Bulen began his primary education in the depths of the Great Depression and graduated from Pendleton High School in 1944 at the height of World War II.

He proposed a new way of doing things – including the realization that politics was a profession - such that he became the first paid Chairman of Marion County Republican Central Committee in 1966,[5] where he remained until 1970.

He served as the Indiana Coordinator for Richard Nixon's presidential campaigns in 1968 and as Nixon prepared to become President, Bulen was considered the leading prospect to head a reorganized Republican National Committee: "Bulen is highly regarded in the National Committee, a strong and thorough organizer; he has proven himself tough enough to move a lot of people around and break some china, yet maintains a strong respect, even among those whom he has offended.

After a fundraising trip to Indianapolis that October by President Gerald R. Ford,[8] Bulen resigned from all of his political positions and in late-December 1974 shut down CCI weeks after Daniels was hired by Lugar's mayoral office.

[9] The story was front page news the next month, as well: "[T]he FBI is conducting an investigation for possible violations of fraud and of the Hobbes Act, and Federal corrupt-practices statues" related to the distribution of liquor licenses in the expanded City-controlled geography created by Unigov.

He served as deputy chairman of the national "Reagan for President" Committee from 1979–80 and coordinated the 1980 presidential campaign in 17 eastern states.

In 1981 President Ronald Reagan appointed Bulen as Commissioner of the International Joint Commission, a treaty organization tasked with resolving and preventing problems between the United States and Canada.

Abercrombie, the world champion pacer Bulen owned along with[13] the wife of a family known for racketeering,[14] was voted Harness Horse of the Year in 1978.

He was also made a Kentucky Colonel, Commissioned Admiral in the Texas Navy, and awarded the Order of the Paul Revere Patriots by the Governor of Massachusetts.