Jonathan Paton Jonathan Paton ( born June 10 , 1971 ) is a former Arizona Republican candidate for the U . S . House of Representatives in Arizona ' s 8th District and an intelligence officer in the U . S . Army Reserve who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom . Paton was first elected to southern Arizona ' s Legislative District 30 as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives in 2004 . He won reelection and began his second term in February 2007 . In 2008 , he was elected to the Arizona Senate , again representing Legislative District 30 . On January 17 , 2010 , Paton announced he would be challenging Democratic U . S . Representative Gabrielle Giffords . He subsequently resigned from the state Senate to focus his efforts on campaigning for Congress . Paton lost in the 2010 Republican primary and endorsed his former opponent , Jesse Kelly . He ran for Congress again in 2012 , this time in Arizona ' s newly formed 1st Congressional District , ending in close defeat against Democratic opponent Ann Kirkpatrick . Early life , education , and early career . Paton was born in Tucson , Arizona . He grew up on the city ' s East Side . He graduated from Sabino High School in 1989 . During his senior year in high school Paton worked at Marie Callender ' s restaurant as a busboy and saved up the funds to go to Germany as a Rotary exchange student . He returned home and began his studies at the University of Arizona . In the coming years he would spend more years overseas studying in Almaty , Kazakhstan with the Sister Cities Program , Ludwig - Maximillians - Universitaet in Munich as a Rotary Foundation Scholar and in Moscow through a program administered by the University of Arizona . He also interned with the Arizona State Senate in 1995 . Paton graduated from the University of Arizona summa cum laude and with honors in German and Russian in 1996 . He continued on to the graduate program in German at the University of Arizona . Paton went on to work for the Southern Arizona Homebuilders Association , representing one of the key industries and job providers in Southern Arizona . In 2001 , Paton began a political consulting firm in Tucson called Paton & Associates . He has worked with numerous clients in state and local races as well as on initiative campaigns . Military service . In 1999 Paton enlisted in the United States Army Reserve . He served in the 5 - 104th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Huachuca , Arizona . He was named " Soldier of the Year " for his battalion , brigade and eventually for the entire 104th Division in 2000 . After becoming instructor qualified and being promoted to sergeant , he received his commission as a second lieutenant . In 2005 after his first year in office , he was called up for active duty for six months in a new Army program called the Basic Officer Leaders Course , which combines infantry training at Fort Benning , Georgia with military intelligence training at Fort Huachuca . He graduated as class leader of the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course in January 2006 . He continues to serve as a captain and a qualified 35D all - source intelligence officer . In late July 2006 , Paton announced he was being voluntarily deployed to Iraq . The announcement received national and international media attention . He was the only state representative to be reelected while deployed in the CENTCOM theater of operations in 2006 . Paton served as an intelligence officer involved in operations throughout Iraq . His tour of duty ended at the end of February 2007 . Arizona legislature . First elected to the state House in 2004 , Paton sponsored a bill that allowed the state to crack down on human smugglers — the first of its kind in the country . He was a key supporter of an extension of state financing for Rio Nuevo , a downtown redevelopment project in Tucson . He was the prime sponsor of a bill eliminating state income taxes for active duty military personnel in Arizona . In his second term in the House , Paton sponsored legislation that forced the Arizona State Retirement System to divest itself of all funds that included petroleum companies doing business with Iran . Paton was most known in 2007 , however , for a series of hearings on CPS following the deaths of three Tucson children murdered after their parents were investigated by CPS . Paton , along with State Representative Kirk Adams , led the hearings on CPS negligence in the cases . The two sponsored a package of six bills designed to open up CPS case records of murdered children and create more accountability for the agency . All six bills were eventually signed into law by Gov . Janet Napolitano in 2008 . Due to his work on open records and freedom of information , Paton was awarded the " Freedom of Information Award " by the Arizona Newspaper Association two years in a row . In 2009 The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry named Paton " Senator of the Year . " In 2008 , State Senator Tim Bee finished his last term in the legislature representing District 30 due to term limits . In a bid for Bee ' s State Senate seat in November 2008 , Paton defeated Democrat Georgette Valle in the General Election by over 20 points . Incoming Senator President Bob Burns appointed Paton to serve as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , a post once held by Tucsonans Elaine Richardson ( D ) and Patti Noland ( R ) . Before leaving the Senate to run for U . S . Congress , Paton voted in favor of SB1070 , Arizona ' s immigration law .