spouse=Divorced
|children=Kathryn C. Gabbert<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Woods Allen Caperton<br>
Dorothy Steglich Caperton
|alma_mater=Caldwell (Texas) High School
[[Texas A&M University]]<br>
[[University of Texas]] Law School}}
'''Kent Allen Caperton''' (born August 2, 1949) is an [[attorney]] and political consultant in [[Austin]], [[Texas]], who served from 1981 to 1991 as a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] state senator for District 5, which then encompassed twenty-one counties from The Woodlands to Crockett, and Caperton's then city of residence, [[Bryan, Texas|Bryan]], Texas.
==Background==
Caperton was one of four children born to Woods Allen Caperton (1920–2009) and the former Dorothy Steglich (1925–2005), a [[Lutheran]] couple in Caldwell in Burleson County locaed west of Bryan. Caperton's older brother, Mark Steglich Caperton (born 1946), is also an attorney and from 1975 to 1983 was the county judge in Caldwell. He was succeeded by their father, Woods Caperton, who retired after nearly three decades with the United States Soil Conservation Service, since renamed the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the agency which offers technical assistance to [[farmer]]s and ranchers. Woods Caperton was the county judge from 1983 to 1995 and also a long-time member of the Caldwell school and hospital boards. Kent Caperton has a sister in Austin, Roxanne C. Varner, married to Rodney Varner. A second brother, Clay Jason Caperton, died in 1987.<ref name=wac>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?n=woods-allen-caperton&pid=136060029|title=Woods Allen Caperton|publisher=''The Austin American Statesman''|date=November 17, 2009|accessdate=September 7, 2011}}</ref>
In 1967, Caperton graduated as student council president from Caldwell High School. He considered accepting a scholarship in [[golf]] from several smaller colleges, but the senior Caperton insisted that Kent attend nearby [[Texas A&M University]] in [[College Station, Texas|College Station]].<ref name=houch>Mark Smith and Roy Bragg, "Caperton leaves his mark on state politics," ''Houston Chronicle,'' June 6, 1990, State section, pp. 1–2.</ref> There in 1971, Caperton obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and was the student body president. Thereafter, he was an aide to the TAMU president prior to obtaining his legal credentials through the [[University of Texas]] Law School in Austin. In 1975, he was admitted to the bar and served for a year as an assistant state attorney general. In 1976, he returned to Bryan to enter private practice, with the firm Gandy, Mauro, and Caperton. After a stint too as the municipal judge,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/scanned/members/texas_senators/Public/Texas_Senate_67.pdf|title=Texas Senate|publisher=Texas Legislative Research Library|accessdate=March 21, 2020}}</ref> Caperton in 1980 unseated veteran state Senator William T. "Bill" Moore, a [[conservative]] Democrat, in the primary election with 52.6 percent of the ballots. Known as the "Bull of the Brazos," Moore had been in the Senate since 1949, the year of Caperton's birth.<ref name=houch/>
==Senate service==
Caperton had said in 1980 that he would serve only ten years in public office,<ref name=houch/> and he therefore did not run again in 1990.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberdisplay.cfm?memberID=319|title=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberdisplay.cfm?memberID=319|title=Legislative Reference Library of Texas: Kent A. Caperton|publisher=lrl.state.tx.us|accessdate=September 5, 2011}}</ref> The Senate seat went to another Democrat, James W. "Jim" Turner of Crockett in Houston County (not to be confused with the city of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]]), later a [[U.S. Representative]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=57&searchparams=chamber=S~city=~countyID=0~district=5~first=~gender=~last=~leaderNote=~leg=72~party=Democrat~roleDesc=~Committee=|title=Jim Turner|publisher=Legislative Reference Library of Texas: Jim Turner|accessdate=September 5, 2011}}</ref> Turner defeated the [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Lou Zaeske]], an engineer from Bryan and the founder of the American Ethnic Coalition, an organization in the forefront of the [[English]]-only movement. Zaeske had initially planned to oppose Caperton who spoke out against English-only.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1988_583490/english-backer-cites-supporters-advocate-plans-to.html|title=English backer cites supporters/Advocate plans to run for office|date=November 12, 1988|publisher=''Houston Chronicle''|accessdate=September 5, 2011}}</ref>
In 1981, ''Texas Monthly'' magazine named him "Rookie of the Year." In 1982, he was an advocate of utility regulatory reform, an issue which may have helped the Democrat [[Mark White]], the state attorney general at the time, to oust the Republican [[Governor]] [[Bill Clements]]. In 1983, Caperton was a negotiator for House Bill 72, which sought to upgrade public education and required athletes to pass all course. In 1985, in his second Senate term, Caperton headed the newly created Senate Criminal Justice Committee. In 1987, then Lieutenant Governor William Pettus "Bill" Hobby named Caperton to the Legislative Budget Board. In 1989, Hobby asked Caperton to lead the fight to increase funding for higher education. He soon headed the Senate Finance Committee, the most powerful chairmanship in Austin. He was a conspicuous advocate of sunshine laws, open meetings, and open records<ref name=houch/> In 1989, Caperton was one of five senators to serve as the President Pro Tempore; others included fellow Democrats Craig Anthony Washington and Hugh Q. Parmer, and Republicans [[J. E. "Buster" Brown]] and Bob McFarland.
