Paul's quirky congressional career comes to a close

Ron Paul, the libertarian from Lake Jackson, might not have been a legislative titan, but the former Air Force medic became the best-known national figure in Texas politics. Ron Paul, the libertarian from Lake Jackson, might not have been a legislative titan, but the former Air Force medic became the best-known national figure in Texas politics. Photo: © 2012 San Antonio Express-News Photo: © 2012 San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 197 Caption Close Paul's quirky congressional career comes to a close 1 / 197 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON — By standard measures, Ron Paul's legislative career in Washington has been unusually unproductive. In 23 years in office, just one of the 613 bills the maverick Texan introduced in Congress was signed into law, a proposal to sell the customs house in Galveston to a local historical association.

That's a futility rate of 99.8 percent.

Just four measures he authored passed the House of Representatives. Only seven ever emerged from House committees.

“Conventional wisdom says I didn't get much done,” the 77-year-old congressman said in an interview. “I didn't get much legislation passed.”

But Ron Paul has never been a conventional politician, and his political career defies conventional analysis. The quirky libertarian from Lake Jackson might not have been a legislative titan. But the former Air Force medic who entered politics four decades ago to protect Americans' individual liberties against government encroachment has managed to become the best-known national figure in Texas politics today.

Paul, who retired from his 14th Congressional District seat this year to focus on his third longshot presidential campaign, has greater name recognition across the country than the state's two influential Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn.

Paul received millions more votes in his 2012 Republican presidential campaign than his home state's powerful governor, Rick Perry. He has attracted more campaign contributors than any Texan not named Bush. And he has more Twitter followers than the rest of the Texas congressional delegation.

Combined.

Against all odds, through sheer willpower and Web prowess, the soft-spoken obstetrician-gynecologist has altered the nation's political dialogue on issues ranging from oversight of the Federal Reserve System to America's military role in the world — and created an Internet-fueled national political movement.

“Ron Paul is a gadfly, a loner and a man of principle,” said Steven Schier, a political science professor at Minnesota's Carleton College. “Paul's appeal is not rooted in mainstream national or Washington politics. Because of that, Paul's legacy is an unusual one for a retiring U.S. representative. His ability to boost a national libertarian movement that will outlive his career is his biggest accomplishment. The modern libertarian movement had no more consequential advocate than Ron Paul.”

To his most devoted supporters, Paul is a transformational political figure. “We live in the age of Ron Paul,” libertarian economist Lew Rockwell said. “Ron Paul has established a beachhead for liberty,” South Carolina state Sen. Tom Davis said.

Paul used the Internet to run two low-cost presidential campaigns by using an interlocking collection of libertarian-minded websites, think tanks, blogs and social media. He created the “money bomb,” an Internet phenomenon that helped him raise millions of dollars in short periods of time through small contributions. Other Republicans tried to replicate the tactic, with limited success.

His own party leaders, including fellow Texans Tom DeLay and Dick Armey, denied him a coveted committee chairmanship. He responded by taking his fight to college campuses and community events far from Washington. His career absentee rate was 12.5 percent — about five times the Capitol Hill average.

As he prepares to depart from Washington after three separate stints in Congress over the past 36 years, Paul is gloomy about the state of liberty in America.

“Leaving Washington, it's in a lot worse shape than when I first came there,” he said, thinking back to his first special election victory, in 1976. “Everything's worse. Our liberties are less. We are in endless wars. The economy is in shambles. And the government is dysfunctional.”

Still, the Pennsylvania native sees hope for the nation in the tens of thousands of young people who have embraced his message of liberty and are slowly infiltrating the American political system.

“Outside of Washington, I am very optimistic,” he said.

After leaving office, Paul says he will divide his time between his home in Texas and his Campaign for Liberty, based in Alexandria, Va. He says he will continue “stirring up the grass roots” and will spend more time doing something he loves — “going to as many college campuses as possible.”

richard.dunham@chron.com