Politics & Government

Tony Buzbee Alleges City Hall Corruption With Campaign Ad

Mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee Is launching a new "Hogs in Charge." You can see the video below.

Mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee is launching a citywide campaign
Mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee is launching a citywide campaign (Courtesy, Tony Buzbee)

HOUSTON — Houston Mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee announced the launch of a citywide campaign aimed at spotlighting what Buzbee calls "the rampant pay-to-play nature" of Mayor Sylvester Turner's administration.

The campaign dubbed "Hogs in Charge," will be launched on Wednesday along with a website that supposedly tracks so-called questionable activities Buzbee called "corrupt administration practices."

“We are going to continue to point out that this city we all love so much is unnecessarily broken, and that it is the corrupt practices of this mayor and his administration that are holding us back. We can never hire more police, pay our firefighters fairly, repair the streets, or address flooding if we can’t first end the campaign donors’ feeding frenzy at City Hall, ” Buzbee said in a statement.

Find out what's happening in Houstonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

This is the second campaign ad launched by Buzbee that alleges corruption by the Turner administration.

See The Ad Below:

Find out what's happening in Houstonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.


“We have done a complete analysis regarding the campaign donations received by this mayor from those who have received city contracts, those that provide professional services for the city, and those seeking to receive present-day city contracts. We have also analyzed all the campaign donations given to this mayor from those who have received board positions or who have traveled with this mayor. The results of this analysis are both shocking and greatly disappointing and we look forward to sharing our findings with Houston voters over the coming months,” said Buzbee.

In response to Buzbee's announcement Sue Davis, communications director for Turner's re-election campaign, released a statement calling Buzbee's claims hypocritical and accusing Buzbee of lacking vision for Houston's future.

"(Tony) Buzbee, his family or his law firm have made campaign contributions to judges assigned to nearly 60 percent of his cases in Galveston and Harris counties, according to public records. Mr. Buzbee knows that the city has a rigorous procurement process, along with limits on campaign contributions, that protects against conflicts of interest in determining who gets a city contract," Davis said. "These are the same practices and procedures that have been in effect since the administrations of Mayor Annise Parker, Mayor Bill White and previous mayors. Mr. Buzbee also knows that Mayor Turner takes campaign finance laws very seriously and follows both the letter and the spirit of the laws. "

Davis added that Buzbee will say anything, do anything and spend anything to get elected, and that Houstonians deserve better.

Send your news tips and story ideas to bryan.kirk@patch.com

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.