What Now? Read On.

Well, as many of you probably know, the resolutions posted yesterday on this website did not reach the floor of last night’s HCRP Executive Meeting. To see a discussion of what happened, and a correct quote by Alan Bernstein, you can go to these links, and to the twitter link embedded in the comments to the second link. http://blogs.chron.com/houstonpolitics/2009/01/no_rebellion_to_quell_at_local_1.html

http://blogs.chron.com/houstonpolitics/2009/01/mutiny_in_the_county_1.html

Before I address the reason for the resolutions failing to reach the floor, I first want to acknowledge what did happen.

Ever since we started disseminating the strategic plan posted on this website back in November, 2008, I have publicly challenged the leadership of the HCRP, including Jared Woodfill, to come forward with an effective plan and to implement it. To underline the importance of our concerns, I challenged the Chairman publicly to either take action or step aside.

Over the last two months we have seen incremental movements, cryptic references to a new plan, and reasons why such a plan should not be made public (even though every candidate for the chairmanship of the RNC has made their plan public for Republicans to review and comment), but we’ve seen no plan. I have repeatedly said that if the leadership presented an effective plan, this team would support it.

Last night, though the leadership said that it would not divulge its plan in public, it spent at least two hours presenting the contours of the plan in excruciatingly long increments. Although I have several questions and concerns about whether the model for this plan, and the plan itself (if ever implemented), will be effective, it does try and address many of the objectives and strategies we have proposed over the last two months. If, after the full plan is presented to the precinct chairs in February and March, it truly encompasses an effective strategy that addresses the core of the objectives we have proposed, I, for one, will keep my pledge to the party and support this plan.

The reasons the resolutions did not reach the floor were threefold: 1. more than 3 hours into the meeting, we had lost many of the precinct chairs who we felt should be engaged in the debate; 2. the contours of the new plan need to be digested before we proceed with the concept of creating a Steering Committee; and 3. there were sufficient questions about the resolution to explore the creation of a removal process for party officers, so we decided that we would not present it as the only resolution. You see, this effort has never been about dividing the party or promoting anyone’s ambition, it has been about strengthening the party. If the current elected leadership is truly headed in that direction, there is no reason at this time to present resolutions that would be construed as divisive.

That does not mean we will stop what we are doing—only that we are suspending our efforts to directly challenge the strategy of the leadership until we understand the details of the plan discussed last night. In the meantime, we will continue to present ideas on this website about how to strengthen the party and to implement the objectives we have discussed since November, organizations like the Houston Group of Rebuild the Party will proceed with their technology training efforts, and organizations like Raging Elephants and Conservador will continue implementing their outreach plans.

After 7 years of dawdling, let’s hope the leadership has truly listened to us. Only time will tell.

Resolution #2 for Jan 27, 2009

Resolution of the Executive Committee of the Harris County Republican Party (“HCRP”) to create a procedure for the removal and replacement of party officials

Whereas, the Harris County Republican Party (“HCRP”) is established by Bylaws last amended as of May 6, 2008, and the Texas Election Code (“TEC”), Section 171.02; and

Whereas, Precinct Chairs and the County Chairman are elected officers of the party; and Senate District Chairs, the Vice-Chairman, the Secretary, the Treasurer, the Legal Counsel, the Parliamentarian, and the Chairmen of the standing committees of the Executive Committee are the “party officers” of the HCRP; and

Whereas, neither the current Bylaws, nor the TEC, provide a procedure for the removal and replacement of party officers, and

Whereas, the HCRP needs to implement appropriate policies and procedures to allow for the removal and replacement of party officers by the Executive Committee under appropriate circumstances in order to assure that the HCRP continues to accomplish its legal and political purpose to advance the interests of Republican voters in Harris County.

Be It Therefore Resolved, we, the Executive Committee, refer to the Rules Committee of the HCRP the responsibility to draft amendments to the Bylaws to provide a procedure for the removal and replacement of party officers who are found to have violated the Bylaws and TEC; to have violated any state or federal law or regulation applicable to those individuals or to the party offices they hold; to have failed to meet the duties and obligations of their offices as set forth in Bylaws, laws or regulations; or to have failed to promote the mission or implement the objectives of the HCRP consistent with the responsibilities of the party offices they hold.

Resolution #1 for Jan 27, 2009

Resolution of the Executive Committee of the Harris County Republican Party (“HCRP”) to create an Ad Hoc Steering Committee to adopt and implement a new strategic plan for the operation of the HCRP

Whereas, the fundamental purpose of the Harris County Republican Party (“HCRP”) is to advance the interests of Republican voters in Harris County by promoting and supporting the election of Republicans to governmental offices; and

Whereas, the Republican base is shrinking in metropolitan areas across the country, including Harris County, along with Republican voter turnout in the general elections of 2006 and 2008; and

Whereas, the basic strategy, technology, and infrastructure of the HCRP for outreach and for getting out the vote needs to be modernized and coordinated with county parties in counties adjacent to Harris County; and

Whereas, in recent years the regular funds raised by the HCRP have not been adequate to cover expenses related to conducting the necessary affairs of the HCRP, including Senate District Conventions, satellite campaign offices, candidate and precinct chair training, campaign support and getting the vote out,; and

Whereas, the HCRP has not recruited, sufficient numbers of candidates for all of the elected government offices in Harris County; nor filled all of the precinct chair positions; and

Whereas, the current leadership has discussed the creation and implementation of a new strategic plan, but, to date, only minimal details have been shared.

