An antagonistic history stretching back more than a quarter-century between U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, is entering a new chapter today with Gramm coming to Waco to speak on behalf of Bill Flores — a GOP candidate seeking to unseat Edwards.

The endorsement from Gramm, with his outsize influence on the last three decades of Republican politics nationally and in Texas, is a feather in Flores’ cap as he prepares for a Republican runoff Tuesday against Waco small-business man Rob Curnock.

Both Flores, a Bryan resident, and Gramm have deep ties to Texas A&M University, where the former senator taught economics and where Flores, a retired oil executive, has been a generous donor.

Phil Gramm (left) taught Chet Edwards in a class at Texas A&M, and the two were later political opponents.

But Gramm’s gesture of support also is reigniting a feud between him and another Aggie, Edwards.

Edwards and Gramm’s first encounter was in a Texas A&M classroom, where Edwards had Gramm as a professor.

But in 1976, Edwards, then 25, vied with Gramm in a Democratic primary for the U.S. House seat that had belonged to Olin E. Teague.

Gramm won by fewer than 200 votes.

It was the start of a highly successful political career for Gramm but not the end of his campaigning against Edwards.

Gramm spoke at fundraising events and penned an endorsement letter for Neal T. “Buddy” Jones, a Hill County state legislator and now prominent lobbyist whom Edwards defeated in a Democratic primary for a state Senate seat in 1982.

At the time, Edwards called Gramm’s involvement in the race “the most unprecedented, heavy-handed” thing he’d ever seen, noting that Gramm wasn’t a Senate district resident.

After a controversial 2003 redistricting that made Edwards’ seat more conservative, Gramm donated $9,700 from his political action committee to Burleson Republican Arlene Wohlgemuth.

Edwards defeated Wohlgemuth, with 51.2 percent of the vote to her 47.4 percent. But it was the closest he has come to defeat since getting elected to the U.S. House.

Speaking at a rally for Wohlgemuth in College Station, Gramm was polite in his description of Edwards. He played up the electoral significance of Brazos County in the newly carved-up 17th Congressional District but called the Edwards-Wohlgemuth race “a choice between two good people,” according to the Houston Chronicle.

The latest dust-up between Edwards and Gramm came on the heels of the economic downturn. Edwards said legislation pushed by Gramm in 1999 deregulating the banking industry “planted the seeds” for Wall Street’s financial meltdown.

Edwards was one of only 57 House members to oppose the bill, named the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act after its sponsors.

In a statement released by the Flores campaign announcing events with Gramm in Cleburne, Waco and Bryan, Gramm was quoted touting Flores’ business experience and his ability to beat Edwards.

“It is imperative Republicans win back control of the Congress, and Bill Flores is the one man in this (primary runoff) that not only can win but will win,” Gramm said.

Flores praised Gramm’s service as a senator and his economic expertise.

Edwards fired back, bringing up Gramm’s widely criticized assessment of the U.S. economy, when he was an economic adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign.

“When our country was entering the deepest recession since the Great Depression, Mr. Gramm said we are a ‘nation of whiners’ and this is just a ‘mental recession,’ ” Edwards’ campaign manager, Alex Youn, said in a statement.

“So I doubt this type of partisan endorsement will play any role in the November election.”

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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