This morning, one week prior to the end of filing for office for candidates for various offices, including the office of precinct chairman, local columnist David Jennings posted this blog with some observations about the state of filings in Harris County. Throughout today I have posted two responses that I consider to be very important. I hope you'll take the time to look at the original post and then look at my two responses below.
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Dave:
I just went to the HCRP website and did a quick name count. Of the 874 precincts that currently exist, the party had filled about 470 precinct chair seats by October, 2009. Of the 885 precincts that will exist after January 1, 2010, there were only about 350 precincts with applicants as of December 23rd (and 15 of those precincts had more than one applicant). With 4 1/2 days left for filing, I am concerned that we won't even match the current number of precinct chairs coming out of the primary.
We need to send an SOS to everyone in the party, and to everyone who cares about the party and electing Republicans, to sign-up, or get their neighbors or club members to sign-up. Looking at the statistics from the 2008 General Election, on average there was a 7% greater turnout between the precincts where Republicans had a chair and where it did not have a chair. However, the stratification was even more pronounced: where we had a chair, we were 3 times more likely to have turnout of over 70%; where we did not have a chair, we were 4 times more likely to have turnout below 60%. Moreover, there were 156 precincts where Republicans do well, or are at least competitive, where we had no chair. If we had gained a 7% better turnout in those precincts on average, most of the down-ballot races that Republicans lost in 2008 would have been won.
We must fill these positions!
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UPDATE:
Ok...here's an update and an analysis as of the last posting by the HCRP for filings through today (as of 4:25 p.m.). Candidates have filed for 360 precints. Of the 8 who filed between the morning posting and the afternoon posting, 6 are incumbents, 1 challenger has filed where the incumbent has not yet filed, and 1 person has filed for a vacant seat.
For the 360 seats, here is how the filings breakdown so far: 273 are seats where the incumbents have filed and there is no challenger; 35 are occupied seats where a new person has filed, but the incumbent has not filed; 43 are currently vacant seats are where a new person has filed; and 15 seats are contested so far. Of those contested seats--3 of the races are between two newcomers for a vacant seat; 3 are between two newcomers for occupied seats where the incumbent has not yet filed; and 9 are contested between the incumbent and a challenger.
Here's the good news--55 newcomers have filed to run for precinct chair, with 49 of them seeking vacant seats, which would mean a gain of 49 precincts for the party if we keep the currently occupied chairs filled. And...we have 3 1/2 more days in which to try and fill more vacant seats.
Here's the bad news--only 282 out of about 470 incumbents have filed. If the current pace of filings continue, we will not match the current number of filled seats, even with the gains we are making in filling vacant seats.
We can't win elections without boots on the ground, and we currently only cover half the county. The goal was not to go backwards. We must fill these positions!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
A Holiday Greeting
As I begin a few days of celebration with my family, I want to wish all of you a happy and joyous holiday—whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or another religious or cultural observance, or just enjoy the spirit of the season. I also want to share three reflections.
First, even though we Republicans have had a rough time over the last few years, we each have much to be thankful for in our own lives. Both our shared experiences and our personal experiences—and the good and bad in both—are part of what gives us strength, nurtures our character, and builds wisdom. I believe that from this developing strength, character, and wisdom will come the foundation for seizing opportunities in the coming years.
Second, for me this has been a year of challenge, but also one of promise. It has been a year since I challenged the incumbent Chair of the HCRP to fix the problems with the party organization or step aside to allow new leadership to do so. Since I made that challenge, there have been a lot of days when I, and a few of my closest allies, have felt quite alone in this struggle. However, I recently visited with a group of people in which a precinct chair referred to me as the “acting chair,” because I had been driving the agenda of the party for months. Though I was taken aback by the statement, I appreciated the gracious nod to what we have been trying to accomplish.
