Comment on Former aide pleads guilty to embezzling $1.8 million from Dewhurst campaign funds

AUSTIN - Former David Dewhurst campaign manager Kenneth "Buddy" Barfield is facing up to 28 years in prison and millions in fines and restitution payments after pleading guilty Tuesday to embezzling nearly $1.8 million from the outgoing lieutenant governor's failed 2012 bid for U.S. Senate. Once Dewhurst's most trusted campaign adviser, Barfield admitted in a court filing that he stole funds from two campaign accounts - the David Dewhurst Committee and Dewhurst for Texas - and used the money to pay the mortgage on his columned, two-story mansion in West Austin, on school tuition for his children, on personal investments and for assorted other living costs. According to federal court filings, Barfield reported in 2009 that he had no taxable income, while IRS criminal investigators later discovered he had made nearly $583,000.