It's Only Just Begun

In case you missed the news this morning, Speaker Pelosi has issued marching orders to members of Congress leaving Washington for their two week recess. Among the many lowlights of Speaker Pelosi's directives is the following:

"With the passage of health insurance reform, this District Work Period is a critical time to go on offense.” Pelosi continued, "Convey the immediate benefits of health reform to your constituents (such as better prescription drug benefits for seniors, tax credits for small businesses and prohibiting insurance companies from canceling your policy if you get sick).”

The Hill reported: "Democrats are bracing for significant losses in the House and Senate this fall, but believe they can at least mitigate expected mid-term losses by aggressively touting the healthcare bill and moving to other issues, such as financial regulatory reform, that they believe put Republicans on the defensive.

Obama kicked into campaign mode Thursday, saying he welcomed a fight with Republicans over healthcare. If the GOP wants to repeal the bill, it should “go for it,” the president said."

In a memo to his members, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Friday stressed that Republicans would work not only to repeal the healthcare law, but to “replace it with solutions that will protect jobs and lower Americans’ health costs.”

Boehner said his party would “repeal ObamaCare’s job-destroying tax hikes and mandates and replace them with common-sense, market-based solutions that cover Americans with existing conditions.”

Fellow Republicans, I don't need to tell you that when the one side goes on offense, the other side can only respond by going on defense. So, my advice to our side: Let's go on offense, FIRST. Whether it's in conversations with friends or family members, opportunities to speak with your local, state or congressional representatives, or online in forums or your private email blasts, go on offense, be armed with facts and truth, and be civil in your efforts to promote he conservative cause.

Minority Leader Boehner has given us some pointers and some direction. Congressman Paul Ryan provided a great number of ideas and details in a New York Times column Friday. Byron York wrote a column this week detailing the lack of support nationally for the health care bill the democrats forced through Congress last Sunday. All of this points to the obvious: The democrats are coming home to sell us on something we didn't want in the first place, they're now in the position of having to tell us after the fact that we really did want it after all.

Armed with the truth, the facts and with history; Americans across the country, let's go to work for our cause.

A Response to Terry Lowry: We Republicans have a Choice for Unity, and a Choice against the taint of Pay-for-Play politics

For most of the 33 years since Ronald Reagan first proposed to build a New Republican Party with a coalition of traditional Republicans, economic conservatives and social conservatives, the great moral issues of our time have involved abortion and the institution of the traditional family. As serious as these issues are, they should not be used as a weapon at this hour in our history to destroy fellow Republicans.

We Republicans have struggled within our family over these issues because of the teachings of our respective faiths, and because of our commitment to the inalienable rights of life and liberty. Even when some in our party might disagree on where lines should be drawn in the political and legal arena, however, we generally have agreed that abortion is wrong, and that the traditional family should be protected. That consensus led virtually all Republicans to support the appointment or election of conservative judges and justices to state and federal courts, including Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

Unfortunately, there continue to be those among us who would rather pick and fight a civil war against our friends and allies in this party over these issues, rather than try to find common ground to advance our shared principles. I believe this approach is the wrong, and that it is self-defeating in the end. In fact, Reagan noted that this tension would exist within the “new” party he was proposing when he said:

"I want the record to show that I do not view the new re vitalized Republican Party as one based on a principle of exclusion. After all, you do not get to be a majority party by searching for groups you won't associate or work with. If we truly believe in our principles, we should sit down and talk. Talk with anyone, anywhere, at any time if it means talking about the principles of the Republican Party. Conservatism is not a narrow ideology nor is it the exclusive property of conservative activists."

For the last 15 months, I talked to our friends in this party about our principles, and about revitalizing our party to elect Republicans and promote Reagan’s agenda--but, I also listened. I heard so much about what we agree coming from people who had labeled themselves, or who had been labeled by others, as inhabiting separate factions within this party, that it gave me hope that we could stop fighting each other and focus on fighting the Democrats. I built on what I heard to form a coalition of supporters from every faction in this party, to run for HCRP Chair, and to successfully make the run-off election. At the core of what we built was the recognition that to elect Republicans we must grow, but to grow, we must first unite.

Unfortunately, earlier today, I saw the first salvo in this run-off election from those who would rather exclude fellow Republicans whom they have labeled as being in a different camp within this party—it was ugly, and it was a lie. It came through a Facebook post by Terry Lowry, a precinct chair, supporter of Jared Woodfill, radio host, and proprietor of the LinkLetter. I first met Terry in early 2008, and through discussions with him I know we agree on much: we support the platform of the Republican Party of Texas; we are pro-life; and we want to protect the traditional family from the political and legal assault promoted by Democratic-aligned interests groups. He knows that I am not an ally of pro-abortion politics or the “homosexual” political and legal agenda. And yet, he smears me by smearing some Republicans who have supported me—who want to unite all of the factions of the party like I do—because some of our friends in this party draw lines on these issues differently than I do, or Terry does. This politics of lies, smears, innuendos, and exclusion is beneath not only the Christianity that Terry and I share, but it also is beneath the principles of the party Reagan tried to build. To Terry, I simply ask: Have you no shame? To Jared, I simply ask: Do you condone this divisive conduct?

Why is Terry doing this? I don’t know, but maybe it has to do with the fact that last Thursday I dared to criticize his use of the LinkLetter (and similar mailers promoted by a few other individuals), to act as a self-anointed gatekeeper to the local Republican nominations. I dared to criticize his simultaneous promotion of endorsements and the sale of advertising in the same races, which has created the appearance to many that prospective candidates in our party have to pay Terry (and others) in order to have a chance of winning a local Republican primary. I dared to state that the whiff of Pay-for-Play should not exist in our party.