Beginning last December, through meetings with young activists and established party leaders, I helped nurture and support young leaders who formed new organizations such as Raging Elephants, Conservador Alliance, and the local Tea Party Society, which are building relationships in our African-American and Latino communities, and providing a voice to a new conservative activism in our community. I also worked to gain support for our strategic vision throughout our party. Our efforts have led to phenomenal results so far:
Not bad for just 12 months of agitating from outside the party organization--and I want to thank everyone who has helped me, and who are joining our ranks daily (I will start posting on this website next week the substantial endorsements I have received already). I think it is fair to ask whether any of this would have happened had I not posted that challenge to the incumbent a year ago. Even if I don’t win this race, we will have accomplished more to improve the party organization in the last year than the incumbent did over his first 7 years—and just think what we could accomplish together if I win.
Finally, I want to leave you with a thought based on my reading of a New-Testament verse that always touches me. In his Epistle to the Galatians, Paul makes the following challenge:
When you read this passage, think about those settlers who came to this continent in the 1600s and established families, churches, schools and neighborhoods based on this challenge; think about Jefferson’s reference to God’s gift of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and what the words “liberty" and "happiness” meant to our forefathers before the French Revolution; and think about the monumental struggles our ancestors waged to try to meet that challenge here and abroad over the last three centuries. Then, ask yourself: what have I done to meet this challenge? If you find your answer to be like mine, then let’s commit ourselves in the coming years to meet this challenge—in our families, our communities, and in our country—not just to regain the liberty we are losing, but to then use it correctly, so that we can pass on this gift to our children better than we received it.
Happy Holidays to all!
First, even though we Republicans have had a rough time over the last few years, we each have much to be thankful for in our own lives. Both our shared experiences and our personal experiences—and the good and bad in both—are part of what gives us strength, nurtures our character, and builds wisdom. I believe that from this developing strength, character, and wisdom will come the foundation for seizing opportunities in the coming years.
Second, for me this has been a year of challenge, but also one of promise. It has been a year since I challenged the incumbent Chair of the HCRP to fix the problems with the party organization or step aside to allow new leadership to do so. Since I made that challenge, there have been a lot of days when I, and a few of my closest allies, have felt quite alone in this struggle. However, I recently visited with a group of people in which a precinct chair referred to me as the “acting chair,” because I had been driving the agenda of the party for months. Though I was taken aback by the statement, I appreciated the gracious nod to what we have been trying to accomplish.
Beginning last December, through meetings with young activists and established party leaders, I helped nurture and support young leaders who formed new organizations such as Raging Elephants, Conservador Alliance, and the local Tea Party Society, which are building relationships in our African-American and Latino communities, and providing a voice to a new conservative activism in our community. I also worked to gain support for our strategic vision throughout our party. Our efforts have led to phenomenal results so far:
* Raging Elephants successfully placed a billboard promoting the GOP in a traditionally African-American Community, conducted workshops on how to expand the GOP into new communities, and its leader has gained a growing local and national following;
* The leader of Conservador Alliance recently was named by the Republican National Committee, and the Republican Party of Texas to serve as the statewide director of a new party-affiliated organization: Latino National Republican Coalition;
* Two activists, who helped coordinate our early meetings, went on to form and lead the local Tea Party movement;
* At least five county GOP parties across the State of Texas have referenced my proposed strategic plan, and discussed it with me, as they have revised their own written mission statements and strategic plans;
* Our local GOP leadership, after seven years of inaction, responded to our efforts with an aggressive communication blitz that has included emails, social-networking training, townhall meetings, public discussions of its own plan for the future, an audit of its finances and financial reporting, and the re-opening of an East Side satellite office with the purpose of engaging in community activities that we have been proposing all year; and
* Two more candidates have joined the first real competitive race for Chair in almost 15 years, all three of my opponents are discussing issues and goals that we have been discussing all year, and there are now 9 scheduled or proposed debates during the month of January, 2010.
Not bad for just 12 months of agitating from outside the party organization--and I want to thank everyone who has helped me, and who are joining our ranks daily (I will start posting on this website next week the substantial endorsements I have received already). I think it is fair to ask whether any of this would have happened had I not posted that challenge to the incumbent a year ago. Even if I don’t win this race, we will have accomplished more to improve the party organization in the last year than the incumbent did over his first 7 years—and just think what we could accomplish together if I win.
