American Statesman - Noriega, Cornyn Square Off in Senate Debate

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American Statesman - Noriega, Cornyn Square Off in Senate Debate

By W. Gardner Selby
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Democrat Rick Noriega accused Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of consistently voting against the needs of Texas as the two sparred side-by-side for the first time in a debate Thursday night.

Cornyn, seeking his second term, shot back that his opponent was misrepresenting his deeds, at one point suggesting Noriega was turning into a kind of Pinocchio.

Noriega, a Houston state representative, and Cornyn were joined by Libertarian Yvonne Schick while taking about 20 questions in a TV studio.

Noriega said he would have acted differently than Cornyn on issues including immigration, the expansion of children's health insurance access and, most recently, the Wall Street rescue plan that critics have dubbed a taxpayer-unfriendly bailout.

Referring to the $700 billion economic Wall Street rescue plan, Noriega said Cornyn and Congress voted to fix a hole in the roof when the proverbial house was flooding. Noriega said he would have held out for a plan imposing more regulation on Wall Street.

"This decision was made in haste," Noriega said. "There's just not any trust in the system."

Cornyn said he had to act at a time of crisis, though he said he also favors more congressional action.

"It's not a sufficient answer just to stand by and watch the house burn down and take out the entire neighborhood," Cornyn said.

Noriega called "unworkable" Cornyn's proposal to require illegal immigrants in the United States to return to their home countries before applying for re-entry.

"Quite frankly, I am not convinced that Sen. Cornyn really wants to resolve this issue. I think they want to have their cake and eat it too, to have cheap labor that suppresses wages and then to have a very volatile, divisive emotional issue" provoking intolerance and fear, Noriega said.

Cornyn said he has offered ideas in hopes of reaching constructive solutions to problems, "not just to throw angry rhetoric at the problem and contribute to the divisiveness, which has paralyzed Washington to this point."

Asked if Medicare should be opened to all Americans, Noriega said Medicare is "not the problem," and said Cornyn has repeatedly voted against expanding health care for children and favors taxing the middle class for health care.

Cornyn's campaign has said that his votes against expanding an insurance plan for children of the working poor signaled only his preference for a less ambitious expansion. Cornyn has said he does not favor taxing the middle class for health care.

At the debate, Cornyn (whose campaign has said that Medicare could become insolvent) said Medicare needs fresh attention.

"I was looking over to see whether his nose was growing while he was speaking," Cornyn said.

Schick took a strong stance against expanding government in her responses, saying spending should be slashed.

For Noriega, the showdown was a pivotal opportunity to swing directly at the front-running Cornyn, whose strategy has been to distance himself from Congress.

Cornyn, the former Texas attorney general and state Supreme Court justice, won his seat in 2002 partly by stressing his closeness to President Bush.

His campaign started airing soft-spoken TV ads last month in which Cornyn stresses his disappointment with Washington.

In an ad released last week, as Cornyn joined most senators in voting for the plan to make available $700 billion to rescue Wall Street, he says: "It shouldn't have happened. Washington only got to work when the answer was too late and too expensive. We need to hold the guilty parties responsible. It's time to stop the waste and the backroom deals and bring some Texas common sense to Washington."

Noriega, a manager for utility company CenterPoint Energy making his first run for statewide office, has been helped by activists energized by online political blogs. His campaign aired his first TV ad Thursday which, like Cornyn's ads, takes issue with how Washington works.

"Like you," Noriega says to the camera, "I'm fed up with Washington politicians who work day and night to bail out special interests, but ignore Texas families who have lost their homes, their savings and struggle to pay for groceries and gas. ... It's time for a change and a new kind of senator."

Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin responded: "It's very unusual for a candidate to introduce himself with an attack ad. It's a sure sign of desperation."

The two have a second televised debate Oct. 16 in Dallas.

wgselby@statesman.com; 445-3644

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