I had pinned my small measure of hope on the fact that I had gotten to know the two men left standing in the race, incumbent Jared Woodfill and challenger Ed Hubbard, quite well over the course of the last year. Both of them are good men with solid core conservative beliefs, as well as men of integrity.
Unfortunately, that integrity is not shared by Mr. Woodfill’s key supporters.
On Thursday last week, at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm club, Ed Hubbard held up a copy of the Link Letter and asked: is this they type of party you want? One in which there are three gatekeepers (referring to the Link Letter, the Texas Conservative Review and Conservative Republicans of Texas)? One in which there is a whiff of pay-to-play?
Rather than be introspective and try to seek understanding, the proprietor of the Link Letter, Terry Lowry, took that as a personal attack.
As such, early on Sunday morning, less than a week after the primary election, Mr. Lowry decided to attack Mr. Hubbard on Facebook, giving us just a glimmer of where this race is going.
First he stated:
It’s one thing to encourage all voters to consider conservative, pro-life, pro-family candidates…but to recruit Pro-abortion, homosexual activists to become leaders in the Harris County Republican Party…not on my watch.
When asked to whom he was referring, he stated:
Ed Hubbard!
Laughable accusations, of course. Mr. Hubbard has not recruited “pro-abortion, homosexual activists” for anything, much less leadership positions in the HCRP. But truth really doesn’t matter to Mr. Lowry, as we have seen in past elections. Mr. Hubbard responded on his website.
Mr. Lowry was encouraged in his efforts by one of Mr. Woodfill’s direct campaign workers, Bill Kneer, and later by his other worker, Richard Dillon. Rather than repeat everything here, you can view their entries on Facebook.
I was unaware of all of this because I was enjoying a wonderful day of worship at church and then a family lunch. When I returned home, I had several emails pointing this out. So I contacted Mr. Woodfill and asked him to please put an end to this. He agreed to call them.
Unfortunately, it is hard to control a loose cannon, although I trust that Mr. Woodfill tried and will continue to try. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, seeing this discord, responded to Mr. Lowry.
Terry, when you refer to your watch are you referring to your stance as an individual or as an appointed representative of the local party? I received your diatribe since you are one of my friends on Facebook, but I believe there are many conservatives who do not share every one of your views or of my views.
Rather than take a hint from Harris County’s top Republican, Mr. Lowry attacked him too:
To Ed Emmett: Is your stated position: if a precinct does not have a republican precinct chair, and a pro-choice/pro-homosexual desires the position, then the leadership should appoint the first willing body to this leadership position, irregardless of their pro-choice and/or pro-homosexual stand?
To which Judge Emmett eloquently responded:
Terry, you offer a false choice. Many very conservative folks are tolerant of homosexuals, not “pro homosexual” as you phrase it. Ronald Reagan openly campaigned for several candidates who differed from him on how to define pro-life. When challenged, he always said he supported the most conservative in a race, not o…ne who agreed completely with him. By the way, he also declined to speak ill of another Republican and did not narrowly define Republican as only those who agree with him all the time. Of course, he was attacked regularly by some for not being “a true conservative.” The voters begged to differ.
Mr. Lowry refused to stop, repeating his question about open precinct chair positions. Judge Emmett had one final reply:
Final comment. Terry, as I posted on your wall, you seem to view anyone who is tolerant as being “pro”. Ronald Reagan could not pass muster by your current standard. I urge you to refrain from name calling and confrontation. We need to build a party that can win in November based on conservative principles, as outlined by Ronald Reagan and many others.
Mr. Lowry wasn’t done yet, finishing with this:
The spirit of the devil wants to divide the Harris County Republican Party. On the left is Ed Hubbard who is supported by pro-choice moderate republicans and libertarians; and on the right is Jared Woodfill. Do not be deceived…a wolf comes in sheep’s clothing. The liberals want to remove the pro-life position for the party. Not on my watch…not without a fight.
It is obvious that Mr. Lowry is feeling much pressure to stop selling his endorsement and is reacting to the possible loss of income. It is also important to remember that in 2008, when Mr. Hubbard was a rookie candidate and a consultant advised him to pay Mr. Lowry $6,000, he received Mr. Lowry’s endorsement. Now that no money was exchanged between the two of them, Mr. Hubbard is suddenly a leftist RINO. Coincidence? No, sadly, it isn’t.
It is also obvious that only one person can stop him and that person is Jared Woodfill. I want to stress that we should not place the blame for the attacks yesterday on Mr. Woodfill in any sense other than during his eight years in office, this is the type of atmosphere that has been allowed to fester in the party. Mr. Woodfill was unaware of and did not orchestrate the attacks yesterday.
As I mentioned, I have gotten to know Mr. Woodfill very well over the past year. The reason I do not support his re-election has nothing to do with his personal character, which I have found to be impeccable. I simply do not think that he has the right set of skills to turn the HCRP around and to lead it forward. But his personal character should not be in question and for Mr. Lowry, Mr. Kneer, and Mr. Dillon to bring his character into question is unacceptable.
Only Mr. Woodfill can stop this. No one else. As Harris County Republicans, we need to see the Jared Woodfill that stood up to Chuck Rosenthal. We need to see that strength of character, to be that man that stands up and says, no more.
Jared, as I asked yesterday, please ask your surrogates to back away from these personal attacks. Not only for the good of the HCRP, but to show the world what a man of integrity looks like. A public statement saying that you do not condone these types of personal attacks would go a long, long way to stopping them.