Noriega: Inching Toward Senate

After lengthy speculation, Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, is one step closer to entering the 2008 US Senate race – a very small step.

On Tuesday, the five-term rep announced by press release that on Thursday morning he will formally announce in front of the Capitol that he’s filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to set up an exploratory committee to consider a run against US Sen. John Cornyn.

Cornyn is dragging around a 43% disapproval rating, and the heavy stigma of being seen as a loyal Bushy. Noriega looks like a Texas Democrat dream candidate - a Hispanic five-term state rep from a major city with 26 years of military service. He even had to skip the 2005 lege session because he was off running a training facility just outside of Kabul in Afghanistan. He's also run border security operations around Laredo, which will probably head off any allegations from more unscrupulous pundits that he'd be weak on immigration.

With 49 fellow Dems already signing a "Draft Noriega" petition, and a big push in the blogosphere, it seems like the Noriega commitee may just have to start collecting campaign donation checks.

Bizarrely, this could make Noriega the only strong Texas candidate for the US Senate so far. His only fellow Dem confirmed in the race is the virtually unknown San Antonio lawyer Mikal Watts, who has never even held a state-level office. Over with the GOP, Cornyn is seen as an easy target to pick off, and there were consistent rumors in the lege last session (so take 'em for what they're worth) that US Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison might be eyeing coming back to Texas and taking up residence in the Governor's mansion.

For anyone wanting to catch the launch of the Noriega pre-campaign, he'll be at the Heroes of the Alamo memorial on the Capitol grounds this Thursday at 11am. He'll be the one with the supportive family, political allies and the camera crew.