TribBlog: The Facts of Munisteri's Life

There is a lot that Texans probably don't know about newly elected GOP party chairman Steve Munisteri — and a lot in his official biography that they probably never wanted to.

For example, Munisteri graduated 32nd out of 600 in his high school class. He played one game of junior varsity football before committing himself exclusively to debate competitions. He has worked as a theater usher, a hardware salesman and has gone door to door selling Cutco knives. He finished his undergraduate and law degrees in four years and 11 months instead of the usual seven years. He was baptized by submersion.

Want more? These are just some of the facts available in Munisteri's refreshingly forthcoming bio posted on the official Republican Party of Texas website.

Sharing bits of childhood trivia — like winning your high school's geometry award — is one thing, but Munisteri takes his candor a step further by elaborating on issues like the unraveling of his first marriage:

When Steve was 18 years old, he sat next to Deanna Armstrong on a bus of Reagan youth staff traveling from Texas to Kansas City to work on the 1976 Reagan campaign. Ms. Armstrong was the president of the local University of Texas Young Republicans, and later the president of the University of Texas Young Conservatives of Texas, and later a full-time staff member of the Republican Party of Texas. Steve and Deanna would marry a few years later.

Unfortunately, his marriage with Deanna ended while the couple was in their 30’s without the couple having any children, in part because of Deanna’s desire to relocate to the western part of the country which she has done. However, the couple still remains on good terms and still talk occasionally.

For the inquiring minds that want to know, his current relationship seems to be going well:

A few years ago, Steve started dating the woman in his life, Judy, whom he actually had first met in 1979 when she joined the University of Texas chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas. Although they ran into each other occasionally at law functions, it wasn’t until decades later that they actually started dating after Steve referred her a case.

(h/t to Tim Mak)