DJ Says...

Talk about an early start. Ed Hubbard has announced that he will challenge Jared Woodfill for Chair of the Harris County GOP next March.

Houston lawyer Ed Hubbard, one of many unsuccessful Republican judicial candidates in 2008, has started his run for the Harris County Republican Party chairmanship, which will be on the ballot in the March primary.

Good. Woodfill's leadership, such that it is, has resulted in a dwindling Harris County GOP and he must be held accountable for that. His current plan of speaking only to Republican precinct chairs rather than Republican voters will not succeed.

Mr. Hubbard has some very good, positive ideas for rebuilding the party and appears to be willing to work with all of the factions that comprise the party rather than shutting out those with whom he disagrees.

To put it bluntly, the party drifted away from the ideas that united it, and, in doing so, failed to live up to the promise those ideas contained—the promise of creating solutions for all our communities that would lead to a great realignment of voting blocks away from the Democratic Party and to the GOP. This failure came home to roost here in Harris County in 2008, when the Democratic Party finally placed a team on the playing field, while we were still engaged in an intramural scrimmage.

The shame of this battle is that we all agree on far more than we disagree—that’s why we are Republicans. We are all Traditional Republicans to the extent that we want to preserve the institutions that have protected our liberties and our free-market/free trade economic system, while allowing for societal innovation. We are all libertarians to the extent that we believe in a limited role for government, and the economic principles of Hayek and Freidman. We are all social conservatives to the extent that we believe that we must maintain a proper balance between the isolation and chaos caused by promoting unbridled liberty and the tyranny created by regimented conformity to one specific set of customs and traditions, and to the extent we believe that the inalienable right to life includes the lives of both the child and the mother.

He also appears to understand the need to aggressively use social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs to get the positive message of conservative principles out.

Mr. Woodfill has had his chance and failed. Whether it be Mr. Hubbard or another candidate, it should be obvious to everyone that change is needed at the top of the Harris County Republican Party.