It is, by far, his best asset.
Mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee put another $2.5 million into his campaign last month, widening his financial edge over Mayor Sylvester Turner heading into the stretch run of the race for Houston’s top elected office.
Buzbee’s total, made public in a campaign finance report filed Monday, means he now has contributed $10 million to his mayoral campaign.
Seeking a second term, Turner raised about $733,000 from July 1 through Sept. 26, the period covered by the latest report, and spent more than $2.2 million. He has about $1.6 million cash on hand, compared to Buzbee’s $4.2 million war chest.
The campaign finance reports due Monday were the first in Houston’s city elections since July, when candidates for mayor, controller and city council reported their fundraising and spending totals for the first six months of the year. The latest reports paint a clearer picture of each candidate’s financial strength with two weeks to go until early voting begins. Election Day is Nov. 5.
Turner and Buzbee each reported larger fundraising hauls than the rest of the 12-candidate field, including Bill King, a businessman and attorney who raised $282,000 during the latest period.
King, who narrowly lost to Turner in a 2015 runoff, also lent his campaign $200,000 and spent $550,000 on a mix of ads, campaign consulting fees and other costs, according to his campaign report.
Turner spent nearly $2.24 million during the period and heads into the stretch until Election Day with $1.62 million cash on hand, compared to King’s $263,000.
The mayor now has raised about $3.7 million since July last year and spent $4.2 million, compared to Buzbee’s $5.8 million spending total. King has raised about $967,000 since January, when he began fundraising in earnest, and has spent about $1.1 million.
A spokesperson for King’s campaign said he had passed $1 million in fundraising since Sept. 26, the last date covered by campaign finance reports, from more than 1,500 donors.
Councilman and mayoral candidate Dwight Boykins reported raising $130,000 and spending about $142,000, leaving him with about $58,000 cash on hand.
Former councilwoman Sue Lovell’s campaign finance report was not yet posted by the city secretary’s office as of 6 p.m. Monday.
I’m working my way through the finance reports now – the technical term for this is that there are “a metric crap-ton” of them. I’ll probably have summaries for you next week; I’ll aim to have the HD148 and HD28 reports later this week, once I start seeing them on the TEC website. In the meantime, I advise watching live sporting events on pause, or at least with your remote handy, to mute the onslaught of commercials that are coming our way. Practice some self-care, y’all.
Buzbee’s going to need more dirt than just the overpaid intern to pull this thing off. I’m sure he has a whole team of muckrakers, and if all they can actually point out is one bedmate of hizzoner who got a high paid make work job, maybe Turner deserves to get reelected. He did the right thing with the firefighters, and he did live up to his promise to fix the potholes. The fact that many streets are beyond repair is the major problem, but given what he has to work with, putting the pothole patching crews on overdrive is something.
At this point, my main problem with Turner is Acevedo. If Turner has to go in order to get rid of Acevedo, then maybe that’s what needs to happen. I’d like Buzbee to go on record to tell us who he would install as the new chief, though. If it turns out to be another sanctuary city coverup artist, then there’s no need to change mayors. Houston already has a crappy police chief.
Acevedo is one of the best police chief in the history of Houston.
I imagine that someone like Lynn would be more to Bill’s liking he had all the right characteristics of a good old boy Republican.
Any candidate who self funds will have trouble getting elected; if voters are not willing to give you a dollar, they are not interested in voting for you. Might as well throw in the towel at the onset.
Self funding is also a way to save face re: opponents out raising you.
Ed Gonzalez and Art Acevedo are, in my opinion, the best one/two punchers in the Country. Compared to Out of Town Brown or B.G. Bond (anyone remember Vietnam Vet Jose Campos Torres ?), these two are aces.
It is nice that Buzz has enough to fund his own campaign and therefore won’t owe favors. Too many career politicians who never had a job, yet they leave office and become billionaires. Elected office is not for enriching yourself. Career politicians have no life experience doing anything else and are out of touch.
