Politics drew Fulton in years ago

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By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star

He showed up at a campaign kickoff of his junior high pal, Tony Fulton.

But Travis Clark of Auburn wasn’t the only one to spend a Sunday afternoon in August, basking in the almost perfect 82-degree day at a neighborhood bank in south Lincoln.

The whispers made the rounds pretty quickly of the Bo Pelini sighting.

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State Sen. Tony Fulton talks to a crowd of supporters during the Husker Season & Campaign Kick-Off Family Fun Event Aug. 24 at First State Bank. (Michael Paulsen)

State Sen. Tony Fulton talks to a crowd of supporters during the Husker Season & Campaign Kick-Off Family Fun Event Aug. 24 at First State Bank. (Michael Paulsen)

Huh? What’s he doing here?

People expected to see the politicians show up to the Tony Fulton-Tim Clare campaign event: the governor, the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and candidate for U.S. Senate. Other state officials and Republican candidates for office. 

But the Husker football coach?

Turns out Pelini’s 9-year-old Patrick is friends with Fulton’s 9-year-old Thomas. And Fulton and his wife, Judy, know Pelini and his wife, Mary Pat, from church.

But Clark was among those who knew Fulton best.

“We played so many pick-up basketball games together I can’t count that high,” he said.

Clark and Fulton and their other friends growing up in Auburn were “very active,” he said. And they sought each other out when the temptations of young life crowded in.

“We always could find each other and do something together that wouldn’t get us into trouble,” he said.

Clark said  Fulton’s venture into politics was unexpected, even though Fulton volunteered as a college student in several campaigns, including those of Jerry Shoecraft, Jeff Fortenberry and Cindy Johnson.

Clark thought it was more likely Fulton would become a priest. He did attend seminary for a year.

“The best way to describe him is you’ll never meet somebody who’s more honest,” Clark said.

Fulton came to the campaign kickoff event wearing khakis, a red short-sleeved Henley shirt and white Heelys — wheels off.

He bought the Heelys, athletic shoes with wheels built into the heels, because he thought they would help him get around faster when he was walking the   precincts, he said.

Fulton, who was appointed two years ago by Gov. Dave Heineman to fill a seat vacated by Mike Foley, has to win the seat this year to keep it.

But politics first drew Fulton in  years before, after he got his first paycheck from Nebraska Boiler in his 20s and saw that taxes had taken a chunk of it.

He began to look at political candidates and elected officials a little differently, and to think he could do that, too.

As a youngster, Fulton had thought he would surely end up working at the Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville, nearby his hometown.

Opportunity didn’t abound in the area. His dad had a high school diploma and his mom, born in the Philippines, had less than a high school education.

People in Auburn saw engineers as the people who were making a good living — they had nice clothes, they could put meals on the family table — and since he was good at math and science,  that’s what he aspired to do, he said. 

So he learned the properties of thermodynamics.

“I didn’t know there was a whole world of possibilities,” he said. “Until I got to college, it never dawned on me that I could do other things.”

Fulton did an internship in college at the Cooper nuclear plant, working on secondary containment projects, such as seals and other containment devices.

During his internship, he learned more than he cared to about government regulation and red tape, he said, and it fueled his distaste for government intervention.

God created each person for a certain vocation, he believes.

His gifts, he believes, are a personable demeanor, a good memory for names, an aptitude for  breaking down problems and solving them, and an ability to motivate people.

A few years ago, he left mechanical engineering to start his own business, Guardian Angels Homecare, and ultimately to enter politics.

The candidate met his wife in college and they married when he  was 26.

“She was a pretty girl singing at church,” he said. “I thought I never had a chance.”

Nine years later they have five brown-eyed kids — twins Thomas and Augustine, Bede, Bernadette and baby Basil — a built-in campaign support system.

 “They chant at night when I come home, ‘Vote for Tony Fulton,’” he said.

The family has lived 10 years in a 959-square-foot, split level house at 5935 S. 53rd St. They are in the process this week of moving to a two-story, nearly 2,000-square foot-house at 6100 S. 31st St.

Fulton said he’s on the earth first to do some good — to be an agent of God — then to be a good husband and a good father.

“The other things I do, politics and business, are extensions of No. 1,” he said.

“Your primary vocation has to be something deeper. Every human being is created to love. The other stuff is secondary. I really mean it.”

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.