Tom Pauken, a Dallas mediation attorney and the former chairman of the Texas Republican Party, will join the Texas Workforce Commission as chairman in the "public member" slot (one from business, one from labor, one from the public). Texas Labor immediately blasted that appointment, saying Gov. Rick Perry's pick "will continue the agency’s bias toward management and away from workers." Becky Moeller, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, pointed to the GOP platform when Pauken was chairman and its call to abolish minimum wages and prevailing wage laws. She says the unions will oppose it when the appointment goes to the Senate. Pauken disavowed those bits of the GOP platform, calling himself a "supporter of the labor movement" and saying he's never taken a position opposing minimum wages. " I don't know what they're talking about..." he said. "I hope we can work together. I'm baffled that they would not call or ask about my positions before saying these things." Pauken, who headed ACTION during the Reagan Administration, says he wants TWC to specialize in helping veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, like the other agency did for veterans of the Vietnam conflict.

Diane Rath is resigning from the Texas Workforce Commission this month, after 12 years there. TWC's chair is waiting for Senate confirmation to a federal appointment; George W. Bush, who as governor first put her at workforce, appointed her last July to an assistant secretary post at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed:

• Carin Barth of Houston and Tom Clowe of Waco to the Texas Public Safety Commission and put Allan Polunsky of San Antonio in the chairman's seat. Polunsky, an attorney, was on the Texas Board of Criminal Justice for 13 years. Barth is president and co-founder of LB Capital, an investment firm. Clowe, until recently a member of the state's lottery commission, is a nursing home investor and ranch land developer. There's still one empty slot on that panel, but it's got four members for the first time, and two female members for the first time. Polunsky dispatched Clowe to work on possible reorganization of the Department of Public Safety, Barth to dig into the agency's budget, and tapped Commissioner Elizabeth Anderson to take the commission's spot on the Texas Racing Commission and to take a look at the agency's intelligence database projects and information technology. (Coastal Alert: Polunsky asked the agency staff what it would take to move the regional office now in Corpus Christi to San Antonio.)

• Fernando Reyes Jr. of San Antonio to the Texas Lottery Commission. He's the president of Reyes Industries and Reyes Automotive Group, and Perry put him on that panel until early 2011.

• Steven Weinberg of Colleyville to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. He's the retired associate director of the Peace Corps, and has degrees in medicine and law. He'll replace Gail Madden of Dallas.

• Travis Bryan III of Bryan, the former Brazos County District Attorney, to preside in the 272nd District Court. He'll have to run in the next election for a full term, and was already on the ballot (alone). Bryan was most recently a criminal defense lawyer. He'll replace Rick Davis, who gave up the robes to run for district attorney.

• To the newly created Cancer Prevention and Research Institute Oversight Committee, watching the state dole out $3 billion in grants approved by voters in November: Malcolm Gillis, former president of Rice University and now a professor there; Jeanne Phillips, an exec at Hunt Consolidated in Dallas; and Scott Sanders of Austin, owner and CEO of River City Sportswear.

• Carol Becker of Aledo, Joyce McCown Odom of San Antonio, and Norberto Salinas of Mission to the Texas Funeral Services Commission. Becker is a retired counselor; McCown is a retired Delta Airlines flight attendant; and Salinas, former mayor of Mission, is president of S&F Developers and Builders.

• Malcolm Beckendorff of Katy to the Texas Facilities Commission. Beckendorff is an exec with Costello and a former city councilman.

Two appointments buried (until now) in the heaps of candidate press releases around here: The Guv named Janiece Longoria to the Board of Regents at the University of Texas. She's a Houston attorney (Ogden, Gibson, Broocks & Longoria) and a Port of Houston Authority Commissioner. She got both of her degrees —undergrad and law — at UT Austin. She replaced Robert Estrada of Fort Worth. Perry also named James Herring of Amarillo to the middle seat at the Texas Water Development Board, and named two new members to that panel: Joe Crutcher of Palestine and Ed Vaughn of Boerne to that board. The new chairman is president and CEO of Friona Industries, a cattle-feeding company. Crutcher is co-chairman of East Texas National Bank, and Vaughan is an attorney.

Deborah Fulton takes over as head of the legal division at the Texas Legislative Council. She's been around TLC for 17 years, and replaces Mark Brown, who left the agency earlier this year.

Talmadge Heflin is leaving the Republican Party of Texas, where he was executive director, for a fulltime gig with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Eric Opiela, a former Capitol aide and one-time House candidate, will replace Heflin at the state GOP. Heflin, meanwhile, will become director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at TPPF. The former House Appropriations chairman has been working with the foundation for a little more than two years.

House Speaker Tom Craddick named Kay Alexander of Abilene to the Commission on State Emergency Communications. She's with the American Heart Association.

K.C. Jones is the new political director of the GOP's Texas Victory 2008. Jones, a Midland native, was most recently attached to the Rudy Giuliani campaign for president.

Lindsey Hughes, who worked for retiring Rep. Mike Krusee, left the Pink Building to take a job with former Rep. Paul Sadler at the newly formed Wind Coalition.

Out: Todd Gallaher, chief of staff to Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, after The Dallas Morning News caught him posing as one of its reporters, and for attacking a Corpus Christi sheriff candidate under what appeared to be an email address for Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi. Gallaher resigned after the paper raised questions and said it appeared he used state computers for the candidate attack.

Deaths: Joe Wagner, former doorkeeper of the Texas House of Representatives. He was 100.