In confirming his retirement from the Senate, Caperton said that he had not grown tired or weary of his legislative duties but was committed to remaining in office only for ten years. Then Texas Secretary of State George Bayoud told the ''Houston Chronicle'' that Caperton "is the one person in this state who I think made a difference" in legislative matters . . . "There's something special about Kent."<ref name=houch/> In reviewing his career, Caperton said that he had sought to "hammer out solutions," rather than engage in "political posturing. It's one thing to sit on the side and harangue and pontificate. But it is equally important to bridge a compromise."<ref name=houch/> In his last regular legislative session in 1989, Caperton was rated No. 1 among 181 total legislators in the House and Senate by ''Texas Monthly'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.texasmonthly.com/magazine/bestworst|title=Best and Worst Legislators (by year)|publisher=texasmonthly.com|accessdate=September 12, 2011}}</ref>
In 1990, Caperton reflected that the outgoing state Comptroller Robert Douglas " Bob" Bullock, Sr. (1929-1999), then running successfully to succeed Hobby as lieutenant governor, had shown political courage regarding long-range economic problems. Caperton called for a revamped tax system, with a state income tax, rather than so much reliance on a regressive system of sales taxes and user fees.<ref name=houch/> Legislators have repeatedly, however, resisted calls for a state income tax, and few candidates have endorsed the issue.
==Austin lawyer==
Caperton is part of the Barnes Group in Austin,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jigsaw.com/scid26566064/kent_caperton.xhtml?ver=5|title=Kent Caperton|publisher=jigsaw.com|accessdate=September 7, 2011}}</ref> a legal and consulting firm founded by Benny Frank "Ben" Barnes (born 1938), the state House [[Speake]] from 1965 to 1969 and thereafter from 1969 to 1973 the state's lieutenant governor. Caperton is heavily involved in politics behind-the scenes and is a donor to Democratic candidates, such as [[U.S. Senator]]s [[Mary Landrieu]] of [[Louisiana]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://littlesis.org/relationship/view/id/104759
|title=Kent Caperton gives money to Mary Landrieu|publisher=littlesis.org|accessdate=September 7, 2011}}</ref> and [[Blanche Lincoln]] of [[Arkansas]]. All of Caperton's donations in 2010 and 2011 have been to Democrats, including his former state Senate colleague Lloyd Doggett of Austin, whowon reelection in 2012 in a reconfigured district to the [[United States House of Representatives]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/lobbyist_contribs.php?id=Y0000041390L&year=2011|title=Kent Caperton|publisher=opensecrets.org|accessdate=September 7, 2011}}</ref>
Caperton is divorced and has one daughter, Kathryn C. Gabbert,<ref name=obit>{{cite web |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theeagle/obituary.aspx?n=louis-w-zaeske-lou&pid=153387503&fhid=7600 |title=Louis W. "Lou" Zaeske, Jr. |publisher=''The Bryan-College Station Eagle''|accessdate=September 5, 2011 }}</ref> the wife of Jeffrey A. Gabbert, of Austin.
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caperton, Kent}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[CategoryAttorneys]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Lutherans]]