Finally, I want to leave you with a thought based on my reading of a New-Testament verse that always touches me. In his Epistle to the Galatians, Paul makes the following challenge:
For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself’”
When you read this passage, think about those settlers who came to this continent in the 1600s and established families, churches, schools and neighborhoods based on this challenge; think about Jefferson’s reference to God’s gift of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and what the words “liberty" and "happiness” meant to our forefathers before the French Revolution; and think about the monumental struggles our ancestors waged to try to meet that challenge here and abroad over the last three centuries. Then, ask yourself: what have I done to meet this challenge? If you find your answer to be like mine, then let’s commit ourselves in the coming years to meet this challenge—in our families, our communities, and in our country—not just to regain the liberty we are losing, but to then use it correctly, so that we can pass on this gift to our children better than we received it.
Happy Holidays to all!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
HCRP Finances - The Real Story
As the story about the HCRP's financial predicament and reporting are slowly coming to light, first at Big Jolly Politics, then the Texas Watchdog, and now the Houston Chronicle, I want to clear the air on a couple of points:
First, the two arguments that the incumbent is making in defense of his regime-that the checks in question may have been held and not deposited for months after they were written, that the HCRP raised $2.5 million dollars in 2008-show how out of touch this current leadership team is with sound management practices, and with reality. If the party actually had the checks in question and noted their receipt by acknowledging the contributors on the invitation and program for the annual dinner, but did not deposit them timely, this is highly unsound money management and risk management, and it must be reformed in order to protect the party from the risk of loss or theft in the future. As for the $2.5 million figure, here is the reality (based on the publicly filed reports covering the entire year of 2008):
In reality, the ticket supported the party, and allowed it to keep the lights on at Richmond Avenue, not the other way around. This trend continued into 2009, as one elected official was the party's largest contributor during the first 6 months, giving $15,000 of the little over $100,000 the party reported it raised.
Second, as I called for before-and the other candidates have since echoed-we need an independent audit and inventory of the party immediately in order to:
I hope you will join us in continuing to call for reform at Richmond Avenue.
First, the two arguments that the incumbent is making in defense of his regime-that the checks in question may have been held and not deposited for months after they were written, that the HCRP raised $2.5 million dollars in 2008-show how out of touch this current leadership team is with sound management practices, and with reality. If the party actually had the checks in question and noted their receipt by acknowledging the contributors on the invitation and program for the annual dinner, but did not deposit them timely, this is highly unsound money management and risk management, and it must be reformed in order to protect the party from the risk of loss or theft in the future. As for the $2.5 million figure, here is the reality (based on the publicly filed reports covering the entire year of 2008):
* A little over $2.4 million passed through the HCRP accounts during 2008;
* Of that figure, over $1.9 came from judicial candidates' campaign accounts, or from the state party, to fund joint campaign activities-it was money raised by others for a specific purpose, dedicated to that purpose, and spent for that purpose-the HCRP did not raise this money itself, nor did it have any discretion as to how it would be spent;
* Of the remaining amount, the HCRP spent a little more than $416,000 on its own operations;
* It raised less than $300,000 to cover those operating expenses, from a contributor base of about 300 individuals-two of whom contributed about $85,000 of the total sum; and
* The remaining amount to cover the HCRP's expenses-$150,120-came from 46 campaign accounts from non-judicial elected officials and candidates, 31 individual candidates and elected officials, and 11 HCRP officials.
In reality, the ticket supported the party, and allowed it to keep the lights on at Richmond Avenue, not the other way around. This trend continued into 2009, as one elected official was the party's largest contributor during the first 6 months, giving $15,000 of the little over $100,000 the party reported it raised.
Second, as I called for before-and the other candidates have since echoed-we need an independent audit and inventory of the party immediately in order to:
* know what our baseline is for budgeting and fundraising needs;
* create an information base from which to institute new and better money-management practices and procedures for the HCRP going forward;
* re-instill confidence in our contributor base that we will handle their contributions wisely; and
* re-build credibility with our constituents that we can be trusted with handling public funds.
