Bernard John "Ben" Westlund II (September 3, 1949 – March 7, 2010) was an American politician in the U.S. state of Oregon.

He moved to Central Oregon in 1974 and lived near Bend, running a ranch, with his wife Libby and two children, son B.J.

[1] During four terms in the House, his most notable work was done as co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee, to which he was appointed in 2001.

He unsuccessfully argued for the creation of a state sales tax as a means to balance the budget during a revenue shortfall.

[7] In what would be Westlund's last House race, he defeated Democrat Cylvia Hayes, a Bend businesswoman who later became Oregon's first lady during the third and fourth terms of Governor John Kitzhaber.

[1] He won election to that same seat in 2004, also gaining the local Democratic nomination and facing only token opposition on the ballot.

That effort was defeated in part thanks to opposition by Speaker of the House Karen Minnis, wife of the officer who arrested Westlund in 1982.

2020,[16] which would have expanded Oregon's criminal homicide law, redefining "human beings" to include fetuses and embryos at any stage of development.

On October 3, 2007, however, in a press conference attended by Governor Ted Kulongoski, he announced his candidacy for the office of Oregon State Treasurer.