My Backround, Experiences, and Qualifications
Personal
I am 50 years old, and have lived in and worked in the Houston area since graduating from law school in 1983. I am happily married to my wife Johnnie, who is a seventh-generation Texan. We live in the Taylor Lake Village section of Seabrook, Texas. I have three daughters, one of whom recently graduated from the Guthrie Theater program at the University of Minnesota, and one of whom recently graduated from Clear Lake High School. My little one is in fourth grade at St. Thomas Episcopal School in Nassau Bay, Texas.
I was born in Chicago, Illinois. I grew-up in a small town a few miles north of Peoria. After graduating high school in 1976, I attended Rockford College, a liberal-arts college in Rockford, Illinois, where I earned Magna Cum Laude Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1980. I was active in my community, school and church; played and lettered in sports in high school; and served as the president of the student government in junior high, high school and college.
From Rockford, I moved to Dallas, Texas to attend law school at Southern Methodist University, where I graduated in 1983. After graduation, I moved to Houston, and have practiced law in the Houston area ever since. I have worked for small, medium and large law firms. For five years I managed the day-to-day business of a litigation firm, which had offices in Houston and Dallas. I am a member in good standing of state courts in Texas, Illinois and the District of Columbia, and of federal district and appellate courts here in Texas and around the country. I am a Fellow of the State Bar Foundation.
I was confirmed in the Methodist Church, and I have been a member of St. Paul's United Methodist Church since 1987. In the past I have taught Sunday School and served on the Church Board. In the early 1990s, I also established a mentorship program between the church and MacGregor Elementary School.
Over the years I have been involved in various civic activities. I was a member of the Downtown Kiwanis Club through 1995. I served on the Mentorship Committee of the old Houston Chamber of Commerce, and worked to establish mentorship programs between businesses and schools within HISD. I was a member of the Forum Club of Houston. I established and raised funds for a permanent scholarship at my undergraduate alma mater, Rockford College, in honor of a former president of the college, and raised funds to pay for his official portrait.
From the mid-'90s to 2005, I scaled-back many of my civic (and political) activities to concentrate on my relationship with my daughters from my first marriage, on the health of my parents, on my law practice, and eventually on my second marriage; essentially, family and a living came. After the passing of my father and my eldest daughter's high-school graduation in 2005, and with the blessing of my family, I started getting involved again in community activities and politics.
I currently serve as a trustee on the board of trustees for St. Thomas Episcopal School in Nassau Bay, Texas. I also serve as a director of a charitable scholarship fund, called the Wiki Wiki Fund, which was established in honor of two children killed in automobile accidents, and has provided educational grants, including college scholarships and other educational assistance for qualifying graduates of Friendswood High School. Additionally, I am a member of the Houston Realty Business Coalition.
Political
I have been around politics all my life. In fact, you could say that I am genetically Republican, because I grew-up around GOP politics.
My parents, aunts and uncles served in various capacities with the GOP in Illinois, and nationally over several decades. One of my uncles served on the RNC and was part of the "Dewey team" that shuttled across the Atlantic in 1951 and 1952 to secure Eisenhower's agreement to run as a Republican, while my mother served on Senator Taft's floor team at the 1952 convention. My mother was a state officer of the Illinois Young Republicans, and she worked on the Illinois campaigns for Taft, Eisenhower, Nixon and Goldwater. One of my aunts was a GOP fundraiser for many Illinois officeholders (including Governors Stratton and Ogilvie, and Senators Dirksen and Percy), and she served as a local fundraiser for national GOP campaigns. My mother served as a Republican member of the Peoria County Zoning Board for 20 years. My father worked on several statewide GOP campaigns, created and served as the first head of a civilian police commission for Olympia Fields, Illinois, served on a local public school board in Chillicothe, Illinois, and was made an honorary officer of the Illinois State Police.
I grew-up attending Republican fundraisers and learning about political organizing. I began political volunteer work on my father's school board campaigns. My first work for the GOP began with Reagan's primary campaigns in 1976 and 1980 in Illinois. I also served as an intern on a successful Congressional campaign in 1980 (Lynn Martin's first run for Congress--she later served as Labor Secretary under President G.H.W. Bush) before moving to Texas to attend law school.
