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.

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.

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.

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.

Conservatism in America—What is it, and where does it go from here?

Since I started my campaign for the Chair of the HCRP, I have tried to focus on solutions to problems that are inhibiting our ability to elect Republican candidates locally: a perceived closed culture within our party, which inhibits assimilation of new people and ideas into our organization; a message that is confused and feeds a continuing lack of credibility with voters; a top-down, pyramidal organizational structure that inhibits action and innovation; a failure to grow by establishing permanent relationships in every community; and a lack of competent management.

However, after talking with many Republicans and disaffected conservatives over the last few months, I realize that it will be hard to focus on these issues without addressing the fundamental “Elephant in the Closet” for our party: as the conservative party in this country, how do we define conservatism today, and where do we take conservatism in America from here? Many people want answers to these questions before they will look at the organizational problems facing the GOP locally. To address these questions, I’ve incorporated an idea into our campaign—Renewing the American Community.

Over the next two weeks, I will try and address these issues in a two-part post. This first post will focus on what I believe it means to be a Conservative and Republican in America; and in my second post, I will try to present some ideas about where we take conservatism in America from here.

Part 1—What is American Conservatism, and what is a Republican?

We live in a remarkable, transitional moment, and many of us approach the gravity of this moment with some anxiety. We sense—I believe, correctly—that the cultural, economic, and political world that has developed since the stock-market crash of October, 1929, and that the United States has dominated almost totally, is finally coming to an end; but we have no idea what the new world will look like. The movement of world events seems to point toward a future in which international trade and communication will continue to pull the people of the world into a more cooperative, seamless relationship with each other, though with all the potential for tensions that close proximity creates. It is breaking down old allegiances of individuals to home and nation, just as it is creating new allegiances and localized needs and exacerbating old tribal and religious tensions.

Of course nothing so remarkable really happens in an instant. This process has been unfolding slowly for at least the last 40 years while we enjoyed the continued fruits of American dominance. Although, many of us noted and tried to prevent the worst consequences of this process on the collective character of our society, it is both alarming and frustrating to realize that the pace of the unraveling has accelerated over the last year to a point where it now feels out of our control.

In response to this moment, most of us in America are stuck in a political fight between two old orthodoxies unwilling to confront the future. On the left, the Democratic Party is using this moment not to craft a truly new approach to our future, but to finally implement its “transformative” statist, European-style social order, which it has championed since the 1930s. In fact, it is proceeding so well on this path that Europe has awarded its highest honor—the Nobel Peace Prize—to Obama in recognition of his efforts so far to align our country with the European approach to society.

Meanwhile, the GOP seems adrift in its response—continuing its rhetorical defense of cherished principles that have been the foundation of the American system, but without presenting any ideas of how to make those principles relevant to the future we now face.

Those of us watching this scrum day after day have finally had it, and we want our politicians to listen to us and our concerns, and to act as adults in facing this future. Whichever party breaks out of this old paradigm first will control how the future unfolds, and how this country and our citizens are guided into that future. As a conservative and a life-long Republican, I want the GOP to be that party.

But to be the party of the future, we must understand our mission in American politics—the GOP is the conservative party in America. We must understand what that means before we can create a positive agenda for the future.

I believe that to fully understand a concept, one must delve into, and understand its meaning. So, let’s start with some basic definitions for the words “society” and “conservatism”.

“Society” is defined generally in the American Heritage Dictionary as “the totality of social relationships among humans. A group of humans broadly distinguished from other groups by mutual interests, participation in characteristic relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture.” “Conservatism” is defined as “the inclination to maintain the existing or traditional order; a political philosophy or attitude emphasizing respect for traditional institutions, …and opposition to sudden change in the established order.”

Now let’s put these two definitions together to describe a conservative: a person who respects the traditional institutions and established order that maintain the totality of social relationships among a group of humans, and protects such institutions and order from sudden change.