Ultimately, it is for you the Republican voter to choose which path to follow—Terry’s path of perpetual war with our friends and allies in this party, or the path I am offering. If you want to unite and grow around our shared principles and win elections, you have a choice to make between the politics of lies, smears, innuendos and exclusion that have divided us for too long, and the politics of unity against a common foe. If you want to rid our party of the whiff of Pay-for-Play tactics, and of self-anointed gatekeepers, and take your party back and make it the inclusive, welcoming majority party built on timeless conservative principles that Reagan dreamed of, you have a choice to make.

First Radio Commercial Released

Endorsements or Spin? You be the judge.

You can tell that we are getting closer to the start of early voting—endorsements are flying, as is the political spin that surrounds every campaign. Ever since the C Club of Houston (now joined by United Republicans of Harris County) announced its endorsement of me, the fur has been flying at Richmond Avenue. Now, Gary Polland has weighed in—as is his right. Welcome to the debate, Gary.

As endorsements go, the incumbent and I are now even as to the former Harris County Party Chairs who built the modern Republican majority in this county: I have Betsy Lake, under whose leadership the county first went Republican; and Jared now has Gary, who built a strong operation upon the foundation of Betsy’s success. I am sure that Jared would concur that we are both proud and appreciative of these respective endorsements.

What is odd about some of the recent endorsements Jared has received, including the most recent one from Gary Polland, is that they are not really typical endorsements. Instead, they appear to be nothing more than vehicles to create or support talking points for his campaign. First, they contain short accolades of Jared’s ability to talk about public-policy issues, and of his service to the party, without much discussion of his overall management of the party, which has allowed the organization Betsy and Gary built to wither over the last 8 years. Then, these accolades are coupled with criticisms of the rest of us who are running. These criticisms are then immediately seized by Bill Kneer and Richard Dillon—two men who are supposed to be working for the party, not Jared’s campaign—who then use them as the basis to spin more criticisms on their Facebook pages.

Do Jared’s supporters really think that their approach helps the party in the long run? Although I find the issue that was raised about me by Gary to be fair game to debate, I have addressed my experience for this job—both politically and organizationally—for months, in public meetings, in emails, and on my website. I will let the voters decide whether the party’s problems can be fixed from inside the current HCRP “cocoon” with the same group that has run it into the ground, or whether it needs fresh thinking and action. Obviously, members of the C Club, United Republicans, and many leaders of our affiliated clubs and organizations agree with me that the party can’t be fixed using the current approach.

But regardless of the arguments made against me, let's all remember that this race is not about the 1990s, it’s about the future.

If you check the endorsements that I have posted, you will not see criticism of the incumbent (or anyone else)—only a list of people making a statement of positive support for me. That is how it should be.

Reflections on a Democratic Meet-and-Greet

Yesterday, at the invitation of a fellow Republican, I attended a meet-and-greet for a Democratic candidate who is opposing Sheila Jackson Lee. For those of you who follow Big Jolly Politics, and who may have read my response to Dan Patrick’s comments about the CD-18 race, this is not inconsistent with my position in support of our efforts in this race. Instead, it was designed to enhance our growth into this community.

The reality is that we have over 200 precincts in CDs 18, 9, and 29 (Lee, Al Green and Gene Green, respectively), where we literally have no organizational presence, but where Ed Emmett and Pat Lykos had some success in the 2008 election. My goal is to talk to those people who supported Judge Emmett and District Attorney Lykos, and build on what they started in order to bring conservatives in these communities, who now vote primarily for Democrats, over to our party permanently. You can’t do that unless you actually interact with them where and when they gather.

So, here are a couple of reflections on my experience.

First, there were Republicans (and independents who vote Republican) at this event, and I was able to talk with them about our primary and supporting our candidates. There is a lot of support for Judge Emmett and other Republicans among these voters. They are energized about what we are trying to do to expand the party and include them, but they are still listening to what the Democrats have to offer—we are no where near closing the deal with these voters yet for their support for our entire ticket.

Second, I learned what issues are being discussed in this race by the Democrats with members of the Latino, African American, and Asian communities. The Democratic candidate presented a largely pro-growth, pro-education message, which resonated with the conservatives in these communities. However, I saw that he is vulnerable over charter schools and school choice—the people in these communities want someone who will be strong in their support of these initiatives and he waffled. He also is vulnerable over how much he wants to expand federal programs into these communities. If this candidate doesn't beat Sheila Jackson Lee in the Democratic primary, we can use these issues to connect with these voters, who are obviously disenchanted with the incumbent.

Last night, I shared my observation with one of our CD-18 candidates, and I will share them with the other two soon, so that who ever wins our primary will be prepared for the general election campaign and for competing for the votes in these neighborhoods.

I know that there will be some fellow Republicans who may criticize me for going to an event like this one. But think for a second—how do you expect to learn how to connect with voters who agree with us, but who are used to voting for Democrats, unless we actually observe this type of event? Sometimes you actually have to go to where the opposition is meeting and challenge them with your presence. Remember, we didn't grow as a party over the last generation by avoiding contact with Democrats who agreed with us. In fact, such contact and conversion is how President Reagan, Governors Connally and Perry, and Judge Pressler, ultimately joined our party after being life-long Democrats, and that is how our conservative coalition grew. In order to attract them, we actually had to interact with them where they congregated.

So, let’s be clear: I do not support any Democratic candidate, nor do I embrace Dan Patrick's idea about creating a "Republicans for Jarvis Johnson" movement. Nothing "rubbed off" on me by attending this meeting—I am immune to the Democratic philosophy. Instead, I'm hoping my presence made those in the room who might support us realize we care about them; we are unafraid of going to where they live, work and meet; and we are going to compete for their vote.