I hope you will join us in continuing to call for reform at Richmond Avenue.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Good News for a Transition to a New Chair
At last night’s dinner sponsored by the HCRP, it was announced that Gary Polland will be the co-chair for the local Victory 2010 Campaign, which is the party’s formal effort to support the election of the local Republican ticket next fall. This is good news for two reasons:
One of the concerns that I have heard voiced over the last few months by both the current team at Richmond Avenue and others, was that changing leadership during the middle of the 2010 election cycle would be too disruptive, and it could hurt the ticket. With this new development, there should be no disruption felt by our elected officials and candidates if we win, and as we focus on implementing elements of our strategic plan.
In fact, to make sure that this positive signal is reinforced, I declare right now that I support this appointment, and, if I win election to the Chair in the March Primary, I will ask Gary to remain as co-chair of the Victory 2010 Campaign.
1. We are assured of a steady, experienced person being available to help the current team at Richmond Avenue during this critical election cycle; and
2, It will allow for a smooth transition to a new chair after the March primary.
One of the concerns that I have heard voiced over the last few months by both the current team at Richmond Avenue and others, was that changing leadership during the middle of the 2010 election cycle would be too disruptive, and it could hurt the ticket. With this new development, there should be no disruption felt by our elected officials and candidates if we win, and as we focus on implementing elements of our strategic plan.
In fact, to make sure that this positive signal is reinforced, I declare right now that I support this appointment, and, if I win election to the Chair in the March Primary, I will ask Gary to remain as co-chair of the Victory 2010 Campaign.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
A Lesson from 2009 for 2010
Let me first start this post by congratulating Republicans Stephen Costello, Brenda Stardig and Al Hoang for their victories in Saturday's run-off election. They will join fellow Republicans Anne Clutterbuck and Michael Sullivan on the Houston City Council next year. Let me also extend congratulations across the aisle to our Mayor-elect, Annise Parker, as we all wish her—and the City we love—well during her term.
Every victory in a contested race means someone lost, and too many Republicans and conservative candidates lost winnable races in November and last Saturday. Some of these losses were heart-wrenchingly close after well-fought battles. Others were lost through mistakes and self-inflicted wounds. Most, I believe could have been won with more effective help from the HCRP.
Like many of you, I have struggled to find a silver lining in this cloud—a positive lesson to take with us into the political battles ahead in 2010. Then, as I watched the recriminations and blame fly in email after email over the last few days, a friend’s comment provided the perspective I needed. In talking about the run-off election, its aftermath, and what it means for our party, he made the following observation:
For over a year now, I have tried to persuade you to look beyond the faults of our opponents—and those of our friends, too—in order to re-ignite our passion for our shared values, and then to fight for those values in every corner of this county with a positive agenda. At the heart of all of our beliefs in life, liberty, limited government, and effective local government, is a belief that government doesn’t love your neighbor, people do. It is people, working individually, and through their families, churches, civic organizations—and yes, through their local governments and schools, too—that have built our neighborhoods and sustained our society. Government (especially the state and federal government) should marshal the power it is given to protect the society we create and maintain, but it should not use such power to replace us in our duty to care for our children, our families, our schools, and our communities. To defeat the forces that would expand the role of government, we need to live by our principles—not by tearing down our opponents, but by helping up our neighbors.
To do that, we first must re-focus our party toward effectively promoting a positive agenda based on our shared principles, rather than continuing to fight over who among us is the purest in our commitment to those principles. If we Republicans, including all those who have become estranged from our party for whatever reason, unite, and then go out into the communities that we have ignored for too long and invite our neighbors who share our principles to join us in this effort, we can and will succeed in 2010, and for many years to come.
Every victory in a contested race means someone lost, and too many Republicans and conservative candidates lost winnable races in November and last Saturday. Some of these losses were heart-wrenchingly close after well-fought battles. Others were lost through mistakes and self-inflicted wounds. Most, I believe could have been won with more effective help from the HCRP.
Like many of you, I have struggled to find a silver lining in this cloud—a positive lesson to take with us into the political battles ahead in 2010. Then, as I watched the recriminations and blame fly in email after email over the last few days, a friend’s comment provided the perspective I needed. In talking about the run-off election, its aftermath, and what it means for our party, he made the following observation:
Ed has the foundation of faith and integrity to unite the party…that should be his focus. We can’t abandon values for the sake of victory. We need less big government and more church involvement to help people help themselves. Look around on who is feeding the poor at this time of year. Churches do it without notice and without seeking praise or recognition. That is not just the words from an ultra right guy. I simply believe it to be true.
