Candidate for Chair Ed Hubbard has been following the precinct applications very closely and reports that:
- 304 incumbents have re-filed for precinct chair. There are 14 races involving these incumbents, with filings by 15 new applicants (one race has two challengers).
- There are 36 occupied seats in which a new applicant has filed, but the incumbent has not. There are 4 contested races between new applicants involving these seats.
- There are 48 previously vacant seats for which new applicants have filed. There are 4 contested races for these seats.
In all, there are filings for 390 seats, with 22 contested races for these seats. There are 109 new applicants.
Now for the bad news–with one day left for filing (Monday, January 4th), there are 108 precincts in which we have incumbents, but no one has filed (and there are still 387 additional precincts where we have no presence).
Why has Mr. Hubbard been paying so much attention to such a low level position? After all, the incumbent, Jared Woodfill, has not used the HCRP email blast platform to boost the numbers (as he has for his own re-election campaign), nor have I seen an effort from the other two challengers to raise awareness, so why should Mr. Hubbard?
Perhaps he will chime in below but I suspect that his answer will be somewhere along the lines of “we need to grow the party and the only way to grow it is to INCREASE the participation at the precinct level”. After all, that has been a very large part of his strategy over the last year. You can read his plan to expand the party here: Ed Hubbard for HCRP Chair: The Plan. The current leadership has given much lip service to adopting many parts of that plan but has seen very little in the way of results because it takes more than just lip service to implement.
Local blogger Cory Crow had this in his list of things that are not going to happen in 2010:
The Harris County Republican Party: “Our plan to increase Republican voters in Harris County starts with….”
Obviously, Mr. Crow is viewing the party in light of its recent history, which is to provide much rhetoric but offer very little in the way of concrete solutions. Fair enough. Will the voters of the party decide that enough is enough and elect new leadership, leadership that will be able to walk in the door on day one and say…”our plan starts with”.
I don’t know the answer to that because voters are motivated by many different factors and at times none of them seem logical to me. But I do know that today starts a campaign season that does offer voters the opportunity to do just that. Three men have stuck their collective necks out, each offering solutions that will pass Mr. Crow’s test. And, as Mr. Hubbard reports, at least 109 new applicants have decided enough is enough.
Remember, the doors are open until 6:00 pm tonight. You still have time to file.
Related posts:
All contested precinct races are here.
UPDATE: The HCRP has announced the time and place for the primary ballot drawing. Click here.
UPDATE 2: View the official Harris County Republican Party Ballot Draw Notice by clicking here .