Lawmaker, veteran sets sights on 2008

2007-07-06

Source: Star-Telegram

A Democratic state lawmaker with military experience in Afghanistan and along the Texas-Mexico border used the Fourth of July to announce his intention to run next year for the U.S. Senate seat held by one of President Bush's staunchest allies in Washington.

State Rep. Rick Noriega, a five-term House member from Houston, accused Republicans of mismanaging national security, endangering the environment and fumbling the effort to overhaul immigration policy. Noriega said he plans to take a leave of absence from his job as an energy company executive and sell off property so he pump cash into exploring a campaign for Senate.

"As Americans, it is our duty to stand up and speak when things have gone off the rails," Noriega, 49, said in an Independence Day posting on several Democratic-leaning Internet blogs. "It is in our very fabric, our soul; it is God's requirement of us as heirs to the legacy of this country, to exercise the right to speak out as our forefathers taught us."

On Monday, Noriega is expected to file the paperwork that will allow him to raise money for the Senate bid. He made no mention of first-term Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is expected to seek re-election next year. Nor did he mention potential Democratic rivals Mikal Watts, a San Antonio lawyer who has pledged to use millions of dollars from his personal fortune to finance his own Senate bid, or Dallas lawyer Emil Reichstadt.

The primary will be March 11.

A lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard, Noriega has been touted as a Senate candidate ever since his unit was deployed to Afghanistan in January 2005. His unit was later part of a border security detail assigned to Laredo.

He cited a litany of errors that he said have caused worldwide esteem for the United States to fall in recent years, including "mismanagement of the war on terror, the acrimony of the national debate on immigration issues, the squandering of the environment, [and] the inability to provide reasonable health care."

"We are losing our global moral leadership," Noriega said.

The deployment to Afghanistan forced Noriega to miss the 2005 legislative session in Austin, but state law allowed him to appoint his wife, Melissa, as his temporary fill-in.

The experience prompted Melissa Noriega to seek office in her own right, and this year she won a seat on the Houston City Council.

Although no Texas Democrat has won a statewide election since 1994, some in the party insist that Cornyn, a former state attorney general, is vulnerable. The most recent SurveyUSA poll found him with a 42 percent approval rating and 43 percent disapproval.

"We in the progressive blogging community believe that Rick Noriega will not only be a great candidate, we also believe he is exactly the right candidate to take on someone like John Cornyn," said Charles Kuffner, who publishes OfftheKuff.com and has been promoting Noriega's candidacy for several months.

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