Buzbee, King aim to tie each other to Turner
Mayoral candidates Tony Buzbee and Bill King are both seeking to tie each other to Mayor Sylvester Turner as they battle for conservative votes and the chance to face the mayor in a potential December runoff.
Buzbee, positioned more than 15 percentage points ahead of King in a poll released Sunday, is now running online and mailer ads that draw attention to King’s former employer, delinquent-tax collection law firm Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson. King previously managed the firm’s Houston office and put Turner’s law firm on retainer in 2004.
One of the ads says King “made millions off city contracts while paying Mayor Turner,” who was among multiple then-state representatives hired by the firm.
On Saturday, King slammed Buzbee for backing Turner in the 2015 runoff, when Turner narrowly defeated King. A new site launched by King’s campaign, tonyandturner.com, is headlined by a photo of Buzbee with his arm around Turner’s shoulder and hearts floating around their heads.
Often aligned in their mutual opposition to Turner, Buzbee and King now have sharpened their attacks against each other with the start of early voting looming on Monday. Though they have sniped at each other at times throughout the campaign, their fire has almost exclusively been trained on Turner — until now.
Buzbee, who has siphoned off a chunk of King’s conservative base from the 2015 campaign, found himself under fresh attack this weekend when King panned him for a recently surfaced video in which Buzbee says he did not vote against Houston’s equal rights ordinance and appears to support re-introducing the measure if elected mayor.
On social media and in an email to supporters, King also said Buzbee should disclose to LGBTQ groups that he is supported by Steven Hotze, a controversial Republican power broker known for championing anti-LGBTQ causes.
Buzbee responded by noting King’s slumping poll numbers and urging him to focus his fire on Turner instead.
“Bill King can’t even break double digits in the last poll. Pretty sad that he tries to distort my position all the while we have a mayor running this city into the dirt,” Buzbee said. “King I’m sure is a nice guy. But desperation doesn’t get votes. He should just drop out and help me beat Turner.”
As for the endorsement from Hotze, which was published in a newsletter distributed by Republican Terry Lowry, Buzbee said he has met Hotze once, during a visit to Second Baptist Church, and did not seek his support.
“I don’t control who endorses me. Despite saying repeatedly I’m not seeking endorsements, I continue to be endorsed by many different groups and individuals,” Buzbee tweeted earlier this month in response to an attack from Turner, who wrote in an email to supporters: “Hotze’s bigotry has rightly made him radioactive to almost everyone in Houston. Everyone except Buzbee, of course!”
In 2015, King sought to distance himself from Hotze after he was included on Hotze’s endorsement slate. A spokesperson for King’s campaign at the time said he was “unaware of this slate and did not request to be included in it.”
This year, it’s unclear if Hotze plans to release a slate, having been rebuffed by multiple conservative City Council candidates whom he unsuccessfully pressured to renounce the endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBTQ group, according to multiple sources who were granted anonymity in order to speak candidly.
King, meanwhile, came under fire from multiple Facebook followers Saturday who questioned why he is attacking Buzbee instead of Turner. King’s campaign responded by saying that Turner is assured to make the runoff, which would occur if nobody receives 50 percent plus one vote in the Nov. 5 election.
“This is a fight to be in the runoff. Turner is going to be there. No question about that,” King’s campaign wrote in a Facebook comment. “Who is best to face him? Experience and knowledge or flash and on (the) job training. Vote Bill because he has what Houston needs.”
King also denied a rumor, raised by another commenter who alleged that King had indicated he would vote for Turner instead of Buzbee if the race heads to a runoff between the two. King called the charge “a rumor that Buzbee circulated. Bill didn’t say it. He has never and will never support Turner.”
Buzbee, for his part, hosted a fundraiser for Turner at his River Oaks mansion during the 2015 mayoral runoff, after Buzbee’s preferred candidate, Adrian Garcia, had been eliminated. In September, Buzbee said that of all the candidates he has supported, “Turner has been the biggest disappointment.”
During his mayoral run, Buzbee has cast his candidacy as strictly nonpartisan, repeatedly mentioning his history of hosting fundraisers for candidates on both sides of the aisle and contributing to Democratic and Republican officials.
King on Saturday accused Buzbee
of changing his views at times to appease different groups, writing to supporters: “Anyone who modifies where they stand to fit the audience they are in front of cannot be trusted to lead our City.” In particular, King has cited Buzbee’s comments during a September forum when, in response to a question about a second push for a nondiscrimination ordinance, Buzbee said, “I don’t see it coming up again. Certainly as mayor, I’m not bringing it up.”
When King accused Buzbee during the forum of changing his stance, Buzbee responded by saying he had remained “pretty consistent” about the issue and argued that King had taken his words out of context.
Underlying the Buzbee-King feud is a bit of residual animosity from Buzbee’s unsuccessful 2002 bid for a Texas House seat.
Buzbee, who ran as a Democrat, asked King — then the mayor of Kemah — to support him in his race that year against Republican Larry Taylor, who is now a state senator.
The two offer dueling accounts of what happened: According to Buzbee, King promised to support him before turning around and backing Taylor.
“I remember Bill King saying he’s going to help me and endorse me, and lying straight to my face, because he wanted Linebarger to get the contract for the County of Galveston,” Buzbee said.
King disputes the account, contending that he never promised support for Buzbee.
“The first time I ever met him was when he came to see me when I was the mayor of Kemah and asked me to support him,” King wrote in an email. “Flatly told I was not going to support him. He was running against Larry Taylor, who is a good friend of mine.”
Also running against Turner are City Councilman Dwight Boykins, former City Councilwoman Sue Lovell and several lesserknown candidates. Early voting starts Monday and ends Nov. 1, ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5.