Two things that many are in denial about:
1. Tony Buzbee is going to win
2. Tony Buzbee is a democrat
Jennifer all your statements are not make something false true.
Buzbee may be a lot of things, but he is not a Democrat. He gives to Democratic Judges here in Harris County because those are the people he wants making decision in his favor. He used to give the same to the Republican Judges when they were in power.
Buzbee is for Buzbee and what ever makes him feel more powerful, more intelligent, more what ever his mind conceives. If there is a difference between him and Trump I have not discovered it. Trump used to give to Democrats just like Buzbee. So why not enlighten us as to why you claim that Buzbee is a Democrat.
correction – not going to make
Jennifer can you explain this photo or the $500,000 he gave to Trump?
https://tinyurl.com/y3awuwag
Manny,
I’m not going to engage in your hate campaign. Tony Buzbee is a longtime democrat. He was the democratic chair in Galveston and ran as a democrat for state senate.
It is impossible to be both a Republican and a plaintiff’s lawyer. ANYONE that says there are both is fibbing.
Bill Daniels can claim a hate campaign, Jason can do like wise, Ross and C.L. could make such a claim, but Jennifer can’t.
Jennifer can’t make such a claim, her answer is I can’t answer the questions.
Notsuoh what do they pay you, will you donate $100 dollars to the Harris County Democratic Party for every plaintiff attorney that has voted in Republican Primaries? Let me name the first such attorney, Gary Polland.
Jennifer, just went to see how your candidate Anthony Glenn Buzbee voted. He did not vote in either D or R primary in 2018. However in 2016 he voted in the Republican Primary. He is a Gemini and voted on election day, oh he is 51 years old. That Tony Buzbee?
Manny, I’m engaging in a hate campaign ? Do tell…
Second Posting, no C.L.
It means that you could claim that I engaged in a hate campaign.
Manny, I am voting for Sue Lovell. I will vote for Tony Buzbee in the runoff.
Your messages have way too much negative energy for me.
Notsuoh, Jared Woodfill, former GOP county chair is another example of both GOP and plaintiff’s lawyer. Mark Lanier is another prominent example. On the national scene, Haley Barbour, former national GOP chair comes to mind. Polland may do more criminal defense and appointments in family court than PI work from the plaintiff’s vantage.
Jennifer if you are not being paid by Buzbee, I would be surprised. He has run a negative campaign from the beginning.
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Why I don’t care all that much about a Turner peep getting a $95K job with the airport:
“Bloomberg) — A White House economic policy aide was named to fill one of the most sought-after — and highly paid — regulatory jobs in Washington, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement Friday.
Rebekah Goshorn Jurata, special assistant to the president for financial policy at the National Economic Council, will join the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in the coming weeks, the SEC said. Appointments to the panel, which oversees auditors, are coveted because they pay more than $500,000 a year.
The PCAOB, which was created by Congress in response to the Enron accounting fraud, polices auditors and write standards for the industry. It’s little known beyond Washington and accounting circles, and it has struggled to move past a 2017 scandal in which employees shared confidential information about its inspections with KPMG, one of the biggest firms it supervises.
Jurata, 37, doesn’t have an accounting background, but she has worked in financial regulatory positions during her career. Still, the move has generated controversy because she will replace Kathleen Hamm, a Democrat-aligned board member who had been seeking a second term. The SEC, which appoints PCAOB members, said Friday that Hamm will leave when her term expires at the end of the month.”
I’m laughing at Manny, feigning the vapors because Buzbee ran a negative campaign. Manny, you’re the most negative, toxic person on this board, and it’s not even a close contest. And you’re upset that Buzbee dug up some dirt on Turner?
The irony is rich, here. You’re turning off even your fellow liberals.
You are one sick person Bill at least read all the comments, but it won’t matter as you are a paid troll. Why not stick to big jolly at least over there you get some thumbs up for your hateful racists comments.