Over the 26 years that I've lived in the Houston area, I have worked on individual campaigns for party candidates, contributed to various campaigns, and served as a delegate to Senate District and State Party conventions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I volunteered as a poll worker for the initial statewide judicial campaigns of former Chief Justice Phillips, and later for other judicial candidates. I was a campaign volunteer for former State Representative Joe Nixon's first campaign. In 1994, and again in 1998, I served on a local steering committee of lawyers supporting the election and re-election of Governor George W. Bush. Also, in October, 1998, I was a co-sponsor of the Young Professionals for John Cornyn fundraiser for his election as Attorney General. I've also worked with other attorneys to plan and host judicial fundraisers over the years, including serving as a host for a fundraiser for former District Judge Russell Lloyd. I've financially contributed to various campaigns at the local, state and national level. In the fall of 2007, I volunteered to help the local effort related to the "test-the-waters" effort for a Fred Thompson Presidential campaign. In 1992, and again in 2008, I served as a delegate to my Senate District Conventions, and in 2008 I was an alternate delegate to the State Party Convention.
From September, 2007 through November, 2008, I ran for Place 3 on the First Court of Appeals, which sits in Houston. I first ran against a two-term Republican incumbent because of the poor performance ratings he had received over the years, and because of the party's need to mount a strong campaign against the Democratic Ticket in the fall (and, because I, and others, thought I would make a better judge). I waged a 10-county grassroots campaign and won the primary. During the primary campaign, I promised Republican voters that I would not divide the party, and that I would work tirelessly not just for myself, but for the entire judicial ticket in the fall election. I won all 10 Counties of the appellate district, and I was the only challenger to a judicial incumbent in either party's primary across the entire state to win in 2008.
Because I ran against an incumbent in the primary, for an open seat in a competitive general election against a Democrat with a strong ballot name, and in a final campaign stretch disrupted by Hurricane Ike and a financial meltdown, I had to self-finance half of the six-figure cost of my campaign. However, I was able to raise enough money from third-parties in our community to run a competitive campaign. During this fundraising process, I introduced (and, in some cases, re-introduced) myself to many people in the business and philanthropic community whose help we will need to improve the financial condition of the HCRP over the next few years.
Unfortunately, I lost the fall election by about 1% of the vote out of more than 1.6 million votes cast, though I defeated my Democratic opponent in 9 of the 10 counties (and on Election Day in Harris County). Even though I narrowly lost my race, I kept my promise to Republican voters and campaigned for the entire ticket, and I am proud to say that the other five Republican appellate incumbents won their races, and that my vote total would have defeated all of the other Democratic candidates running for the appellate seats. During that race I developed an excellent relationship with Republicans in all ten counties, including the county chairs of local GOP parties throughout the region.
So, Why Hubbard for HCRP Chair?
Combining my life experience, my years of observing and participating in politics, and my experience over the last two years of running a 10-county primary and general-election campaign, I have learned a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of organizations, and especially of our county party, and about how we can improve the party. Over these years, I've learned how to work with people, how to run a business, how to fundraise, and how campaigns and county parties operate. I've learned what works at the grassroots level of our party and in general elections, and what doesn't work. I also have learned what is needed to improve our party's get-out-the-vote effort throughout the metropolitan area.
As important as these practical experiences are, I also bring to this race a knowledge and appreciation of history, a life-time of studying politics, an ability to assess context, an openness to new strategies and ideas, and a patient and tolerant temperament - all of which will be needed in order to bring people together to make the strategic decisions that will need to be made quickly to rebuild our local party. As an example of my ability to put these qualities to work, I already have drafted a proposed strategic plan, have posted it for public comment, and have openly discussed those comments with Republicans across this county?and across the state.
These experiences are more than the experiences that our current chair brought to this position when he was first elected. I promise to use these varied experiences to rebuild and re-focus our party toward electing Republicans to public office in this county.
