CM Mary Nan Huffman
Days after Attorney General Ken Paxton was acquitted in his impeachment trial in late September, his attorney, Tony Buzbee, rode the win on a campaign stage, while his opponent Mary Nan Huffman tried to convince conservative District G voters he shouldn’t be their favorite.
In the backroom of Tex-Mex restaurant Cyclone Anaya’s, Buzbee pitched himself for the City Council District G seat occupied by Huffman, a lifelong conservative with family ties to the Republican Party in Texas. The two candidates with conservative leanings sparred in the forum during a regular meeting of the West Loop Conservatives, a Houston-area civic club, with hopes of winning the majority vote in one of the wealthiest districts in the city. A third candidate for District G, Enyinna Isiguzo, has maintained that he is staying out of partisan politics and was not present.
According to the group’s organizer, Aaron Cichon, the match drew the largest audience the group had seen.
“Why is there such a large turnout?” Buzbee asked the audience after taking the stage.
“Because Paxton is still our AG,” an audience member shouted above the applause.
Buzbee smiled. Then he offered his campaign pitch.
“When Ken Paxton was impeached, there were more than 1.3 million lawyers in the country, and he chose me,” Buzbee said. “In times of trouble, I step up. And I think the city’s in a time of trouble.”
[…]
In the fight to secure her seat against Buzbee’s conservative ties, Huffman has taken to sowing doubt that he would represent the values of the party, citing past Galveston County Democratic Party affiliations, previous funding of Democratic judges and current lack of party endorsements. She also said his name recognition may not be as beneficial as some think.
“I think he’s using that trial with Ken Paxton to win favor with some of the conservatives,” Huffman said. “He has name recognition, but it’s not all positive. I think that can hurt and it can help.”
My interview with CM Huffman is here. I officially don’t have a dog in this fight, but you know me, I’m generally anti-chaos, and it’s clear who the chaos Muppet is in this one. Buzbee reported spending $300K (mostly if not entirely of his own money) on his 8-day report, while Huffman spent $118K. That’s a metric crap-ton of money in a district race, in a three-week period. I’m guessing one could probably wallpaper their living rooms with the mailers they have received. Because there’s a third candidate, there’s a chance this one goes to a runoff. I can only imagine how crazy that will be.
“When Ken Paxton was impeached, there were more than 1.3 million lawyers in the country, and he chose me,” Buzbee said. “In times of trouble, I step up. And I think the city’s in a time of trouble.”
Is he really foolish enough to believe that he made a difference?
He is making the safe bet that the Republicans he is addressing are a bunch of credulous ninnies who will believe almost anything another Republican tells them.
G is my district and I’ve been getting swamped in mailers.
Buzbee’s campaign has taken a low brow approach on many of his mailers. Some normal cheap antics like the traditional approach on using a B&W picture of a main opponent, but Buzbee’s crew picked a selected a very unflattering picture of Huffman’s physique in what appears to be a southern lady type outfit with sun hat. Blemishes appear to have been inserted on Huffman’s teeth in her smile on the photo.
I suspect too that his campaign is up to dirty tricks with other mailers to sway non-Republican aligned voters against Huffman.
Our household has gotten 2 mailers from a fictitious organization called the “West Side Republicans” with the footnote on the mailer saying “PAID FOR THE WEST SIDE REPUBLICANS”.
Mailer states:
“The West Side Republicans is one of the fastest growing political groups in Houston. We PROUDLY believe Donald J trump should be President!!! We support attorney General Ken Paxton!! We are unabashedly PRO LIFE, ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE, and PRO SECOND AMENDMENT. We believe Democrats are evil, and people like Sheila Jackson Lee should be in jail.”
“The candidates we endorse fully support Donald J Trump and have proven themselves worthy of both his endorsement and the endorsement of the West Side Republicans”
There is also an image of a campaign yard sign on the mailer stating “ULTRA MAGA AND PROUD OF IT”.
The give away on the lack of genuineness of the mailer is the inclusion of a somewhat okay picture of Huffman, but the photo of Trump is his mug shot.
My opinion: When your supporters pay off the judge, intimidate the jury, and apparently put the fix in before the trial even starts, whom you select as your attorney really doesn’t matter, does it? Still, out of 1.3 million lawyers, the unethical, criminally indicted, reportedly corrupt nut-job Paxton, with his burner-phones and shady behavior, picked Buzbee. In a sane world, that would be a huge red flag to mainstream voters.
The Paxton “trial” was in the Texas Senate, with the table set amongst his colleagues/supporters. The upcoming trial in Harris County will be a different setting that we are familiar with.
No big win for Paxton or Buzbee.
I have not heard any complaints regarding Huffman, so I don’t understand the reason for challenging her.
There is a Texas House seat that may face off with a challenger because it’s a fairly newly drawn district, the person in the seat has passed no legislation and serves on no committees; this is reason enough to challenge an incumbent.
I believe the reason that Buzbee is challenging Huffman is that he is still hurting from his loss to Mayor Turner and wants another shot at being Mayor. So he has decided to buy a City Council seat for the time being. Some other wealthy Republicans decided to purchase a Democratic mayoral candidate instead.
Some say accepting campaign contributions from Republicans makes Whitmire a Republican. Huffman is saying since Buzbee gives to democratic candidates that makes him a Democrat. Republicrat or Demublican which party do you affiliate with?
That is not the only reason, David.
When you are a Democratic candidate for a blue city and your campaign event features a rich anti-abortion activist, what are you?