Therefore, we, the Executive Committee, vote to establish a Steering Committee composed of 7 people to develop and recommend implementation of a new strategic plan for the party in order to win future elections by reuniting all of the factions with our party and by expanding the base of our party. At a minimum the objectives of the new strategic plan shall be the following:

1. To work with precinct chairs, affiliated clubs within the Republican Party, and associated groups and individuals to coordinate the activities of the Party and to create the structural reforms needed to elect Republicans.

2. To develop positive principles, messages and policies that unite every faction within the Party.

3. To expand the Party into new communities.

4. To introduce our principles, messages and policies to new voters.

5. To recruit and train strong candidates who will share and promote our principles, messages, and policies, and to run them in every race on the local, state, and national levels.

6. To better mobilize the Party by using every available technology (old and new) to win elections within the county, and to coordinate with other county, state, and national party organizations to identify prospective voters, to get them registered, and to get them to the polls during the 13-day election.

7. To raise the money needed to effectively implement the plan and operate the Party machinery without having to unduly pressure lower level candidates as has occurred with the Senate District Conventions.

8. To better coordinate with other county chairs in the region to elect our shared candidates.

9. To work with other county chairs in other major urban counties around the country to develop an "urban plan" to use our principles to address urban issues, for candidate recruitment, and for voter outreach.

10. To work to reform judicial elections in Texas (or at least in urban counties) in order to retain the ability to elect restrained judges while avoiding sweeps.

The Steering Committee shall be constituted by February 15, 2009, and shall then exist indefinitely through the beginning of the 2010 election cycle. By May 2009, the Steering Committee shall develop a new strategic plan, and a re-design of the structure of the HCRP with necessary Bylaw amendments, which will be submitted for review and approval by the Executive Committee as soon as practicable. For the remainder of its term, the Steering Committee shall begin implementing the new strategic plan with the assistance of the County Chair, Senate District Chairs and Headquarters staff.

The Steering Committee membership shall consist of one resident from each of the seven Senate Districts covering Harris County, who voted in the Republican Primary on March 4, 2008. Each prospective member shall be named to the committee by the SD chair for the Senate District in which he or she resides. The Steering Committee, once formed, shall select its chairperson from its membership. The Steering Committee shall work with the next Chairman elected in the March, 2010 primary in a transition period to be determined, at which time the Committee shall disband and the next Chairman shall take full control of, and responsibility for the remaining implementation of the new strategic plan.

The Plan: Urban Policy

Republicans are losing the metropolitan voter (urban and suburban voters)—in Texas and across the country. We can not win elections in Harris County by just relying on policies that address the concerns of rural voters.

As we noted in an earlier post, a recent PowerPoint presentation from the state party shows that Republicans are losing ground where most Texans now live. Of the 254 counties in Texas, Republicans gained votes in 140 counties with 2,438,604 registered voters, while Democrats gained votes in 114 counties with 11,136,458 registered voters. The 50 fastest growing Republican counties in Texas have a total of 637,694 registered voters, while the 50 fastest growing Democratic counties have a total of 8,959,881 registered voters. Indeed, we lost the straight-ticket vote in Harris County to the Democrats in both 2006 and 2008.

This trend also is consistent with the following graph produced by Nate Silver and recently published in Esquire magazine (http://www.esquire.com/print-this/how-obama-won-0209#):

In his new Esquire column, The Data, statistical analysis guru Nate Silver reveals for the first time the secret behind November 4, 2008.



You do the math—if this trend continues, we will not elect Republicans in Harris County and will soon lose our statewide offices.

We need to face reality: too many metropolitan voters do not understand how our principles of individual empowerment, which promote a smaller role for the federal government (federalism), and a limited, yet effective, role for local government, make their lives better.

We need to begin to look at the issues they care about: keeping children in school through high-school graduation; providing children with the knowledge they will need to succeed in college and in the economy; making college affordable; making neighborhoods safe for children and families; keeping men in families and neighborhoods; addressing the cost and availability of health care; making sure housing remains affordable; maintaining a modern infrastructure; maximizing workers’ take-home pay; making sure retirement savings are safe; and making sure good-paying jobs are available.

These are not Democratic issues, it just sounds like they are because we rarely talk about them, except to focus on processes and costs. We need to develop actual policies that address these issues by implementing our principles. We also need to recruit, train and support candidates who will press our agenda on city councils and school boards, as well as legislatures and county boards.

