District 81 Issues: Part III

On term limits ...

On Wednesdays and Sundays until Feb. 27, the Odessa American will let the four candidates vying for the District 81 seat in the Texas House of Representatives weigh in on various campign issues.

Jesse Gore

‘I would be in favor of term limits. When people get into office for a certain amount of time, they get jaded to an extent and a lot of time disconnect from their constituency that put them in there. They start hanging around with other ­politicians. … They tend to be corrupted — maybe not financially by bribes and that issue but maybe from what they once stood for.’

Tryon Lewis

‘The Republican Party at our proudest ­moment came up with the “Contract with America,” and the American public, largely based on that contract, ­overwhelmingly put Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. A key part of that was term limits. We got in power and ­nobody talks about term limits anymore. Whether Republicans control the ­legislature or not we need to get that back on the agenda.’

Randy Rives

‘I’m in favor of them. I don’t know if there is a magic year out there. It’s always good to get a fresh set of eyes … I think it would make the voters study and work a little bit harder ...’

Buddy West

‘At one time, I was. I have found out if you look at California, the speaker has been in only two terms and he gets to be speaker. … You’re losing a lot of experience. You could come in with a total session with no experience whatsoever. You have to have somebody there with experience. There could be a term-limit level, but it would take some sitting down and working it, but not any short-term limit.’