Massachusetts, the Supreme Court Ruling and Future of the HCRP

Two political earthquakes struck last week: Brown’s victory in Massachusetts; and the Supreme Court’s ruling on campaign finance. Both developments were the result of battles that conservatives have long fought, and our immediate reactions to them were pure joy. However, as euphoric as Brown’s win remains, the Supreme Court’s ruling presents both challenges and opportunities to the Harris County Republican Party.

A wholly new political environment was created. PACs and 527 organizations are now irrelevant--and will probably disappear. Any organization--corporations, unions, chambers of commerce, trade associations, and issue-advocacy groups--now can freely publish endorsements, ads, and documentaries for candidates and issues. Right now this is a mixed-blessing for the GOP, because the left has as many, if not more, groups who are ready to independently spend money to support the Democratic Party and its candidates.

In the meantime, limits on candidates and parties are still in place, including: contribution limits for candidates; allocation restrictions for party organizations; prohibitions on coordinated campaign activities between candidates (and parties) and outside organizations; and the threat of recusal of a judge in any case involving corporations and other entities, whose independent advocacy significantly benefits the judge’s campaign.

The next Chair of the HCRP must address this new reality immediately. If I am elected, I will convene the best political and legal minds to create a strategy to take maximum advantage of this new situation, while helping our candidates and elected officials navigate it. As part of this new strategy, I will re-establish direct relationships with the business community. As evidence of my ability to build this bridge, last week I received the endorsement of the C Club, which is the first time the club has ever made an endorsement in a race for party chair.

We will need to treat the business community, as well as other pro-conservative organizations, as constituents with whom we work to develop our political agenda and support our candidates. I will create a strategy that is legal and ethical, and I will do so while we rebuild our organization to mobilize Republicans to vote in 2010 and 2012.

Old strategies will not be effective in this new environment. For example, our approach to candidate promotion must be more sophisticated than sending an ad-based “Chairman’s Report” by mail on the eve of Election Day. Not only are such late mailings ineffective when 75% of voters now vote early, but the current approach has allowed at least one Democrat to buy ads and has been designed primarily to benefit the incumbent chair’s re-election campaign. This must end.

In fact, let’s stop this practice now. The incumbent has just mailed a solicitation to all candidates on the primary ballot to pay for ads in a new “Chairman’s Report” for the primary. Let’s tell the incumbent that this practice is ineffective and improper, and challenge him to produce a Voter Guide that is even-handed and promotes the party’s candidates—not his campaign.

Let's take control of the new reality and use it to win elections, rather than continue the same, ineffective practices of the past.

Ed Hubbard
Candidate for Chair of the Harris County Republican Party
www.HubbardForHCRP.com

First Endorsement List Released

I am proud to release the first round of endorsements for my campaign. This list, and the names to follow, demonstrates the broad, wide support I have received and I am very honored to have the idividuals behind our efforts.

Betsy Lake
Former Chair of the Harris County Republican Party;
Former President of the Bay Area Republican Women;
Former President of the Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women;
Founder of United Republicans

Robert Shults
Precinct Chair—258
President of United Republicans,
Former President of the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club

Kay Waghorne
Precinct Chair—642
Former President of the Cy-Fair Republican Women

Larry Tobin
Current Precinct Chair—90
Former President of the Clear Lake Republican Club
Former City Councilman--Taylor Lake Village

Kay Shillock
Former and New Precinct Chair—513
Former President of the Northwest Forest Republican Women;
Former President of the Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women

Justin Jordan
Former Precinct Chair—630
New Precinct Chair—76
Former President of the Texas chapter of College Republicans

Atemio Muniz, Jr.
New Precinct Chair—591
Founder of Conservador Alliance;
Statewide director of the Latino National Republican Coalition

Barbara Buxton
Precinct Chair—668

Matt Hefferman
Precinct Chair—127

Eric Walligura
Current Precinct Chair—265
New Precinct Chair—439

Eric Smith
Precinct Chair—460

Joe Spence
Precinct Chair—732

Becky Flowers
Precinct Chair—771

Carmen Cuneo
New Precinct Chair—210

Tom Hodges
Former Precinct Chair—440

Rita Huggler
Former Precinct Chair

Lo Wallace
Former Precinct Chair
Former President of Village Republican Women;
Board member of the Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women;
Board member of United Republicans

Sandie Myers
Houston Community College Board member;
Immediate Past President of the Daughters of Liberty Republican Women

Susan Kellner
Immediate Past President of the Spring Branch ISD School Board

Theresa Kosmoski
Member of the Spring Branch ISD School Board;
Immediate Past President of the Memorial West Republican Women

Lilian Norman Keeney
Mayor Pro Tem of Taylor Lake Village;
Currently 2nd Vice President, Greater Houston Council
District Director for Senate District 11 for the Texas Federation of Republican Women;
Former President of the Bay Area Republican Women

John Faulk
Candidate for U.S. Congress, District 18

Jon Keeney
Former candidate for the state legislature

Bill Moore
Former candidate for the Criminal District Court

Toni Anne Dashiell
Immediate Past President of the Texas Federation of Republican Women

Rebecca Williamson
Current Vice President of Programs for the Texas Federation of Republican Women;
Immediate Past First Vice President of the Texas Federation of Republican Women

Jo Konen
Immediate Past Vice President of Bylaws for the Texas Federation of Republican Women;
Former President of the Northwest Forest Republican Women;
Former President of the Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women

Jan Ott
Currently 2nd Vice President of the Texas Federation of Republican Women;
Director Greater Houston Pachyderm;
Immediate Past Treasurer of the Texas Federation of Republican Women;
Immediate past First VP of the Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women;
Founding President of the Cy-Fair Republican Women

