Somebody at the NYT must have lost their template, or perhaps it was the less careful weekend crew. I had to read three paragraphs into the article to see that he was a Republican. Let's clean this up for them a bit, to meet the NYT's high standards of journalism.
"Republican Michael G. Hubbard (R), the former Republican speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives . . ."
That should do it.
You left out a Republican or two...
"Republican Michael G. Hubbard (R), the former Republican speaker of the Republican Alabama (a Republican run and voting state) House of Representatives . . ."