For over a year now, I have tried to persuade you to look beyond the faults of our opponents—and those of our friends, too—in order to re-ignite our passion for our shared values, and then to fight for those values in every corner of this county with a positive agenda. At the heart of all of our beliefs in life, liberty, limited government, and effective local government, is a belief that government doesn’t love your neighbor, people do. It is people, working individually, and through their families, churches, civic organizations—and yes, through their local governments and schools, too—that have built our neighborhoods and sustained our society. Government (especially the state and federal government) should marshal the power it is given to protect the society we create and maintain, but it should not use such power to replace us in our duty to care for our children, our families, our schools, and our communities. To defeat the forces that would expand the role of government, we need to live by our principles—not by tearing down our opponents, but by helping up our neighbors.
To do that, we first must re-focus our party toward effectively promoting a positive agenda based on our shared principles, rather than continuing to fight over who among us is the purest in our commitment to those principles. If we Republicans, including all those who have become estranged from our party for whatever reason, unite, and then go out into the communities that we have ignored for too long and invite our neighbors who share our principles to join us in this effort, we can and will succeed in 2010, and for many years to come.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Growth will require Unity within the GOP
Not long ago I posted a summary of my criticism of statements made by a certain local conservative, who has been a close associate of the incumbent HCRP Chair. I posted the criticism both on my blog, and as a comment to a post on another site. The gist of my criticism was that I thought it was wrong for Republicans to inject the sexual orientation of one of the candidates for mayor as an issue into that race, rather than focus on the policies and agendas that candidate is advocating.
After we cut the skin with that issue, the Houston Chronicle tore off the scab and infected the community with an indefensible editorial cartoon depicting Dr. Steven Hotze and Gene Locke. For the record, I am not a fan of “political correctness,” and I support raucous debate of the issues in print and electronic editorials and cartoons. Moreover, I know that one rarely wins in a war of words with a newspaper. But the Chronicle really lost all perspective when it printed this cartoon.
Did the editors not understand the impact that image would have, not just on the individuals involved and their families, but on Evangelical Christians in our community who care deeply about the issues being discussed in this campaign, and on our African-American neighbors for whom images of bondage and submission carry profoundly dark collective memories? Obviously, decency, let alone shame and restraint, were absent from the decision-making process that led to the approval of that cartoon for publication.
However, the real point of this post is not to dwell on the Chronicle’s action, but to challenge my fellow Republicans and independent conservatives about how we will react and move forward into 2010. The lesson we must learn from this entire episode is the lesson I have been promoting for the last year: we must grow this party on the positive message of our shared principles; and to grow, we must first unite. We are stronger together than we are separately, and if we unite we can defeat the forces who find the Chronicle cartoon acceptable.
During most of 2009, I have been both heartened and concerned by the forces emerging on our side of the political spectrum. While those who want to strengthen the social-conservative core of our party by purging any dissent or dissenters, and those who have started various non-partisan conservative organizations, have created great energy for us, if we don’t use that energy to bring all who share our principles together and fight together, the GOP will break apart and there will be no effective political force to combat the Democrats.
Now is not the time for one faction or another of conservatism to try to take over exclusive control of our party, or walk-away to create a third-party—such an effort will assure our defeat by shrinking our movement. Then, the policies we all abhor will become law, and those who promote them will become our elected leaders, for the foreseeable future.
Instead, let’s use this episode to look in the mirror—to understand who we are, what we stand for, and who our allies are. Then, with that awareness, let’s unite. If we unite all of our allies behind our shared principles, we will form the strong foundation we need to grow. Then, 2010 truly will be the watershed year for conservatism and the GOP that we all want.
After we cut the skin with that issue, the Houston Chronicle tore off the scab and infected the community with an indefensible editorial cartoon depicting Dr. Steven Hotze and Gene Locke. For the record, I am not a fan of “political correctness,” and I support raucous debate of the issues in print and electronic editorials and cartoons. Moreover, I know that one rarely wins in a war of words with a newspaper. But the Chronicle really lost all perspective when it printed this cartoon.