Carolyn Hodges
Current 1st Vice President of the Texas Federation of Republican Women;
Director Greater Houston Pachyderm;
Immediate Past Regional Deputy President, Region II, of the Texas Federation of Republican Women;
Former President of the Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women;
Former President of the Village Republican Women

Carol Prince
Immediate Past President of the Village Republican Women

Gaye Neeley Wylie
immediate past president of the Bay Area Republican Women

Gail Shubot
Immediate Past President of the Houston Professional Republican Women

Sue Ann Lurcott
Immediate Past President of the Northwest Forest Republican Women

Patricia McCall
Former President of the Magic Circle Republican Women;
Former President of the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club

Sue Kikis
Former President of the Northwest Forest Republican Women;
Former President of the Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women

Claudette Martin
Former President of the Northwest Forest Republican Women

Deborah Guitian Roan
Former President of the Bay Area Republican Women

Ruby Cubley
Former President of the Bay Area Republican Women

Carole Ragland
Former President of the Bay Area Republican Women

Joan Buschor
Officer of the Magic Circle Republican Women

Cathie Nenninger
Current officer of the Clear Creek Republican Women;
Past officer of the Bay Area Republican Women

J.D. Joyce
President of the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club;
Board member of United Republicans

Alex Montgomery
President of the Pachyderm Club of North Houston


Claver Kamau-Imani
Founder of Raging Elephants.org;
Host of "The Christian Politician" Radio Show and blog;
Former director of the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club

Jackelyn Viera Iloff
Candidate for Precinct Chair—499;
Founder and President of “Magdalena’s Table”;
Former Chair of the HCRP Finance Committee;
Creator and Former Chair of the HCRP “First Friday” Program;
Former aide to the Repbulican National Committee;
Former aide to Governor George Allen of Virginia

Rajada Fleming
Former officer of the Village Republican Women;
Officer of the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club

John Fedorko
Former officer of the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club

Nelson Fisher
Former President of the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club

Robert Stevenson
Officer of the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club

David Norman
Former candidate for the state legislature

Barbara Jordan
Kingwood Republican Women

Joe Slovacek
Alvin Walker
Itze Soliz-Mathews
Don McFall
Lloyd Lake
Dr. Mark Fleming
Harold Wallace
Robyn Joyce
Hermann Buschor
Suzanne Testa
George Hrdlicka
Judy Hrdlicka
Kirk Whitehouse
John Manley
Larry Buxton
Bill Ott
Jim Prince
Steve Shaffer
Dr. Rekha Ramesh
Dr. G.S. Ramesh
Phillis Shults
Penny Uselton
Roxie Hefferman
Ilana M. Blomquist
John C. Blomquist
Mickie Comiskey
Charles Comiskey
Chuck Konen
Steve Liljeberg
Ed McCool
Debbie Lindeman
Brian Bayne
Cecil Bishop, Jr.
Tom Whitson
Vanessa Sudeth-Muse
Cindy Hemminger
David Hemminger
Joan Alford
Sally Stricklett
Roxanne Moore
Cindy Kueneke
David Kueneke
Gina Halle
Richard Halle
Kathleen Kearns
Phillip D. Sharp
Raymond G. Hofker
Fred Y. O. Ho
Joy Gregory
Ford Bankston
Patience Myers
Betty Howell
Lucy Forbes
Gienna Adovasio
Gianpaolo Garrone
Ruth Palmer
Robert Palmer
Karen Plante
Dawn Shull
Aaron Simpson
Terence Abrams
Donald K. Eckhardt
Debra Eldridge
Bonnie Norman
Liz Norman
Jeffrey Norman
Wallie Womack
Kevin Yankowsky

To be added to this list when we release future names, please click here, or emails us at HubbardForHCRP@gmail.com.

A Final Update on the Precinct Chair Filings

Well, the filing deadline for the Republican Primary has passed, and the campaign season is upon us. Soon I will be out on the campaign trail, but my focus for the last two weeks has been on our precinct chair predicament—we don’t have enough precinct chairs now, and not enough incumbent chairs were re-filing for their seats. As some of you may know, I’ve been posting updates about this issue on this website and on the Big Jolly Politics website.

When we started the year, we had about 450 precincts filled out of 874 precincts in the county. As of last night at 9:50 p.m., the HCRP posted that we had filings in about 454 precincts out of 885 precincts (11 new precincts were created last year). On the surface, one could say that we had not lost ground, but that really isn’t the whole story.

Through the remarkable efforts of many people and several organizations (especially those people connected with the local Tea Party movement), who recruited precinct chairs by focusing on filling vacant seats in order to expand the reach of the party, and who conducted training seminars for prospective chairs, 181 new people filed to become precinct chairs in Harris County. Again, this was a phenomenal effort and result. The net result meant that about 70 previously vacant precincts would now have GOP precinct chairs.

So what happened? Well, about 27% of the existing precinct chairs—more than 120—chose not to re-file. Therefore, many of our new recruits filed in occupied precincts just to maintain our presence in that precinct. The net result is that at least 60 occupied precincts will have new chairs, while 64 occupied precincts will become vacant.

That's such a shame--and a waste of a tremendous opportunity the HCRP had to expand its reach with all of this new energy. I know that Donna Boharich has worked very hard and deserves a lot of credit for getting the HCRP focused on the primary--this was not her problem to address, and the result is not her fault. Moreover, I have learned that an effort indeed was made in mid-December to finally contact the precinct chairs that had not already filed to find out what they were doing and to remind them to file, but that type of effort, just before the holidays, was too little too late.

