| Today, Burnt Orange Report lends its name to efforts being made by progressives across the state to draft Representative Rick Noriega into the race to replace Republican Senator John Cornyn in the United States Senate. (Read about others who are supporting the effort at www.draftricknoriega.com.)
We are committed to supporting a primary, and a draft movement for Rep. Rick Noriega is the best way to ensure a Democratic primary race for this year's U.S. Senate seat. We support a primary for a number of reasons, including: - A primary further raises the profile of the TX-Sen race to a national level
- A primary allows an increasingly knowledgeable electorate to learn more about the candidates before the fall of 2008
- A primary quickens the development of an infrastructure of a campaign, ensuring the winner is better prepared to take on Cornyn in November '08
Rep. Noriega is from Houston, and served recently as deputy garrison commander of the KMTC training facility in Kabul, Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He also served as the Laredo Border Sector Commander for Operation Jump Start. During the previous legislative session, Rep. Noriega successfully passed an amendment to the state budget to raise teacher pay as much as the rules allowed. (Read more on Rep. Noriega's background here). Overall, we believe his work and his experience make him an interesting candidate, and one who should be in the race to replace John Cornyn.
As many of you know, Mikal Watts has already entered the race. We have writers at BOR that support Watts, others that don't, and many who are undecided. We would like to stress that endorsing the "Draft Rick Noriega" efforts does not constitute an endorsement of Noriega, or an anti-endorsement of Watts. Rather, it constitutes the endorsement of a primary for the reasons mentioned above.
Above all else, we do not believe John Cornyn should be re-elected to the United States Senate. He is an abominable failure in every sense of the word. Our desire for the primary is not a desire to beat up on fellow Democrats; rather, it is a desire to get the best person in place to stop John Cornyn. To that end, we continue to work with progressives across the state to Stop Cornyn.
In the online community, BOR will continue to provide the most up-to-date information on the TX-Sen race as we work with our peers across the state to elect a Democrat from Texas to the United States Senate. To learn more, visit:
Draft Rick Noriega
Stop Cornyn
Note from K-T: I wanted to add this here to clarify, posts written by BOR are typically those consisting of a consensus of the leading writers and approved by the Editor (Matt). As Publisher, I'm generally advised of these posts but I want to make clear that in all cases involving primaries I recuse myself due to my work for ActBlue. ActBlue helps all Democrats and hopefully those running for Senate in Texas! |
