Mike Hubbard in the Parlor, Part Two

In part two of our interview, GOP Chairman and House Minority Leader Mike Hubbard talks about working out disagreements in the Republican family, AEA head Paul Hubbert & the most expensive House race in state history, Campaign 2010, and standing in front of the train.

Part two is below. Part one is here.

I hear people telling me that the legislative leadership on the Republican side is fractured in some ways, that there is some disagreement and frustration. I wonder if you see a path for putting that together? Or is that a mischaracterization?

That would be news to me. I do not see that there is any disagreement and fracturing. Are you talking about in the House caucus?

What I have heard is that some Republicans are upset that the Governor comes with a proposal that they do not know about, have not talked about, and are expected to fall in line. Some people are frustrated that they did not have advance warning or notice of what is about to be proposed, and there was not any discussion on it. For example, on tax cut proposals or teacher pay raise proposal, something like that.

I would say there is always going to be that. We want more communication, and I think there needs to be better communication. I would not say there is any fractured –

“Fractured” may be too strong.

I do not think that we have any major disagreements or have splintering groups and that sort of thing. In our caucus, we are always going to have five or six people that you always worry about whether you can count on them or not. But that is really more of an issue of Paul Hubbert and the AEA than it is with whether they are happy with the Governor or not.

It is kind of like a family situation. You are always going to have some disagreements within your family. Sometimes you are going to be irritated with a person, or wish they had done something differently. But I think when it comes down to it with regard to the Governor, I think the vast majority of Republicans are always going to be on his side because 95% of the time, he is right.

So I think it would be a mischaracterization to say that there is splintering and there are disagreements and there are factions and those things. I do not see that as being the case.

Okay.

And of course, my job as a minority leader is to try to minimize that. It is a tough job to try to keep everybody on the same page. Probably impossible to keep everybody happy.

Right.

But there needs to be better communication, and I have talked to the Governor and the Governor’s staff about that. I think that there has been a real improvement in that, and I think that it is very clear that the Governor understands who his allies are in the legislature.

Matter of fact there was a barbeque recently at the Governor’s mansion for members of the House Republican caucus as a thank you for us working with him and for all we did during the last session.

Good. Some time ago some Republicans had characterized for the Political Parlor the factions. [Here.] Like you said, it is like family. Some people get along with one brother, and somebody will get along with another brother, but you are still family. But they characterized three groups. There is a group that was considered to be the ultimate loyalists to the Governor. The word was that they would fall on the sword if necessary. There was a group that was characterized as bumping heads with the Governor a lot, and then there was a group in the middle, trying to reach both sides. That is some of the dynamic that I have had characterized to me more than once, but I do not mean to overstate the –

Well, that may be true, if you wanted to start separating people into different factions. I think there are some people that go from one to the other, to the other, and back and forth. But at the end of the day, I think we are all family. We are all Republicans because we are like-minded on what we think is important. We are for lesser government, we are for fiscal responsibility and we are social conservatives.

Within that family, I think you have some that are more conservative than others. And for me I think I am kind of right of center, but I am not a far right. But we are all part of the same family. You are always going to have disagreements. I don’t think it is something that is threatening to split the party apart or that somebody does not like the Governor enough to where they are going to go and try to torpedo his programs. I do not think that that is the case at all.

I do not hear it like that, I hear it more in terms of frustration but I do not hear it in terms of –

There is always going to be frustration. Heck, I get frustrated with the Governor sometimes. I am pretty close to him, and I am probably one of the guys that would be categorized as falling on the sword for him. Because I believe in what he is doing, and politically he is my mentor.

I think a lot of him and I think he is the best Governor we have ever had, but I do get frustrated with him at times. And when I do, I go and communicate it with him, and that is what everybody ought to do. My job as a minority leader, which is a tough job by the way, is to try to keep everybody together and try to keep us together as much as possible. Because in the minority we are effective only when we stick together, and the Democrats’ strategy has always been and will continue to be while we are in the minority to divide and conquer. If they can divide us, if they can pick off six or seven Republicans then it renders us pretty ineffective.

But if we stick together, as evidenced by the last day of the session on the million dollars for roads for Phil Poole’s payoff, where we sustained the Governor’s veto, we can be extremely effective. They tried to cloture us three times and did not even come close.

I think we can use that as an example. If we stick together, there is really nothing that we cannot accomplish.

Does it change the dynamic when you have a couple of loyal caucus votes like maybe Greg Albritton and Ray Garner who were replaced with a couple of more moderate folks who were supported by AEA-

Well, now Mac McCutcheon I do not think would be in that category. I think Mac McCutcheon who replaced Ray Garner has been a very solid Republican vote. He has been a great member, but we lose a Greg Albritton and that did hurt. And it has been frustrating and a challenge and that is just something that we are going to have to work with his replacement on.