I know that I seem like a broken record, but where was the incumbent Chair, our paid Executive Director, and the rest of the Richmond Avenue team on this issue all last year? Why weren't they canvassing the incumbents to determine who was going to run again, and then actively working to keep their seats filled? Why weren't they using their new-found attraction to the internet, and to Townhall audiences, to recruit precinct chairs? It isn't that hard. I was on the phone and using emails to make sure that a few of the precinct chairs who I knew had not re-filed were finding replacements, and that their replacements would file by the deadline yesterday--and that was just with a weekend's effort. Think of what could have been done with a concerted, focused effort by the current team over a period of months. While they were out performing to Townhall audiences and putting the incumbent's face on Voter Guides that were of no benefit to the party—and we were out recruiting new precinct chairs to fill the vacant seats—no one was minding the organization--and it failed once again. Another lost opportunity.

So why is any of this important? There are at least three reasons we should care about this predicament:

1. The precinct chairs are the "roots" of our grassroots organization. We can not grow the party without expanding our base into every neighborhood, and we will never permanently expand into every neighborhood unless we have a chair in every precinct where there are potential Republican voters. They form part of our farm team, and help find others to run for office in their communities to form the farm team; they help with ballot and election security; and they form the frontline that mobilizes our voters to vote and participate in our convention process.

2. The whole purpose of expanding the party is to elect Republicans, and there is a 7% average differential in turnout between those competitive precincts where we have a chair and those where we do not. Of the 64 currently-occupied precincts that we did not re-fill, we were competitive in all but a handful of them in the 2008 general election, and at least 27 of those precincts voted strongly Republican in that election. Of those 27 precincts, 11 had turnouts between 72% and 80%. A 7% drop in turnout in those precincts could spell disaster for our ticket this fall. It is clear that the presence of an effective precinct chair is key to our get-out-the-vote effort.

and

3. It is more difficult to recruit and approve precinct chairs outside the primary process. Because of the current Vacancy Committee process, coupled with the chronic failure to get a quorum of precinct chairs to attend the quarterly Executive Committee meetings, it is not unusual for a candidate to go a half year of more before he or she is approved to be a precinct chair. This drawn-out process is adding to our inability to put the "boots on the ground" we need to fight the Democrats.

I hope that the HCRP will place a priority on filling these 64 vacancies as soon as possible. To fill these chairs quickly, I propose that that the party immediately create a task force to focus on filling these seats as soon as possible, which must include creation of a “fast-track” process for expediting the candidates through the Vacancy Committee and approval process. We simply don't have the luxury to allow this process to drag-out for months, or even half a year or more, before these seats get filled.

In the meantime, I will continue working with the groups I have been working with to find precinct chair candidates for the remaining seats that the party historically has left vacant, and we will direct them to the Vacancy Committee.

To everyone who filed, and to everyone who worked so hard to bring new applicants into this process--thank you. Let's now get down to the hard work of rebuilding this party.

Responses to David Jennings' Blog: Precinct Chair Filing Update 3

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.

****************************************

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!

****************************************

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!

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:

* 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!

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):

* 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.

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:

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.

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:

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.

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.

The future transition—an Audit and Inventory will be needed as we hit the ground running

Questions have been raised over the last few months about the accuracy of the reporting of contributions and expenditures by the HCRP; about the failure to timely or completely pay payroll, rent, and vendor bills; about payments made by the HCRP to a company owned by the current Executive Director; about the relationship between the incumbent’s campaign and other organizations and PACs; and about who has possession or access to the property and bank accounts of the party. If I am elected to be the next Chair of the HCRP, I will swiftly move to conduct an audit of the party, and an inventory of its property.

I do not plan to use this audit and inventory as a basis for recrimination or criticism of the outgoing team, nor am I committing to this course of action because I think there has been any malfeasance by the current team at Richmond Avenue. Instead, I am doing it so that the party and its contributors will have confidence in the new direction of the party: confidence that we know the actual baseline condition of the property at the time we take over; confidence that we have complete possession and control of the party’s assets; confidence that we understand all current obligations of the party; and confidence that our budget and fundraising needs are based on reality.

The minute my term begins, I will be ready to assume managerial control of the party:

* We will have the party management team in place.
* Based on discussions I am having now, we will have a new Executive Director ready to start work and a bookkeeper, as well as an accounting firm ready to help with the audit and inventory.
* We will have a team of volunteers ready to get the office functioning and be prepared for a special election for the Senate, if that is scheduled before November, 2010.
* We will have a preliminary budget plan and a fundraising plan ready to implement.
* We will have a team ready to implement a new design and function for the party on the Internet, and to create or update a modern, stand-alone database of Republican voters and contributors for the parties use.

In fact, we will be prepared to implement these under any condition we may inherit: if the party is handed over intact as it now exists; or, if we walk into an empty office on Richmond Avenue, as Betsy Lake found when she took over the party many years ago.

I intend to fully cooperate with the current leadership to have a smooth and fast transition. Although Section 171.028 of the Texas Election Code gives the current team up to 30 days to fully transfer the books and records, the incumbent is on notice now that there may be a change in administration, and so, for the good of the party and its ticket in 2010, I hope he and his team will be ready to hand-over the property of the party immediately after the election.

What I Intended to Say Last Tuesday Evening

Because a scheduled speaker had canceled on the Clear Lake Republican Club at the last minute, it attempted to invite each of the candidates for the Chair of the HCRP to speak to the club about the meaning of the November, 2009 elections. Paul Simpson and I responded and agreed to attend; the club’s program director was not aware that Don Large had entered the race, so he did not receive an invitation (though he did attend the meeting after he learned of the event); and the incumbent, as usual, did not respond.

Then, just hours before the meeting, and after emails had been sent to the members about the meeting, the Executive Director of the HCRP contacted the President of the CLRC and tried to get him to cancel the program. As a compromise, and to help the club (even though its bylaws did not prohibit the program that had been planned), Paul and I agreed to limit our remarks to avoid saying anything about the local Republican Party, or our race—and we honored that agreement.

