Gubernatorial Appointment

October 16, 2008                                                     Bulletin 2008-No. 03

 

The Austin American Statesman Reports the following news:

 

In a surprise shakeup, former state homeland security chief and gubernatorial confidant Jay Kimbrough will take over Monday as chief of staff for Gov. Rick Perry, officials said.

 

Brian Newby, who had been Perry’s chief of staff, was named Wednesday by Perry to co-lead the Hurricane Ike Recovery and Coordination Effort. Mr. Newby was named chief of staff in July 2007, replacing longtime political adviser and confidante Deirdre Delisi, who Perry has since appointed to the Texas Transportation Commission.

 

Mr. Kimbrough, deputy chancellor and general counsel of Texas A&M University System, had served twice in recent years as Perry’s deputy chief of staff. In 2007, he made headlines as the hard-charging first conservator of the troubled Texas Youth Commission —a post to which Perry appointed him to begin cleaning up a sex-abuse and official cover-up scandal.

 

“I am excited that Jay is returning to my staff,” Perry said in a statement. “He is a man of integrity with a proven track record and my complete trust. Jay is a decorated combat veteran, a man of action and sound judgment, and will help lead us through the upcoming session.”

 

In December 2002, after serving as Texas’ first homeland security director, Kimbrough was named deputy attorney general for criminal justice by Attorney General Greg Abbott. In that post, Kimbrough continued to coordinate homeland security efforts for the state, working directly with the governor.

 

In the 1990s, Kimbrough served then-Gov. George Bush during the conservatorship of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA). That agency was placed in conservatorship amid financial irregularities.

 

Kimbrough previously served as director of the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division and since 1966 has held a variety of posts in federal, state and local government.

 

A decorated Vietnam veteran, Kimbrough was awarded the Purple Heart for his service in the Marine Corps and served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He also is a former county judge and county attorney in Bee County. He also has served as the executive director of the Texas Commission on Private Security and TCADA.

 

 

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