Bill King, a Houston businessman who narrowly lost his bid for mayor in 2015, filed paperwork with the city secretary Wednesday marking his likely intent to challenge Mayor Sylvester Turner again in 2019.
King lost to Turner, then a state representative, in a runoff decided by about 4,000 votes, or 1.9 percentage points, out of more than 212,000 ballots cast.
Though King’s filing of a campaign treasurer’s report does not lock in his candidacy, he said in an interview that he is “leaning heavily” toward running.
“I’ve been watching City Hall for 40 years, and this is the most corrupt administration I’ve seen,” King said.
For now, King said he plans to conduct some polling — the reason he filed a treasurer’s report — and likely will make a formal decision in the next 60 days. Houston’s municipal elections will not take place until November 2019, with possible runoff elections occurring the following month.
Asked after Wednesday’s council meeting about King’s filing, Turner replied, “Next question.”
There was a time when I had respect for King’s fiscal conservatism. I didn’t agree with him, but he had a plan that he clearly articulated and seemed to believe in, and he repeated it often enough to make you think it might work. Then he supported Prop B, which demonstrated how little he actually meant any of it. But it was a bright shiny opportunity for him, so he took it. Gotta have something to run on now that pension reform has been done, I guess. On the plus side, the presence of Tony Buzbee means he has a chance to not be the worst candidate in the race.
There is a reason why people supported proposition B, 60% of them. They did as the mayor and his supporters bombarded the air waves with horror stories of things that would come to pass.
Bill King is Bill King, I don’t know if he is a fiscal conservative but I do believe that Turner is more of a fiscal conservative than King. I, also believe that Turner is less of a progressive than King. There are reasons that Republicans loved Turner as a State Rep.
The purpose of local government is to serve and protect the public. The fire department is as important as the police and maybe even more so as all their calls tend to be 911 calls.
Our neighborhood gives equally to the police and fire that work with our community, $2000 yearly to each. If we could afford it we would give more to them.
I don’t know enough about Buzee to determine if he has a chance of winning.
I am not happy with what Turner did with that golf course that could have been used to help flooding. Flooding is probably the most important thing we have to tackle and I don’t see the Mayor and the Council acting like it is. We got a few inches of rain and we had flooding. The Federal Government has put the City on alert as to Sewage problems. It is not a problem that normally makes the news but it is not uncommon to have sewage water coming out of the manholes during heavy rains. https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Feds-state-sue-Houston-over-years-of-illegal-13247544.php
M
The political dynamic of 2019, with Trump in the White House is far different than that of 2015. Republicans and discrimination advocates like King, or candidates with a mini-Trump vibe, like Buzbee, might find their game a bit less of an easy sell in Houston this year.
Tom keep in mind that HERO which what you may be referencing did not exactly do well in the ballot box. I don’t recall Turner taking a stand on HERO when it was up for a vote, but I could have missed it. He could be doing like Annise Parker and intends to introduce something in the second term, that is common. Would not be surprise if a deal has already been made. Turner did state he would revisit HERO during the run-off and thus far he has not.
Republicans will vote and they will tend toward the White Man, just like other groups tend to vote for the same bird of a feather.
I plan on voting for Joe McElligott, even if it’s as a write in. He seems to have some pretty wonderful ideas.
That’s a 15 yard penalty and repeat the down…..taunting by C.L.
Well C.L. I think that is a way of saying you be white, but I doubt he would be the only white running in what ever race he chooses.
I fail to see how Bill King is any worse that Sylvester Turner. Both are corporate elitists! Where do people go for actual progressive news because this blog clearly isn’t it! It reads as if its propaganda for the controlling special interests. This is as bad fake news as Fox News!
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