However, I never agreed to remain silent about what happened.

There are two problems with what happened Tuesday: it is further evidence that the paid and volunteer staff of the HCRP, as well as its assets, are being used inappropriately to support of the incumbent’s campaign; and that the current team at Richmond Avenue will attempt to intimidate any opposition to its continued control of the party. I will not be so intimidated, and I will publicly disclose and fight any future attempt to apply such tactics in this campaign. These practices are antithetical to the legacy of Lincoln and Reagan that we say we embrace.

So, in addition to what I did say Tuesday night, here is what I was prepared to say about the HCRP, and the behavior of some of the people who are supporting the current team at Richmond Avenue—

Since late last year, when I, and others, began agitating for real reform of the local party, the incumbent and his team have generated a lot of noise and activity, but they have not figured out how to turn this activity into real results: they have not incorporated the clubs and newly energized citizens into the party; they have not embraced conservatives in communities of color; they still don’t understand that an election now takes place over two weeks, not just on the last day; and they are providing no value to the effort to elect Republicans.

The prime example of these failures can be found in the Voter’s Guide that the party mailed on the eve of the final Election Day. The party charged candidates from $5,000 to $12,500 to run ads in the Guide; it allowed Democrats to buy ads in the Guide for races in which they were running against a Republican; and the Guide was not received by voters until after more than a week of early voting had finished. The only effective result of this endeavor was to put the incumbent’s face, and his message about his re-election campaign, in the hands of 60,000 voters—free of charge to his campaign.

The incumbent’s self-promotion is not helping the party grow or win elections—nor are the words of his long-time associates.

The recent quoted comments about Annise Parker, which were made by long-time associates of the incumbent, are simply deplorable. They should not be embraced by our party. If they are embraced, we will drive people away from this party who otherwise share our principles.

I am not endorsing either Democrat left in the Mayoral run-off; but I believe that Ms. Parker, like any other candidate, should be judged by political leaders based on her competence to be Mayor, her political experience, and on the policy positions she is actually promoting—not on her sexual orientation. If some individuals feel a strong religious impulse to oppose a certain candidate, so be it—that is their right; but it is beneath the dignity of our party's heritage—as the party of Lincoln and Reagan—for the political leaders of our party, or their surrogates, to join and give support to such an impulse as the official, or de facto, position of our party. I know of no political leader in this county, no matter how good a person he or she may be, who is on the short list for canonization—we are all sinners. If the GOP starts to base its membership and support on the prerequisite of having a clean record with God, we will become the smallest political party in the world in record time.

The restraint I am advocating is not capitulation to ideas, agendas, or behaviors we do not condone—it is simply the right way to treat a fellow citizen and neighbor.

As we face the 2010 elections, we Republicans must focus positively and aggressively on the serious issues that confront this community now, and will confront it in the future. The evidence from the 2009 election cycle shows that the current team at Richmond Avenue still doesn’t understand how to do this.

A Proposed Educational Revolution for the GOP

The Problem

In Meredith Wilson's The Music Man, the con man, Harold Hill, convinces the residents of River City, Iowa, that he has developed a new method for learning music, called the "think system". Hill’s theory is that if a musician uses the "think system" properly, he or she does not need to rely on written music. Instead, the musician only needs to think about the song long enough and hard enough, and he or she will be able to play it flawlessly. By the end of the play, the townspeople know they have been conned because it is obvious that the "think system" doesn't work, but Hill is saved by the local music teacher. It's a delightful story, but real life doesn't end that way.

As the noted educator, E.D. Hirsch, Jr., has tried to tell us for a generation, the American people have been conned since the 1930s with a version of the "think system", but there has been no happy ending. Hirsch’s central premise is that the decline in educational performance in our schools is directly related to a conscious decision by professional educators to abandon the use of a content-based curriculum in our public schools. Instead of a content-based curriculum, the education establishment has promoted a “child-centered” method of teaching that leaves each child to discover knowledge on their own.

As Hirsch makes clear in his most recent work, The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools, this trade-out has produced societal illiteracy, because it led to a systemic failure to pass on the basic knowledge of language, history, and culture every American needs in order to function as a productive member of our society.

The illiteracy has led to a social nightmare in many communities, where up to 50% of students who start school will never graduate from high school, and 87% will never graduate from college. We are under-educating too many people, thereby condemning them, their families and their neighborhoods to chronic crime, deviancy, underemployment and poverty. Merely giving parents the choice to move their children to other schools that use the same teaching methods, or raising school and teacher performance criteria without addressing classroom content, will not fix this problem. Instead, the source of the problem—the content of our schools’ curricula—must be squarely addressed.

Let’s look at a practical example of how this problem plays out in our classrooms. When children enter pre-school or kindergarten, at some point they realize that there is a clock on the wall, but they do no yet know what it means, why it is there, and what you do with it. This information has to be taught and reinforced so the student will process it in many diverse contexts over years. So, in these early classes when students are introduced to reading a clock, their science instruction should be coordinated to teach about the rotation of the earth; math instruction should give equations and story problems that introduce real problems related to calculating and managing time that are age-appropriate; vocabulary lessons should introduce time-related words (e.g., minute, hour, day, night, month, season, year, and annual); grammar lessons should use these words in context; and short stories should be read that discuss time and seasons in context. Provided with this foundation, the child can begin to manage and understand time, but also will possess some of the linguistic and conceptual tools needed to later understand: the stories of Nathanial Hawthorne and poems of Robert Frost in which the setting in a specific season is critical to the meaning of their works; the relationship of time to the cadence and meaning of a Poe story or poem; why Washington’s army had to camp at Valley Forge, and why his winter crossing of the Delaware River was so dramatic; the importance of annual floods along the Nile to the building of the Egyptian empire; and much more.