Did the editors not understand the impact that image would have, not just on the individuals involved and their families, but on Evangelical Christians in our community who care deeply about the issues being discussed in this campaign, and on our African-American neighbors for whom images of bondage and submission carry profoundly dark collective memories? Obviously, decency, let alone shame and restraint, were absent from the decision-making process that led to the approval of that cartoon for publication.
However, the real point of this post is not to dwell on the Chronicle’s action, but to challenge my fellow Republicans and independent conservatives about how we will react and move forward into 2010. The lesson we must learn from this entire episode is the lesson I have been promoting for the last year: we must grow this party on the positive message of our shared principles; and to grow, we must first unite. We are stronger together than we are separately, and if we unite we can defeat the forces who find the Chronicle cartoon acceptable.
During most of 2009, I have been both heartened and concerned by the forces emerging on our side of the political spectrum. While those who want to strengthen the social-conservative core of our party by purging any dissent or dissenters, and those who have started various non-partisan conservative organizations, have created great energy for us, if we don’t use that energy to bring all who share our principles together and fight together, the GOP will break apart and there will be no effective political force to combat the Democrats.
Now is not the time for one faction or another of conservatism to try to take over exclusive control of our party, or walk-away to create a third-party—such an effort will assure our defeat by shrinking our movement. Then, the policies we all abhor will become law, and those who promote them will become our elected leaders, for the foreseeable future.
Instead, let’s use this episode to look in the mirror—to understand who we are, what we stand for, and who our allies are. Then, with that awareness, let’s unite. If we unite all of our allies behind our shared principles, we will form the strong foundation we need to grow. Then, 2010 truly will be the watershed year for conservatism and the GOP that we all want.
Friday, December 11, 2009
I Hate To Say I Told You So...
Well, we all knew this was going to happen at some point. As I have been pointing all for quite a while now, the financial problems of the Harris County Republican Party have finally come to light in the media. Today, Texas Watchdog broke the story wide open, you can read the story here. I first raised this issue in September at a forum with the Chairman and Mr. Simpson, hosted by the Memorial West Republican Women, a recap of the event can be found here. I even asked about the very donors who are identified in this article, because their names appeared as sponsors on the program for the Annual Dinner, but there was no record of any contribution having been received by the party in its June 30th Report.
You might recall that just last month, I wrote this blog where I promised, once elected I would conduct a full audit of the HCRP financial situation right away as we are also preparing to hit the ground running into the November general election in 2010.
Together, we must solve this problem and move toward the future. We have important elections to win in November 2010 and November 2012. I'm asking for you to join our efforts today. Please go here and get involved with my campaign to reunite our party around the conservative principles that we share, and let us follow President Reagan's example, join the revolution today.
You might recall that just last month, I wrote this blog where I promised, once elected I would conduct a full audit of the HCRP financial situation right away as we are also preparing to hit the ground running into the November general election in 2010.
Together, we must solve this problem and move toward the future. We have important elections to win in November 2010 and November 2012. I'm asking for you to join our efforts today. Please go here and get involved with my campaign to reunite our party around the conservative principles that we share, and let us follow President Reagan's example, join the revolution today.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Press Release Announcement
REPUBLICAN ED HUBBARD OFFICIALLY FILES FOR
CHAIR OF THE HARRIS COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
HOUSTON - Today, Ed Hubbard officially filed to place his name on the March 2010 Republican Primary ballot as a candidate for the office of Chair of the Harris County Republican Party. The Taylor Lake Village resident and life-long Republican defeated a two-term incumbent (and former Houston Police Chief) in a 10-county race to become the party’s nominee for a place on a local appellate court in 2008. He now will be challenging the 8-year incumbent party chair, who is seeking a fifth term in the wake of the defeat suffered by the local GOP in the 2008 elections, and amid lingering questions about the recent management of the county party.
“The local GOP needs more than a cheerleader—it needs a leader,” Hubbard declared. “It needs a leader who will listen to local Republicans, respond to their concerns, and, ultimately, make the party competitive in this growing metropolitan county. I have run a law firm; managed people and budgets; raised money for scholarships, non-profit entities, and political campaigns; and served on the boards of a non-profit entity and a church foundation, and as an officer of a school board. I also ran a successful 10-county primary race in the last election cycle, and learned what is working and what is not working within our party. Based on these varied experiences, I believe I understand what needs to be fixed and have developed the skills needed to fix it.”
