My name is Ed Hubbard. I am asking for your vote to be the next Chair of your Harris County Republican Party.
I am running to re-focus our party on its core mission to elect strong Republicans to local office by:
- Offering you a REVOLUTION for our principles, and for our future—not just to have the party “stick by” its principles, but to use those principles to address local issues faced by this state and county, including each of the 34 cities and 24 school districts in Harris County;
- Building a farm-team of activists to serve as precinct chairs, and to run for every local office;
- Unifying our party by re-involving our club members into the volunteer base of our party;
- Growing our party permanently into every precinct and every community;
- Bringing modern get-out-the-vote technology and tactics to the party, which will enable the party to identify, register and mobilize at least 565,000 voters to elect Republicans in Harris County by 2012;
- Bringing sound financial management to our local party, returning those party regulars who no longer contribute to our ranks, and re-establishing our ties to the business community; and
- Not just regaining the ground we lost in 2008, but creating the basis for a sustained political majority in this county as this county grows from 4 million to 8 million people over the next 20 years.
Leadership does matter. That is why, since December, 2008, I have shared with you my ideas for improving the party. I wrote a proposed strategic plan for review and comment. I discussed all of my ideas openly—in public meetings (including during 17 candidate forums during this campaign), on the radio, on TV, in personal conversations, and on the Internet (first, at www.futureofthehcrp.com, and now at www.hubbardforhcrp.com and on Facebook and Twitter). I engaged in this open dialogue, because I believe that the only way we will seize the future is to have an open and vigorous debate now about how we get there—a debate in which we all participate.
However, I have not just talked and written about ideas over these last few months. 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, and its leader has gained a large local, and growing 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 it’s a new 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, and public discussions of its own plan for the future;
- Local and national online and print media, including the Houston Chronicle and Townhall.com have covered and praised our plan to address issues relevant to metropolitan voters;
- I worked with the Houston Tea Party Society and other organizers to identify vacant precincts and recruit new precinct chairs, which lead to the recruitment of many of the 180 new applicants;
- A representative of the Republican National Committee has indicated interest in using elements of our plan for the HCRP for a pilot program to increase Republican presence in urban areas;
- For the first time in almost 15 years, there is a real debate over the future of the party, and a real race for the party chair position;
- I received the first endorsement from the C Club in a party chair race in the club’s 46 year history, which signifies the business community’s desire for our party to regain its political strength;
- In a recent Straw Poll conducted by the Houston Tea Party Society, the voters chose change for the office of Chair over the status quo by a margin of 78{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} to 22{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}, and gave my candidacy a close second place finish—almost 15{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} more than the incumbent; and
- I have obtained the agreement of a core group of leaders—young and old; experienced and novice to the party; business leaders; African-American; and Latino—to serve on a new management team for the HCRP if I win this race, because they know that there is so much to do in so little time, that one person can not do it alone.
If we could accomplish all of this since December, 2008, think about what we can accomplish together over the next 2 years as part of a new HCRP!
Now, you must decide: will we continue to argue over the past, or will we be bold and turn a new page? You must ask yourself the question I asked before I entered this race:
If not now, when?
I am proud of the varied endorsements I’ve received from people who agree that NOW is the time (see http://www.hubbardforhcrp.com/endorsements.html).
If you agree that NOW is the time to revitalize the Harris County Republican Party, I am asking you to vote for me, Ed Hubbard, for Chair of the Harris County Republican Party in the Republican Primary.
WEBSITE: HubbardforHCRP.com
