Could a Loud, Rich, and Scandal-Prone Personal Injury Lawyer Win Control of Houston?

Texas Monthly ^ | Sep 9, 2019 | Mimi Swartz

[Zhang Fei]

The view from a luxe office on the seventy-third floor of Houston’s tallest building might give anyone visions of dominance, and it’s easy to understand why Tony Buzbee wouldn’t be immune. He grew up wearing cheap jeans and off-brand shoes in tiny Atlanta, Texas, in the state’s northeast corner. Through brains and grit and sharp elbows, he transformed himself into one of the country’s richest and most famous personal injury lawyers, defending, so he likes to say, working people against greedy corporations. Nowadays Buzbee can look down on some of those companies’ headquarters from his aerie in the Chase Tower. The office so high that to reach it requires a change of elevators. The office with gleaming door handles in the shape of sharks.

“I’m a shark, yeah,” Buzbee tells me in a nasal, high-pitched East Texas twang you don’t hear much anymore. “The great white controls the ocean. We go for it. No fear.” As he speaks, the sunlight flooding his office is dazzling, almost blinding, like heaven should be. His very name—Buzzzzzbeeeee—seems almost divinely fitting, given the coiled energy he radiates.

He is a compact, pugnacious man of 51, with wavy brown hair just graying at the temples. When he stands up from his giant mahogany desk, beaming incandescently with hand outstretched, it’s like he’s been waiting for you all his life. Buzbee favors Texas trial lawyer–chic attire: on this day a custom-made, royal-blue linen jacket—Brioni—jeans, a black T-shirt faded just so, custom-made boots, a gold watch sprinkled with diamonds, and a few braided leather bracelets, which direct the eye to the shark tattoo on his forearm. Buzbee’s eyes, just a shade paler than the Houston sky on a clear day, look diabolical only if you stare really closely.

[Zhang Fei]

Houston has reputedly been a Democratic city for a long time. Does the ambulance chasing GOP-leaning candidate who has put up $10m of his own money to run for mayor have a shot at victory? Texas Monthly leans further left than New York magazine, perhaps as over-compensation for its geographical location. Nonetheless, its profile of the man is vaguely amusing. Buzbee last made national news by parking a Sherman tank on the street, perhaps as a publicity stunt to drum up name recognition for this mayoral run.

[buckalfa]

Well, was not Jerry Springer once mayor of Cincinnati?

[dynachrome]

“parking a Sherman tank on the street”

Sounds like he is worth voting for.

[Fai Mao]

The guy has a chance. Houston sort of likes gaudy

[Simon Foxx]

I’d vote for him if I lived in Huston. In a heartbeat. The good old USA needs a few more hell-raisers to replace the Swamp dwellers ...

[Larry Lucido]

[Robert DeLong]

[Sequoyah101]

Sort o likes gaudy? Houston reeks of poor taste.

He has a chance but for all of his show he too will age, wither and die.

Bye.

[Fred Hayek]

I will be voting, but with my feet. I just closed on a house outside of Houston, and it can’t be annexed.

[Meatspace]

Sylvester Turner will win the Houston mayor’s race in a runoff.

Buzbee only exists in the race to take down Bill King.

[Meatspace]

“My father was a union meat cutter. I have always believed that there are only two places a worker has a chance to get a fair shake: in a court room or through the union.”

Tony Buzbee

[Zhang Fei]

[Buzbee only exists in the race to take down Bill King.]

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With $10m of his own money on the line, Buzbee is in it to win it. But you may be right about him being unable to win the election.

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https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/in-depth/2019/09/25/347160/hpm-khou-tv-poll-finds-turner-with-solid-lead-in-mayoral-race/
[Well, he has almost a 2-to-1 lead on his closest opponent, and that is Mr. Buzbee. The mayor has…37% of vote support. Mr. Buzbee has just a little less than 20. And [Mayor Turner] has almost a threefold lead over Bill King, who has 9.5%. Now it should be noted almost 20% of the voters don’t know who they’re going to vote for at this point. What’s most surprising is that Bill King, who four years ago came within 4,000 votes or less of being mayor in the runoff won’t make the runoff this time. You would have thought that Bill King and Mayor Turner were headed for the same kind of close runoff that we’ve seen in the last four years. Not at all. Mr. Buzbee has clearly eclipsed Mr. King and come within…10 points or so of being close to the mayor in the general election. I’m certain that there’ll be a runoff. But what we see in the runoff, among people who know who they’re voting for, Turner leads 54 to 40.]

[Zhang Fei]

If even 1/10 of Buzbee’s $10m had been spent on a PAC attacking Turner, Bill King might have a chance. That, however, is not what Buzbee chose to do.

[Meatspace]

It a game of political rock, paper, scissors.

Head to head.

King beast Turner, Buzbee beats King, Turner beats Buzbee.

And the runoff will be Turner v. Buzbee.

[The Pack Knight]

Sorry, I like King well enough but I think you are dreaming if you think a traditional Republican like King has a prayer of winning a mayoral race in Houston right now, whether or not Buzbee was running and regardless of how much money is spent helping him.

We’ll be lucky enough if we can even win a County-wide race again in the near future. I know a lot of former Republican Harris County district court judges and candidates, and only one has expressed any interest in running next year.

[Zhang Fei]

[I know a lot of former Republican Harris County district court judges and candidates, and only one has expressed any interest in running next year.]

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I’m surprised that anyone with talent who’s not independently wealthy (like Buzbee today) even runs for office. As a job, it’s very unstable and being defeated after holding office for any period of time means picking up the remains of your non-political career even while others on your career track have moved forward.

[dfwgator]

This IMHO is the biggest threat to our country.

Good people just don’t want to get involved, be it with the local school board, local government, State government, and ultimately the Federal Government.

The Left is more than happy to fill that void.

[magna carta]

He was a Dem Party chair in Galveston County at some point.
He donated to both parties but the $$ he gave to the last elections helped a bunch of Dems gain control of the courts, namely a Columbian chick that has to be propped up and guided through public press events of note. This same “US citizen” thanked her new country by bringing in Soros Marxism.Judge Hidalgo took over one of the largest counties in the USA and she proceeds to MAX out a huge tax increase on Texas property owners.
Gee thanks $$$ BUZBEE!
All of the mature and wise elders that I have been in the trenches with & involved in conservative politics are voting for Bill King.
However Buzbee is getting all of the free local radio personality support....much like Cruz did. LOL

[Zhang Fei]

[He donated to both parties but the $$ he gave to the last elections helped a bunch of Dems gain control of the courts]

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While he did donate to the Harris County Democratic Party for 2018, it was just $20K. In the same period, he donated $65K to GOP PACs. As a tort lawyer who has to go before county judges all the time, he probably saw the writing on the wall.

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https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=buzbee%2Ctony&two_year_transaction_period=2018&contributor_state=TX

[magna carta]

yes. I wonder if he will be like the other Houston pol & veteran who is pushing red flag laws in Congress.