“To win elections in the future, we need to unite, grow, modernize, and better manage the party. To do this we need to re-commit ourselves to Reagan’s vision for the Republican Party: we need to apply our shared principles to issues that are relevant to people’s lives; and we need to include not just all local Republicans in this mission, but also all people who share our principles,” said Hubbard. “This is why, over the past year, I have nurtured new leaders and supported new organizations that are building relationships for the GOP in our African-American and Latino communities, and why I prepared and promoted a strategic plan for the future of the HCRP.”
Uniting and growing the party by being more inclusive is a key element of Hubbard’s plan for the party. Hubbard stated that he intends to re-involve long-time activists and clubs in the party organization and activities, while including new people and neighborhoods in the party by “permanently expanding the grassroots into every precinct, community, and school district.”
Hubbard offered this challenge to local Republicans: “if you are ready to seize the future of our party with the courage to look beyond the arguments and resumes of the past, then I ask you to join our effort as a volunteer or contributor, and to vote for me in the March primary.”
Hubbard has three daughters: Joanna, 22 (now of Los Angeles, California); Becca, 20, and Meredith, 10. Becca served last year as a delegate to the Republican Senate District Convention for Senate District 11. Hubbard is married to Johnnie Hill Hubbard, a native Texan who grew-up in Pasadena, Texas.
Visit www.HubbardForHCRP.com for more information.
CHAIR OF THE HARRIS COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
HOUSTON - Today, Ed Hubbard officially filed to place his name on the March 2010 Republican Primary ballot as a candidate for the office of Chair of the Harris County Republican Party. The Taylor Lake Village resident and life-long Republican defeated a two-term incumbent (and former Houston Police Chief) in a 10-county race to become the party’s nominee for a place on a local appellate court in 2008. He now will be challenging the 8-year incumbent party chair, who is seeking a fifth term in the wake of the defeat suffered by the local GOP in the 2008 elections, and amid lingering questions about the recent management of the county party.
“The local GOP needs more than a cheerleader—it needs a leader,” Hubbard declared. “It needs a leader who will listen to local Republicans, respond to their concerns, and, ultimately, make the party competitive in this growing metropolitan county. I have run a law firm; managed people and budgets; raised money for scholarships, non-profit entities, and political campaigns; and served on the boards of a non-profit entity and a church foundation, and as an officer of a school board. I also ran a successful 10-county primary race in the last election cycle, and learned what is working and what is not working within our party. Based on these varied experiences, I believe I understand what needs to be fixed and have developed the skills needed to fix it.”
“To win elections in the future, we need to unite, grow, modernize, and better manage the party. To do this we need to re-commit ourselves to Reagan’s vision for the Republican Party: we need to apply our shared principles to issues that are relevant to people’s lives; and we need to include not just all local Republicans in this mission, but also all people who share our principles,” said Hubbard. “This is why, over the past year, I have nurtured new leaders and supported new organizations that are building relationships for the GOP in our African-American and Latino communities, and why I prepared and promoted a strategic plan for the future of the HCRP.”
Uniting and growing the party by being more inclusive is a key element of Hubbard’s plan for the party. Hubbard stated that he intends to re-involve long-time activists and clubs in the party organization and activities, while including new people and neighborhoods in the party by “permanently expanding the grassroots into every precinct, community, and school district.”
Hubbard offered this challenge to local Republicans: “if you are ready to seize the future of our party with the courage to look beyond the arguments and resumes of the past, then I ask you to join our effort as a volunteer or contributor, and to vote for me in the March primary.”
Hubbard has three daughters: Joanna, 22 (now of Los Angeles, California); Becca, 20, and Meredith, 10. Becca served last year as a delegate to the Republican Senate District Convention for Senate District 11. Hubbard is married to Johnnie Hill Hubbard, a native Texan who grew-up in Pasadena, Texas.
Visit www.HubbardForHCRP.com for more information.
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