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John Thomas Montford (born June 28, 1943) is a business consultant in San Antonio, Texas, who is a former member of the Texas State Senate from District 28, based about Lubbock in West Texas. He is a former district attorney for Lubbock County and a former chancellor of the Texas Tech University System. ==Political life== A native of Fort Worth, Montford graduated in 1965 from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Juris Doctor degree in 1968 from the University of Texas School of Law. He was a judge advocate in the United States Marine Corps from 1968 to 1971.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Biographical Sketch: John T. Montford )〕 Thereafter, he became a practicing attorney in Lubbock. A Democrat, he was elected in 1978 as district attorney, in which capacity he acquired the sobriquet "Maximum John" for his vigorous prosecution of crime and demand for lengthy sentences.〔Billy Hathorn, "Mayor Jim Reese of Odessa and the Republican Party in the Permian Basin", ''The West Texas Historical Association Year Book'', Vol. LXXXVII (October 2011), p. 141〕 Montford did not seek a second term as DA in 1982. Instead he ran for and was elected to the state Senate. He unseated E L Short in the Democratic primary election and then defeated Republican Jim Reese, the former mayor of Odessa, in the general election. Montford served in the Senate from 1983 to 1996, during which time he was the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate President Pro Tem. He was a member of the Legislative Budget Board and the Legislative Audit Committee.〔 He joined with Ron Givens of Lubbock, the first African-American Republican to serve in the Texas House since 1882, to create an additional county court at-law judgeship for Lubbock County to relieve the case loads of the five state district courts.Montford authored the Statewide Water Package, handily approved by Texas voters in November 1985. ''Texas Monthly'' magazine named Montford among its "Top 10 Best Legislators" for five legislative sessions.〔 He was "Governor for the Day" on April 24, 1993.〔 On leaving the Senate, he became the first chancellor of the newly established Texas Tech University System,〔"John T. Montford (born 1943), a Powerhouse at Tech, in Politics," ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' on-line, January 11, 2009〕 a position which he maintained for five years until 2001. In February 1998, chancellor Montford announced a fundraising goal of $300 million to underwrite university improvements. Instead, donors contributed $500 million, which allowed for construction of the United Spirit Arena and renovations to Jones AT&T Stadium and several academic buildings.〔 Mrs. Montford, the former Debra Kay Mears (born 1952), known as Debbie Montford, was involved in beautification of the Texas Tech campus while her husband was the chancellor. In 1999, Montford was named by the ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' as Lubbock's "Most Influential Person".〔 In a 2012 radio appearance in Lubbock, Montford endorsed the legalization of casino gambling in Texas. Montford said that Texans are already traveling to Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma to gamble, and the state should earmark those otherwise lost revenues to public use. His comment drew a rebuke from State Representative Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican who is a fierce gambling opponent. Perry said that lower-income residents who already receive massive amounts of entitlement spending are those most likely to squander their earnings on gambling.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ariel Walden, John T. Montford and Charles Perry Square Off On Gambling Referendum (), October 22, 2012 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John T. Montford」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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