Long Distance Campaigner
By Thomas D. Segel (10/04/04)
One needs not be an investigative reporter to discover there are hundreds and hundreds of public office seekers offering either positive or negative comments about the war in Iraq. Few know anything about the subject they are addressing, other than the information they have gleaned from network news or their local newspaper and television. There is one campaigner, however, who can provide you with more than the latest political talking points. He is running for elective office, but not in the usual manner.
It is more than 7,600 miles from Kingsville, Texas to Iraq, but while campaigning for a seat in the Texas State Legislature, John Hubert finds he is also smack-dab in the middle of the war zone. His wife, Amy, does most of the legwork, carrying the candidate’s message from town to town around a legislative district.
With emails back and forth between his friend and campaign manager Herbert Schueneman, plus countless messages, calls and letters to veterinarian wife Amy, the race for Texas State Representative moves forward. While Herb and Amy serve as his legs and voice, John Hubert addresses issues in his economically and educationally disadvantaged South Texas district. In many ways there are similarities to the land where Hubert is now serving and the tasks he is currently directing. Iraq, like South Texas has an abundance of unfulfilled needs.
Amy speaks of her husband’s desire to enhance education, increase college participation, fight the plaque of poverty, enhance community health, and gain some basic protections for the many uninsured of his region. While she is carrying this message to voters, John Hubert is actually performing similar quality of life enhancing tasks thousands of miles away.
Today, Major John T. Hubert is Team Leader of Team 4, Bravo Company of the 451st Civil Affairs Battalion. His job in Iraq is mainly humanitarian assistance and support for the civil administration. Covering a landmass of 17,800 square miles, his team is responsible for a host of civil affairs projects.
While Democrat opponents in Texas speak of failures, quagmires and dark scenarios when addressing what is taking place in Iraq, this Republican candidate tells the people back home of placing computers in schools and libraries. He tells of classes being conducted concerning the judicial system. Other classes are being conducted to increase literacy. The team has even been involved in creating a Forestry Police Force.
Major Hubert and his tam are currently working on resources to expand water distribution systems in Halabja and Sulaymaniyah. These systems have not been expanded since the early 1970s and must now serve a much larger population.
In the same area the soldiers are…” trying to increase power generation to handle the increased prosperity of the Iraqi people,” says major Hubert. “Sure, they are suffering from blackouts and rationing, but only because anti-Iraqi forces are disrupting lines.” He also points out the Iraqis have become far more prosperous and require more electricity for their enhanced life style. “Their increased prosperity has caused an increase in the purchase of electric heaters, air conditioners, computers, washers, dryers, and refrigerators. Things we take for granted in the U.S.A.
John Hurbert, who in addition to being an attorney and the top felony prosecutor in Kleburg and Kenedy counties, also holds a masters degree in Urban Planning. It is that education he is putting into action in Iraq and wishes to carry over into his legislative district in South Texas. For now, however, he and his soldiers build schools, hospitals and public utilities in an attempt to help a country emerge from the clouds of war.
“Some of the jobs we have done,” says Hubert, “include building an Intensive Care Unit, building a dialysis center, building sewers and walkways in villages, building Democracy Centers, which are like a library but also house their equivalent of the Ag Extension Service.”
What does all of this humanitarian work have to do with campaigning for a legislative office? Well, according to those who know John Hubert, “If he will work that hard for Iraqi people in need, just how much harder do you think he will be working for fellow Texans in the deep southern end of the Lone Star State. At the same time, he is showing the people throughout South Texas that much good is also being accomplished in Iraq.
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