In an effort to give voters as much information as possible on each of the candidates running for Chair of the Harris County Republican Party, I am providing a continuing forum for answers to different questions. These answers are verbatim from the candidates. No endorsement is either intended or implied for any candidate in the series.

In this installment, Richard Dillon tells voters what Chariman Jared Woodfill's top three issues are in his quest to remain Chair of the Harris County Republican Party.

Outreach

As Harris County Republican Party chairman for the past eight years I have worked to grow the Republican Party in areas that have not traditionally voted Republican.  During this period, we have initiated several outreach programs which we hope to build upon this next year.  We currently have outreach projects in the Hispanic community, the African American community, the Asian community, and projects to grow the next generation of Republicans.  We will expand these initiatives to every demographic group in Harris County, and welcome any who wish to help us with these efforts.

Speaking of outreach, we will be growing the Party in 2010 and beyond by sharing the many values we have in common with every group in Harris County.  For far too long, some Republicans have treated outreach as an incidental activity to other activities such as fund raising and Get Out The Vote.  While these are important, and also crucial to future victories, we need to make similar investments into EVERY community in Harris County.

Community Meetings

However, I do not believe national Republicans have lost elections because our views are too far to the right, or that we need to become “Democrat lite”.  Instead I believe some of our national leaders failed to adhere to those conservative principles which brought us to a majority.  When we stick to the Reaganesque principles of lower taxes, pro-family values, strong national defense, controlled and limited government, personal freedom and personal and fiscal responsibility, protection for the rights of the unborn, and communicate these principles effectively to all groups in Harris County, the Republican Party will reap great results from these investments.

The Town Hall and small group meetings that we have conducted this year have broken all records for attendance.  They have been an opportunity for the citizens of Harris County to share their thoughts with their community leaders, and we hope to continue and expand upon them next year.  We are seeking many venues with which to both share helpful information as well as listen to the voters of Harris County as we seek to communicate those values that are important to our voters.

Communication Technology

We believe that it is important to employ the latest communication technologies in an effort to communicate our message.  We have conducted many Social Network training sessions this past year focusing on Facebook and video-blogging, and will continue to emphasize how these technologies will be used to organize our base and promote our conservative message.   We have other Internet-based initiatives in the works and will be implementing them during 2010 to assist our voters and candidates with their communication.

We look forward to spirited debate during the Primary season, but after the primaries are over, we will be backing those candidates who will go forward to the November elections.  We will need every conservative group in Harris County to join with us in getting behind those candidates to effect change from Harris County to Washington D.C.  Our nation is at a cross roads and there has never been a better time than now to get involved with the Party!