Senate Dem hopeful: Don't write off ET

By BY WES FERGUSON

Monday, August 18, 2008

TYLER — Some Democratic strategists have written off the parts of East Texas that bleed Republican red, U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega admits.

But Noriega believes his "common-sense" approach to immigration, health care and energy will appeal to people of good conscience, no matter their party affiliation, he said at a Sunday afternoon rally in Tyler.

"We've got to stand up," he said. "We have got to have someone in Washington, D.C., who will fight for the well-being of Texans."

That person is not Republican incumbent John Cornyn, Noriega said. The challenger railed against Cornyn as a "back-bencher and bomb-thrower" who is "out of touch with working families and middle-class Texans across the state."

Standing on a tree stump in dark slacks and cowboy boots, Noriega addressed about 80 supporters at Bergfield Park before heading to a fundraiser in Lindale.

A state representative from Houston, Noriega commanded his hometown's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. He is an active member of the Texas Army National Guard who served a year in Afghanistan and a summer on the Texas-Mexico border in Laredo.

He called plans to build fencing along the border a "political hoax." Instead, he supports increased troops on the border and a process to document and legalize immigrants who are here illegally.

"We have got to find a way to bring them out of the shadows," he said.

He also wants to punish the businesses who hire illegal immigrants.

"They'll go round up a bunch of poor folks trying to feed their families, but their employers don't get dinged," he said of current policies.

He said Cornyn's opposition to a 2007 immigration bill that would have created a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and toughened border security "invokes intolerance and fear to divide us as Texans and as Americans."

Noriega wants to expand insurance coverage for children of working families and lower health care costs for senior citizens.

He also wants Texas to become a leader in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, and he wants to take advantage of the state's vast natural gas resources, which could be used to fuel vehicles, he said.

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