Notice the emphasis on “sudden change”. The role of a conservative in guiding change in society was described eloquently by Indiana Senator Albert Beveridge just after the turn of the last century:

Conservatism does not mean doubt or indecision. It does not mean wise looks masking vacuity, nor pompous phrase as meaningless as it is solemn. Conservatism means clear common sense, which equally rejects the fanaticism of precedent and the fanaticism of change. It would not have midnight last just because it exists; and yet it knows that dawn comes not in a flash, but gradually…. So the conservative is the real statesman. He brings things to pass in a way that lasts and does good.

Let’s now take our definitions, and Beveridge’s description, and put them together to describe an American Conservative: a person who respects the traditional institutions and established order that maintain the totality of social relationships among Americans, and protects American institutions and order by guiding events and policies in a way that brings to pass positive and lasting change. I believe that the Republican Party always has been the natural home of this American Conservative.

Now that we have our definition of a Republican—an American Conservative—we must understand the “traditional institutions and established order” that are peculiar to America, and which a Republican is devoted to protect and guide. That’s where our story presents a paradox: Republicans are the custodians of the most liberating political ideas, institutions, and order man ever devised; so, our mission is to preserve an exceptional tradition for our posterity.

America may be the child of Europe, but those English and Dutch settlers who arrived here in the early 1600s began an experiment that separated us for all time from the European experience. They came to this continent to form a society based on an independence from a state, a church, or an anointed class of elites; but not on an independence from each other. Instead, they formed communities based on an interdependence with each other grounded on the most cherished principles of liberty and love of neighbor derived from the fundamental ideas of politics and faith they learned from Roman and Greek history, and from the New Testament. When it came time to form governments, they designed governments that would preserve the liberty and private relationships already thriving in these communities. So, while Europeans have shed much blood since 1789 to allow democratic participation in their existing governments, our mission has been to preserve our unique experiment in self-government, and guide it into the future.

It is this unique society, based on the private relationships formed in communities—families, neighborhoods, churches, clubs, etc.—upon which our founders formed state and federal governments “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The Republican Party was formed when the future of this exceptional society was severely tested because of its failures to live-up to its principles. The GOP dedicated itself from its beginning to the preservation of the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the provisions of Constitution, and to the inclusion of all men and women into our unique society of private relationships and communities.

It is this unique society that Republicans are dedicated to preserve and guide into the future, and to protect from any effort to make it more like any other society—European or otherwise. With this as its mission, the GOP is truly the most exceptional political party in the world. To be true to this mission, the GOP at all levels must create a positive agenda of ideas and policies that will preserve our unique societal institutions and order as we enter this new era; and that will preserve the “exceptionalism” of our nation and society as we participate in the more seamless world that is emerging.

What will be the message that will guide the mission of the GOP and American Conservatism as we develop this positive agenda for the future? Basically, that message must be consistent with what it has always been: the promotion of individual empowerment, and of the private relationships that nourish it. This means:

1. We must seek to preserve, enrich and improve the institutions that have protected our liberties, including our families, our neighborhoods, our schools, our civic associations, and our local governments.

2. We must seek to protect the free-market/free trade economic system, which insulates our private decisions and relationships from the control of government.

3. We must seek to enforce the Constitution, its system of federalism, and its embrace of a limited (yet effective) role for government at all levels.

4. We must seek to maintain a strong military and diplomatic defense, for we will continue to be the defensive and moral arsenal for the West for the foreseeable future.

5. We must seek to maintain a proper balance between the isolation and chaos caused by promoting unbridled liberty, and the tyranny created by regimented conformity to one specific set of customs and traditions.

6. We must seek to promote the development of individual character and wisdom each person needs to truly enjoy freedom over the course of a lifetime.

7. We must always acknowledge that the inalienable rights listed in the Declaration of Independence apply to all people at every stage of life.

8. Finally, we must recognize that, if we are to maintain America's unique society, we must find a way to participate in the new emerging world as an equal member, but in a way that does not diminish or subjugate the exceptionalism of America.

In my next post, I will discuss some of the positive ideas that can turn this message into policies for the future.