If contextual facts are not taught early and incrementally, the student will find it hard to progress in school. Simply learning critical-thinking skills and how to apply them, without being taught contextual facts (and then learning to build on them with more contextual facts in diverse contexts), will impair a student's ability to continue to learn. Take a child who has lived in a home and neighborhood in Houston where many adults don’t have regular jobs, or where adults don’t functionally interact with their children. In the context of the previous example, have those children seen the seasons change enough to comprehend it? Have they seen a rhythm to their parent's daily routine, or heard people discuss deadlines and time commitments, enough to understand the concept and importance of time? If not, how will they discover the facts needed to critically think about these ideas?

By not teaching incremental, age-appropriate, comprehensive factual content--or core knowledge--cognitive science tells us that these students, who have no where else to “discover” such factual content, will fail. And guess what...students from these neighborhoods have failed and dropped-out of school in alarming numbers, while never having discovered the knowledge of language, history and culture they actually needed to succeed. It's like we've been asking our children to hum a tune they've never heard, or play a song on an instrument without learning the notes of the song or how to play the instrument--we've asked them to do something that can't be done, except by pure accident. We should never have left something so important, and so expensive, for our society to pure accident.

As Hirsch points out, we know how to fix this problem—we need to address the content of what we are teaching our children. If we fix this problem, it will be much easier to fix the structural tax and spending issues related to delivering education. If we don't fix this problem, no amount of tinkering with salaries, standards, taxes or budgets will improve the education of our children.

The GOP Solution

The GOP at all levels must address this problem as part of our effort to reconnect with the American public. Remember that the only institution in American life, which has involved, at some time and in some way, every individual, every family, every neighborhood, and every level of government, is our local school, and its problems affect us all—now and into the future. Recently, I stated during a candidates’ forum that I believe a central mission of a revitalized GOP must be to rebuild not just our commitment to liberty, but also the obligations that come with liberty, in order to defeat the Democratic Party’s embrace of statism. I call this commitment an effort to “Renew the American Community.” As part of this renewal of our sense of community with our neighbors, we must fix our schools.

What has been lost from our education is an understanding and appreciation by our children of the “American Story”: the cumulative wisdom of Western thought, together with the core principles and contexts underlying the structure and operation of American society. While our politics—both liberal and conservative—has focused almost exclusively on improving the process of delivering education, it has ignored the loss of this content from our classrooms. As a result, as many as 87% of our children in certain neighborhoods in Harris County do not possess the tools they will need to succeed in today’s economic environment, and virtually no one is being educated to succeed as a citizen—unless by accident, or outside of the public school system.

This American Story should become the context in which the student’s exposure to every other academic discipline is processed, and in which he or she would then process a lifetime of learning after leaving school. This story, properly taught, should instill the student with the means of understanding not only the physical world they inhabit, and the political and economic system of our country, and of other countries; but also with the ethical means to make the right decisions as a member of the community. Once we decide on this course of action, textbooks must be developed in every discipline to mutually support this curriculum, and a modern and efficient delivery system must be developed at the state and local levels to provide this education.

The American Story should never be used to promote an ideology, religion or political party in any classroom or discipline. Instead, it refers to the contextual knowledge every child needs to possess in order to fully comprehend and use the language, mathematics, science, art, literature, history, economics, law, and culture of our society. The American Story provides a frame of reference to each child that is consistent with the great philosophical and political traditions championed by both the Republican and Democratic Parties, and with the theology of all the major religious traditions observed in this country, but without indoctrinating any child with a specific point of view. This story gives them the tools to function as adult citizens who will contribute positively to their families and neighborhoods.

As the party that prides itself on being the custodian of our society’s basic principles, and on preserving local control of our schools, the GOP must work to end the current social fraud caused by our educational "think system". The Republican Party at all levels must fight to improve the content of the education we provide to all our children, so that they, and their future families and neighborhoods, flourish. For if they flourish, they will be more inclined to embrace the individual obligations that come with the gift of liberty, which, in turn, will help us "Renew the American Community" without embracing an ever-growing government. As part of this fight, the HCRP should champion reform of the content of the curriculum in our local schools by supporting educators, school board candidates, and legislators who will address this issue.

Improving Communication Within Our Party

Last week, I addressed the credibility gap within the Republican Party in a post entitled, Matching the Message with the Messenger. In that post, I noted that we must realize that the gap is caused by a systemic problem within the party that must be addressed by focusing on communication, self-interest, competition, and culture. I promised then to elaborate on the communication issue, so I will do that now.

As I wrote last week, to improve communication we must begin to open a dialogue between our elected officials and our party leaders, activists and voters, in order to begin to harmonize the desires of our party with the issues faced by our elected officials on a daily basis in the process of administering their offices. The questions are “how do we open and sustain this dialogue”, and “what is the role of the HCRP in that process”. The answer is that the process must be layered throughout all of the groups and factions of the party (formally and informally), and the HCRP should be the primary facilitator of the dialogue. The goal must be to improve communication between our elected officials and the organization of the HCRP, and between our elected officials and our activists and voters.

There are several ways to start this process. First, I would quickly rebuild the relationship between the HCRP and our elected officials by creating a monthly meeting or luncheon to be attended by elected officials and the members of the HCRP Advisory Board. Each month, the meeting would include a different group of elected officials, e.g., judges, county commissioners, state legislators, state senators, Congressmen, etc. These meetings would focus on the concerns of both groups; how our elected officials are promoting, and/or can promote Republican policies; and how the HCRP can help our elected officials. The outcome of these meetings would be communicated through the secure intranet to the precinct chairs.