But you are always going to have different people, and people have different issues that are important to them and issues come and go. And you are never going to have a situation where everybody 100% is in a lock step.

Right.

But there is no doubt that our common opponent is Paul Hubbert, and AEA is the Alabama Democratic Party, make no mistake about it. And so he is our opponent, he funds campaigns against us. He does what he can to try pick off a handful of Republicans, and he has been successful with that in the past. My job is to try to minimize that.

Well, he sure loaded up for you –

Yes, he doesn’t like me, I don’t think.

I wondered if, a few months removed from that, if you have thoughts about that. I would imagine that a campaign like that could generate some really hard feelings.

It is not anything personal. I guess I took it as a compliment. If he thought that much of me to spend a half a million dollars against me in a campaign where I ended up winning by 15, 16 points, I guess it is a compliment.

He obviously does not like anybody who stands up to him, and I guess it is a compliment that I did. And I think he was also trying to send the message to other Republicans. “Look what happens if you cross me. This happens to you.”

But at the end of the day, I won the election pretty easily and people in my district did not buy in to all the stuff that was said. It was not fun going through it, but that is just part of politics.

Something else that I am working on is trying to elect more Republicans. That is my job, and some of the Democrats are angry at me for that or think that I was out of line trying to elect Republicans. I make no apologies for that. That is my job and the Democrats say, “Well, all we are doing is protecting incumbents,” and my response to that is well, “Heck, if you are in the majority, that is all you have to do.” That does not get us anywhere.

Speaking of that, is there a path for Republicans to take one or both of the chambers in 2010? I don’t know about legislative retirements and where the pickings might be on some of the –

We are still a long way from the election, but I will tell you this as the leader of the Republicans and the House, and as the chairman. My job, and I see our job as Republicans, is to do everything we can to try to take over. And to point out to the people of Alabama, who are obviously dissatisfied with the legislature, to just keep in mind the Democrats have been running it for well over a hundred years and maybe it is time for a change. If you like the things that we promote, and you like what the Governor is talking about, just imagine what he could accomplish if he had a friendly legislature to work with.

So yes, my job is to try to take over and I am going to do that, which is a segue into Campaign 2010. That is my big initiative with the party as we have launched Campaign 2010. We will have the public launch and announcement in the next few weeks.

My goal is to have the most aggressive, comprehensive, fund raising plan for the Alabama Republican Party that is well thought out, that is well planned, that is organized, and ultimately is successful in raising the money that we need to have in 2010, to not only take over the legislature but to support Republican candidates down the line.

Now we do not have a revenue stream like the Democrats have with Paul Hubbert where he has taxpayers fund the collection of his PAC dues. We do not have that, and I think it is wrong that that takes place but that is what happens. The taxpayers through the school boards and payroll deduction collect his PAC money for him. [Note: AEA membership is voluntary. Not all teachers participate.] We do not have that, so we have to work harder. But also I do not think that we have to match the Democrats dollar for dollar because we are right on the issues.

I said at the [Red State] Summer dinner we can’t go into a fight against a machete with a pocketknife. My goal is to make sure we have the resources that we need to be effective and to be actually engaged in the campaigns and the elections, not just a supportive bystander which has been the case of the past.

The party basically has never had the resources to do what it needed to do, campaign-wise. It has never been an active participant. They have just been an entity that pats you on the back and says, “Hey, we are here to give you moral support. Good luck.” That is not good enough.

My response, my job and my challenge is to convince people to invest in the Alabama Republican Party and convince them that we are going to be engaged in the campaign process. I have given up on the business community doing it for us. They are not going to do it. Now I am friends with them and we support them. Down the line, Republicans are always the ones to stand in front of the train when it is business versus the union, but then when it comes to election time, the people that we stood in front of the train for, they support the people who ran over us. I am tired of it and I am frustrated with it and I have given up on the business community doing our job. Maybe all along, it should have been that we need to see about ourselves and get the business community to help us when they can, but we cannot depend on them to do it for us.

In Part Three later this week, Rep. Hubbard discusses the House District 12 race, up-and-comers in the party, and the Parlor’s inquiry into his plans for 2010.

Related Articles:

• Mike Hubbard in the Parlor, Part Three
• State GOP Chair Mike Hubbard Visits the Parlor
• Notes from the GOP Red State Summer Dinner
• Denying Poole Payback Has a Price
• Who'd Fall on His Sword for the Governor?