Houston, TX

If you’re part of the vast majority of Houstonians, then shame on you for not voting in last weekend’s City Council runoff election. With less than 3% of registered voters casting ballots, we managed to elect a fine new city councilwoman. And now that one Noriega is safe in an elected position for now, many Texans have turned their attention to her husband, State Rep. Rick Noriega and 2008’s Senate race.

John Cornyn is not the most popular senator - in Texas or in Washington. It’s a rare congressman who gets the honor of having a site like Stop Cornyn show up the year before an election. But the anti-Cornyn sentiment has channeled itself into a positive outlet as well: Draft Rick Noriega. Whether or not Noriega, a fourth-generation Houstonian (impressive!), ends up running, Houston has definitely changed the face of this race already. Burnt Orange Report ran a post on this topic on Monday. Will it be Rick Noriega? What about “influential and ambitious” Bill White?

I’m a fan of both Houston politicians, but I think there’s something to be said against Mayor White opposing John Cornyn next year. Bill White is famous (or infamous) for his business-like management style and his strong executive power. He was Deputy Secretary of Energy under Clinton, Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, and now Mayor of Houston; a legislative position doesn’t exactly suit him, especially when a lot of his interactions with legislatures have been contentious. Also, a 2008 campaign would mean Bill White leaving Houston earlier than he has to, and after all he’s done here and all he has left to do, I’d hate to see that happen. If we want to talk about the 2010 governor race, that’s a whole different story and a whole different post.

PS: The answer to yesterday’s trivia question was the Astrodome.

Rick Noriega, John Cornyn, Election 2008, Bill White