What we are saying is not a pipe-dream. It’s been done by Republican mayors in New York and Los Angeles in the last two decades. It’s being done in young, growing cities, like Boise and Reno. Houston, with its established neighborhoods and business community, and with its growth, has elements of both the old and young cities, and has something they don’t—a natural conservative political base. If we can’t develop an urban policy here, Republicans have little chance of succeeding anywhere else.

The Plan: Message Development

In an earlier blog post, we gave an example of how we could turn one of our platform planks—promoting English as our national language—into a positive message of inclusion. The bottom line for our party going into future elections is that we need to find a way to promote positive messages and policies based on our principles in order to expand the party. We simply can’t continue to be perceived as the party of “no”, especially when we don’t even stick by our decision to say “no”.

In the Action Plan portion of the “Hubbard Plan”, we have tried to grapple with this problem head-on, by proposing a theme of “individual empowerment” to package our message and to differentiate it from the Democrats, who are the party of “government empowerment”.

As we’ve tried to explain, “individual empowerment” is consistent with the value system we share with many communities who are not voting for Republicans right now, because empowering individuals requires promoting policies that empower the relationships through which individuals act—families, neighborhoods, organizations, and businesses. These also are the relationships valued in the Hispanic voters, African-American voters, Asian voters, Indian/Sikh voters. Through this type of message, we run a good chance of getting the attention of members of these communities, so we can re-introduce our principles and policies to them.

As we’ve said earlier, learning English empowers individuals to function in their communities and get good jobs. Also, school vouchers empower individuals and families to get the best education for their children and empowers neighborhoods with competition needed to improve their schools. Demanding higher performance standards for our schools empowers individuals, families and neighborhoods to keep their children in school and to get them the best education possible, and higher performances will help children to grow-up to get better jobs, earn more income and increase the wealth of society. Virtually all of our principles and policies can be explained this way.

Whether the theme is “individual empowerment” or something else, we need to embrace a positive message in order to be successful in our outreach to new voters.

To the HCRP: “Where’s the Plan?”

Our plan has been disseminated in public since late November, 2008. At the time it was written, Republicans across the country had already been thinking and writing about a new strategy for the party for some time, including Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions, and Rebuild the Party.

Moreover, books had been written prior to the last election, which were devoted to ways in which the party could develop new strategies and messages consistent with our principles, including Leslie Sanchez’s Los Republicanos, and Michael J. Gerson’s Heroic Conservatism.

Even after our plan was disseminated, several of the leading contenders for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee floated their own plans and blueprints for re-designing the strategies of the party at the national level, and a new book has appeared entitled, Grand New Party.

So after all this time, with the clock ticking for the next election cycle, we have to ask our current leadership of the HCRP, where is your plan? We’ve heard rumors since the Spring of 2007 that the leadership had a 30-page plan for the future—but where is it? We’ve recently heard that they have a 27-page plan under review—but where is it? After 7 years in office, with all these ideas already floating in public, why won’t the current leadership share its plan with us if they have one? It’s just not that hard!

While we wait for their plan, we will continue to share with you further ideas about how we would implement the objectives of the “Hubbard Plan” for you to consider prior to the upcoming Executive Committee meeting on January 27, 2009.

The Plan: Is it too bureaucratic?

Several comments we received about the plan focused on the proposal to change the structure of the Advisory Board, and to create a mechanism for working with the county chairs in adjacent counties (Objective and Action Item 1, and Objective 8). The primary concern distilled from these comments is that the plan may be too bureaucratic and unmanageable by creating too many new groups with too many people. I understand the concern.

The purpose of changing the structure of the Advisory Board is to open up the governance of the party to all of its factions as part of the effort to reunite the party—not to create an unmanageable committee. Obviously, if we include a representative of every Republican club in the county, we could never get a quorum for the meeting, let alone get anything done. However, we could cap the membership at 15 members by including each Senate District representative (7), and one representative, on an annual rotating basis, from each group of affiliated organizations (e.g., the local Pachyderms Clubs would have one rotating seat, the TFRW Clubs would have four rotating seats based on the four commissioner’s court precincts, and the Young Republicans and other clubs would share a rotating seat). The officers (other than the Chairman) and the Executive Director would be ex-officio members. A board of 15 members is manageable, and the rotating nature of many of the seats would assure the board of new input on an annual basis.

As for the proposed working groups to coordinate with other county parties, this proposal was not intended to create formal committees or structures, so the use of the term “working group” may have been inappropriate. The intent behind the proposal was to recognize the fact that we are part of a metropolitan area that covers several counties; that these counties share state and federal legislative districts, cities and school boards; and that we need better coordination and communication between the counties to help elect our shared candidates. What is intended is really to create a flexible mechanism whereby the county parties share information and resources, help coordinate with candidate recruitment and campaign support, and help with get-out-the-vote efforts for these shared districts. We need to do whatever we legally can do to break-down formalities that inhibit this coordination.