In this installment, candidate Ed Hubbard tells voters what his top three issues are in his quest to be Chair of the Harris County Republican Party.
Growth
Growth by its very definition requires us to be more inclusive. As Reagan reminded us over 30 years ago, you will “not get to be a majority party by searching for groups you won’t associate or work with. If we truly believe in our principles, we should sit down and talk. Talk with anyone, anywhere, at any time if it means talking about the principles of the Republican Party. Conservatism is not a narrow ideology nor is it the exclusive property of conservative activists.”
Inclusion requires two parallel efforts—unity and outreach. Specifically, we must simultaneously 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. Even a gradual increase of 5-10{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the vote in many precincts where we have no presence now could create and sustain a GOP majority in Harris County for the next decade.
To be successful, inclusion also requires that we adapt our message to address issues that are relevant to people’s lives in a metropolitan community. I am not talking about changing or diluting our shared principles, but rather actually applying those principles to solve urban and metropolitan issues, such as crime, infrastructure, education, transportation, and development. As we develop messages that address these issues, we will attract new people whose lives are affected by those issues to our party and its principles.
Modernization
The GOP needs a functioning party apparatus at all levels—local, state, and national—that is ready to go toe-to-toe with the machine that the Democratic Party inherited and expanded from Howard Dean and Barack Obama. The plan I have proposed for the HCRP would do just that, by:
- Incorporating new technologies and strategies to communicate with and mobilize activists and voters, and to support campaigns, over the course of the entire campaign season, during the entire 13-day voting period, and after elections to support our elected officials;
- Re-focusing on recruiting grassroots activists to serve as volunteers, as precinct chairs and block captains, as community representatives, and as candidates for municipal and school-district offices, and then to use this “farm team” to screen and develop new leaders for higher office;
- Incorporating modern management techniques to flatten the organization to empower precinct chairs and speed effective decision-making during the campaign and election season;
- Improving the management of the party, including budgeting, record-keeping and reporting, and fundraising.
Closing the Gaps
One of the reasons Republicans have lost ground locally and nationally since 2004, and continue to be weak in polling, is that we lost credibility with our voters. We must begin to open a dialogue between our elected officials and our party leaders, activists and voters, in order to begin to harmonize the desires of our party with the issues faced by our elected officials on a daily basis in the process of administering their offices. The questions are “how do we open and sustain this dialogue”, and “what is the role of the HCRP in that process”.
The answer to both questions is a process of dialogue that must be layered throughout all of the groups and factions of the party (formally and informally), and the HCRP should be the primary facilitator of the dialogue. The goal must be to improve communication between our elected officials and the organization of the HCRP, and between our elected officials and our activists and voters. We can accomplish this goal by:
- Holding regular meetings to be attended by elected officials and the HCRP leadership to focus on the concerns of both groups; how our elected officials are promoting, and/or can promote Republican policies; and how the HCRP can help our elected officials. The outcome of these meetings would be communicated through a secure intranet to the precinct chairs and club members.
- Sustaining a high-level of interaction between the sub-organizations of the HCRP (which I propose to create) and candidates at all levels. The divisions and groups within the proposed new HCRP organization are designed to support the campaigns of our candidates and elected officials by improving the process of identifying Republican voters, communicating with and mobilizing those voters, and getting those voters to the polls during the 13-day general election.
- Utilizing the Internet and radio to facilitate communication among our activists, candidates and elected officials, and between our party leaders and the public.
- Revising the program of Townhall meetings and the plan for the “Roots” initiative started by the current team at Richmond Avenue to focus primarily on building a dialogue and relationship between our elected officials (and candidates) and the public. I would use these meetings to promote the current work of our elected officials, by letting them discuss their offices and their ideas, and by giving them a forum to address the public’s concerns.