AMARILLO Timothy Scott “Tim” Reid is a former longtime FBI agent who hopes to extend his public service career into the Texas State Senate in Austin.
With fellow Amarilloan Kel Seliger retiring from the senate at the end of this year, Reid says he has “an uphill battle” to make the probable runoff after the March 1 Republican Primary against Kevin Sparks of Midland, Stormy Bradley of Big Spring and Jesse Quackenbush of Amarillo. There is no Democrat in the race.
Reid explained that the other candidates are much better fixed financially than him and that last year’s redistricting took counties out of the district’s north end and beefed up the south to give southern candidates an advantage.
“Two of my top issues are border security and local control,” Reid said in a Tuesday phone interview. “Texas’s lack of border security causes a waterfall of issues like drugs, human trafficking and sex trafficking, which puts extra burdens on our education and health care systems.
“It also causes problems for our sheriffs and the Department of Public Safety, who have to send deputies and troopers down there.”
Reid said it is ironic that Texas has always fought the federal government for sovereignty, but now local school boards struggle with the state. “School districts need to be making their own decisions, but more and more control is centered in Austin,” he said.
Reid is a 63-year-old native of Clifton, N.J., who lived in a foster home till he was adopted at age 8. He graduated from Montclair State University and was a policeman in Little Falls, N.J., and a trooper with the New Jersey State Police before graduating from the FBI Academy and serving as an agent and senior resident in Amarillo for 19 years.
He also worked in the FBI information technology center in Clarksburg, W.Va., and trained officials to delineate the duties of the military and police in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and Iraq during the war.
Reid was a member of the Canyon ISD Board of Trustees from 1997-2005 and was on the faculty of Ascension Academy in Amarillo till taking an unpaid leave of absence to campaign.
He was the preparatory school’s athletic director and he taught geography and religion in the sixth grade and crime scene forensics and geopolitics in high school. Reid and his wife Katy have five children and five grandchildren.
“I’ve met with mayors, county judges, sheriffs and superintendents in 31 of the district’s 46 counties,” he said. “It’s a lot like the rest of the state with 50 percent of the population in Amarillo, Midland and Odessa.
“Eighty percent of Texas is rural, but 80 percent of the people live in urban areas. The answers in cities our size are different from what the rural counties need. So how do we address these issues in a mostly rural state?”
Reid conceded that he is at a financial disadvantage against Sparks, an oilman, Bradley, a businesswoman, and Quackenbush, a personal injury and criminal defense attorney; but he hopes to raise $1 million for the primary and more for the May 24 runoff.
He said the district’s new counties to the east and south have little in common with the Permian Basin and he hopes to gain support there along with persuading voters with his record in Odessa and Midland.
“Unlike those in Washington who got rich in public service, I never did,” Reid said. “During my 32 years in law enforcement, I developed a good sense of listening, so I like to stand and talk and think of new ideas.”
