Watts puts primary marker down as Noriega enters Texas Senate race

Democratic Senate candidate Mikal Watts laid claim to early front-runner status in Texas with a strong first month of fundraising, just as his top competition announced it will launch a campaign this week.

Despite his pledge to spend $10 million of his own money on the campaign, Watts is showing that he isn’t content to rely on his own fortune in his bid to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). He raised more than $1.1 million in the final 30 days of the second quarter, setting a pace generally reserved for incumbents and celebrity candidates.

{mosads}Watts announced the total yesterday, soon after state Rep. Rick Noriega (D) announced he would form an exploratory committee for the race.

Noriega does not have the financial resources of Watts but has been a favorite of the blogosphere and is Hispanic. He recently was the subject of a drafting movement, but declined to enter the race until his wife finished running for Houston City Council.

In the meantime, a peripatetic Watts attended 39 events in the 30 days after he launched his exploratory campaign on June 1. He has also been working to woo Hispanics in South Texas, which observers see as an effort to take a bite out of Noriega’s base of support and avoid a primary.

Noriega has asserted that he is the candidate of the people — a mantle Watts isn’t prepared to cede. The two appear headed for a heated primary.

In a release yesterday, Watts quoted the Latino chairman of Hidalgo County’s Democratic Party, asserting his strength with the valuable demographic.

“Mikal Watts has been to South Texas 15 times during the month of June and there is no one who works harder,” the chairman, Juan Maldonado, said.

Watts’s spokesman called the fundraising effort an “incredible feat,” and Watts said it reflects the support he has garnered so far.

“I’m honored that so many Texans have heard my message and agree with me that we need better leadership in Washington,” Watts said.

The contributions came from more than 800 individuals, with an average contribution of more than $1,000, meaning they were mostly large donors.

Watts raised about as much as incumbents such as Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who are up for reelection in 2008, in about a third of the time. His total even outpaces comedian Al Franken’s (D) first quarter, in which the former “Saturday Night Live” actor and Minnesota Senate candidate raised $1.4 million in 45 days.

Noriega comes into the race with a solid record as Houston Mayor Bill White’s point man handling Hurricane Katrina evacuees at George R. Brown Convention Center, said Larry Hufford, a political science professor at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

Noriega has taken a one-year leave from the National Guard and is expected to move beyond the exploratory phase and fully enter the race.

Hufford said Noriega is a strong campaigner and is also formidable as a Hispanic from Houston, as historically most Hispanic candidates have come out of San Antonio. If he can combine bases of support in Houston, South Texas and Austin, Hufford said, Noriega can be competitive in the primary.

Watts is an attorney from San Antonio, but he grew up and spent much of his life in Corpus Christi, at the southern tip of Texas. His mother is a judge there.

“[Watts] is going to do everything he can to make inroads in the Latino community and make it difficult for Noriega, without money, to expand his base,” Hufford said.

Noriega will file his exploratory committee tomorrow or Thursday and is expected to make a serious fundraising effort, though nothing on the scale of Watts’s money.

Noriega is running his campaign on his experiences on three of the major issues of the day. In addition to spearheading the Katrina relief effort in Houston, he served in Afghanistan and has worked as a commander on the southern border,
focusing on border security.

“More than anything else, it’s about public service and about walking the walk,” Noriega said of his campaign. “It’s about sending people to Washington that don’t just talk about Iraq, immigration and FEMA, but have had to roll their sleeves up and do the work.”

Noriega also took a shot at Watts’s supposed money feat, focusing on Watts’s work as a trial lawyer.

“I think that was to be expected based on his business associates,” Noriega said. “He’s done a lot of referral work as a trial attorney, and so I think that’s just some owe-me’s coming back to him.”

Watts has said he will spend $3.8 million of his own money on the primary and $6.2 million on the general election. His self-funding and fundraising has already put him in lockstep with Cornyn, who is one of the top fundraisers in the Senate.
But a costly Democratic primary could help Cornyn gain ground on Watts in the coming months.

Cornyn is a secondary target for Democrats, who say he is vulnerable by virtue of his low approval rating and support for President Bush. Cornyn’s approval rating has consistently been below the 50 percent mark.

“Sen. Cornyn’s sole focus right now is serving the State of Texas and his constituents,” Cornyn spokesman Brian Walsh said. “There will be plenty of time for politics next year when the Democrats choose the nominee from their primary.”