Second, our plan to reform the HCRP organization contemplates a high-level of interaction between the Campaign Support sub-organization from the Director/Vice-Chair down to the block captain, with candidates at all levels. The plan also contemplates interaction between the campaigns and the Communications sub-organization and the Outreach sub-organization. The divisions and groups within the proposed new HCRP organization are designed to support the campaigns of our candidates and elected officials by improving the process of identifying Republican voters, communicating with and mobilizing those voters, and getting those voters to the polls during the 13-day general election.

Third, we contemplate a greater use of the internet and radio to facilitate communication. The secure intranet will provide a means for candidates and elected officials to interactively communicate with everyone within the HCRP organization, to address concerns, to develop ideas, to mobilize help for campaigns, and to mobilize responses to the media. We also intend to take our coordinated messages to blogs, social-networking sites, and radio. We will use radio by creating 30 second to one-minute spots, narrated by our party leaders and elected officials, to tell the public about the work our elected officials are doing that is consistent with our principles, and to address important issues and policy initiatives with the public.

Fourth, I would continue the program of Townhall meetings and the plan for the “Roots” initiative started by the current team at Richmond Avenue, but I would revise their mission to focus primarily on rebuilding dialogue and relationships between our elected officials (and candidates) and the public. Instead of using the Townhall meetings to promote the current HCRP leadership team, I would use these meetings to promote the current work of our elected officials, by letting them discuss their offices and their ideas, and by giving them a forum to address the public’s concerns. Rather than promote the “Roots” program as a fundraising activity right now, I would first use the program to rebuild relationships between the party leaders and elected officials on the one hand, and activists at the grassroots on the other hand, by creating a process where these people interact at the precinct level with voters. Only after that relationship has been rebuilt, would I transition this program into a vehicle to create a new small-donor base for the party.

We can not begin to address the perception gap between the concerns of activists and our elected officials without taking concrete steps, like these, to improve communication. The HCRP can not continue to just criticize our Republican officials and widen this gap; it must take the lead in narrowing the gap by facilitating the communication.

Compare Our Plan for the HCRP with Reagan’s Plan for a “New Republican Party”

As you can see on the revised menu on the right side of our home page, we now have posted excerpts from a speech Ronald Reagan gave in early 1977. The speech was one of a series of speeches he gave that year in which he outlined his vision for what he called the New Republican Party, in which social conservatives would join with economic conservatives and traditional Republicans to create a majority party. The plan focused on uniting and expanding the party into the middle class and minority communities based on shared principles, and envisioned a party of inclusion not exclusion.

Many people have asked me to explain the vision behind the plan we have proposed for the HCRP. It’s not new or revolutionary. Instead, it is grounded in this vision Ronald Reagan (along with Jack Kemp and others) first championed a generation ago.

Lots of people want to wear Reagan’s mantle, bask in the glow of his rhetoric, and claim to be Reaganesque in their approach to politics. Unfortunately, few people really remember all that he stood for, and all that he hoped to accomplish.

So, please take time to visit the posting of Reagan’s speech and read those excerpts. Once you do, I hope you will see the similarities between the times he faced and the plan he proposed, and the times we now face and the plan we now propose. In summary, what we want to accomplish is nothing short of finally implementing Reagan’s vision for a New Republican Party—and starting that process here in Harris County.

Culberson's SOS: We must respond!

If you were logged onto either Facebook or Twitter last night, you may have received a distress call like I did—like an SOS signal over a telegraph, a Mayday call from a ship or plane, or the an air-raid siren over London two generations ago. However, the source of this distress call came from an unusual victim: one of our local Republican Congressmen, John Culberson. As surprising as that source might be, if you care about liberty, free speech, and the future of our two-party system, the call was as dire as any you could imagine. You can read the series of message on Congressman Culberson's Twitter page.

As many of you know who have followed Representative Culberson’s exploits since the Democrats seized control of Congress in 2006, he has been a constant agitator for sunshine and disclosure in a chamber that increasingly is trying to cloak its work in secrecy. He has constantly challenged Speaker Pelosi’s strategy of burying legislators under reams of paper that no one could read and comprehend in a decade, let alone in the hours that House members are now given to absorb the content of what they are voting on—the content of policies that will change the nature of the federal governments reach and power for decades to come. Truly, Culberson’s has been a voice in the wilderness.

But no one could have imagined that Pelosi truly intended Culberson to be thrown into a wilderness where he could no longer be free to speak to his constituency. That, in essence, is what Culberson was trying to warn us about in those distress calls last night. The Speaker now is censoring everything he is trying to write to his constituents under the threat that he will no longer be able to use the mailing privileges of a House member if he continues to speak his mind in such writings. This is appalling, and it must not stand. We must answer this distress call with action.

At the very least, for now we must do what Congressman Culberson asked us to do in his last message: “Bombard Pelosi & House leadership; let the sun shine in; post all bills online for 72 hrs bf vote, open debate/amendments & end censorship!” To broadcast this message, I ask the current leadership team of the HCRP at Richmond Avenue to use the fruits from the new social-networking training programs, the new Rapid Response program, and the party email system, not to toot your own horn, but to alert Republicans to Culberson’s plight and how to respond. To Republican bloggers and talk-show hosts, flood the airwaves with Culberson’s distress call, and demand the Speaker to stop. To the Tea Partiers, 9/12 organizers and other grassroots conservatives, make your voices heard on this issue.

Above all else, let this be a wake-up call—as if we needed any more wake-up calls—to the realization that elections matter; that seeking change for the sake of change has consequences; and that ceding power to those who see no danger in the accumulation and exercise of power in a centralized authority will ultimately lead to the loss of the liberties we cherish. If a Congressman’s First Amendment right to political speech can be censored, whose speech, and whose liberty is safe? Republicans, we must unite, we must expand, we must organize, and we must win in the next elections—there is no alternative to taking back our country!

Listen to this distress call, and act!