Ailing Rep. Buddy West Faces Tough GOP Primary

State Rep. Buddy West (R-Odessa) is in for a bloody primary fight this spring, reports the Midland Reporter-Telegram, and it appears that the GOP strategy of eating its own people who sparred with Craddick doesn’t even exempt a state rep with an incurable kidney disease:

Some scenarios put him into an April 8 runoff with retired state district judge Tryon Lewis while another has Lewis cruising into the District 81 seat without a runoff.

Whether the controversies of Randy Rives’ tenure as president of the Ector County School Board will sink his ship remain to be seen.

Even with West’s kidney problems during last spring’s legislative session and rumbles about his refusal to back House Speaker Tom Craddick’s re-election, the 69-year-old former Amaco safety executive wants an eighth two-year soiree of representing Andrews, Winkler and Ector counties and is ready to fight for it.

Sponsored by 100 couples, a Lewis fundraiser was held Thursday night at the La Paz Addition home of Don and Lynne Wood. Lewis had said on Thursday he would report the amount raised and participants who previously supported West, but efforts to reach him and his campaign treasurer, Dick Gillham, on Friday were unsuccessful.

West played down his disputes with Craddick and said his health crisis has abated.

“Oh man, I thought I was gone,” said West of the late May end of the 80th Texas Legislature, when he painfully strode to the floor microphone and pleaded for funding for the University of Texas of the Permian Basin’s Performing Arts Center not to be cut, saying it could be his last address to the House.

“I was pushing and pushing and when I got home, I went straight into the hospital,” he said. “I’m not 100 percent, but I am so much better. I have a kidney disease that’s not curable, but it is treatable and that’s what we’re doing.

West Texas is one of those environs that has a weird political culture, and I’m not altogether sure what to make of the challenges to West. I expect it’s partially related to West’s opposition to Craddick late in the session and part related to folks who are just tired of waiting for West to retire. I suspect it has a lot to do with Craddick, though, as West is downplaying his disagreements with Craddick in a very serious way:

When asked if his disagreements with Craddick have been misconstrued, West said, “We have different ways of doing things and different personalities, but that’s just part of it.

“The main thing is that we get things done. Tom has helped with Odessa College and UTPB. We need to keep everything going like we have — heading into the wind.”

West said taxes, education and health care have been the Legislature’s big concerns and will continue to be.

To date, I’m unaware of a Democrat in this race. It’d be a tough race for a Democrat, to be sure, and Ector County Democratic Chair John Wilkins–the famous Odessa Permian football coach–has already decided against making the race.

Bookmark It