First elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1990, Carona thereafter won a special election to the state Senate held on May 4, 1996 to succeed the Republican John N. Leedom, who resigned early in his last term. Carona remains a senator until January 2015. In the 2013 legislative session, Carona chaired the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce. He was also a member of the Senate Criminal Justice, Education, Jurisprudence and Redistricting committees. In May 2012, acrimony between Carona and colleague Dan Patrick of Houston, a fellow Republican and Baptist, was widely reported throughout the state. In an email exchange, Patrick accused Carona of spreading false rumors about Patrick's marriage; Carona denied having questioned Patrick's marriage or having made comments about Patrick's sexuality. Carona further said to Patrick: "I've never been shy about sharing my dislike and distrust of you. Put bluntly, I believe you are a snake oil salesman, a narcissist that would say anything to draw attention to himself." News reports suggested that the feud was partly motivated by positioning in 2012 to succeed David Dewhurst as lieutenant governor, should Dewhurst have been elected to the United States Senate. Instead Dewhurst lost the Senate runoff election to fellow Republican Ted Cruz. Had Dewhurst left the lieutenant governorship early in 2013, the state senators themselves would have chosen one of their own as the acting lieutenant governor to serve through January 2015. In 2014, Patrick was himself a runoff candidate against Dewhurst, who after losing to Cruz was seeking a fourth term as lieutenant governor. While Patrick led a four-candidate field for lieutenant governor, with Dewhurst a distant second, in the primary election held on March 4, 2014, Carona was himself very narrowly unseated for his state Senate seat by Dallas businessman Don Huffines, 25,136 to 24,501. Patrick ultimately defeated Dewhurst in a runoff election on May 27, 2014. Carona, along with colleagues Bob Deuell of Greenville, Robert L. Duncan of Lubbock, Kevin Eltife of Tyler, and Kel Seliger of Amarillo, is considered one of the most liberal of the nineteen Texas Senate Republicans, according to an analysis by Mark P. Jones of the Political Science Department at Rice University in Houston. Jones also found that these Republicans saw passage of 90 percent of the bills for which they had voted. In addition to Carona's narrow primary defeat, Deuell was forced into runoff contest with another Republican, Bob Hall, which he lost.
Business
Carona is director, CEO, and president of Associations, Inc. aka "Associa". Associa is a holding company for one of the largest collections of HOA management companies and related businesses in the United States. Carona has come under scrutiny for his business practices and his legislative activity including authoring, voting on, and modifying legislation that benefited his Associa organization.
