Obama interviewed Rick Noriega today

[PDittie]

Nobody's talking about what he interviewed for, but my guess is FEMA director.

State Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston, the unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate who served in Afghanistan and on the Mexican border as a Texas Army National Guard officer, met with President-elect Barack Obama today as Obama worked on filling leadership positions in his administration, according to confidential sources.

Democrat Noriega, who lost the Nov. 4 election to Republican incumbent John Cornyn, declined to discuss the meeting in Chicago. Obama's transition team spokesmen also declined to comment.

The meeting appeared to be a potential first step toward consideration of Noriega, 50, for appointment to an administration position, and no specific job was mentioned, said people close to the process who spoke on the condition of not being identified.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6132347.html

This would really raise his stature for another run for statewide office, like Senator or Governor in 2010. (I would MUCH rather see Noriega than Bill White, that's for certain.)

[WolverineDG]

1. That would be great!

I hope he makes Obama's team! :)

dg

[sonias]

2. Wow - that's awesome

Somebody else he should bring up to Washington in some position would be Juan Garcia who just lost his seat in the Texas House. Barack Obama and Juan know each other from college. I hope that Obama can jump start Juan's career again by giving him some D.C. cred. He might make a good DOJ lawyer.

Good luck to Rick and to Juan. Two of our best.

Sonia

[tbyg52]

3. Wonderful news! nt

[Citizen_Penn]

4. Yipee, saw this in today's Chronicle and just smiled!

Rick Noriega did an amazing job for Houston during Katrina, and I would so love to see him get another opportunity to shine.

Few deserve it more.

[crispini]

5. Hey. If they tapped Noriega, who would replace him?

I mean, would Gov. Goodhair get to appoint a replacement, or is there a special election?

[PDittie]

6. His term in the House is expiring

Former Houston city council member Carol Alvarado won his old seat in November.

Charlie Kuffner interviewed her last January:

http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/011009.html

[derby378]

7. Bingo!

Honestly, it seemed like Noriega was really pushing for name recognition in the election, and being appointed to head FEMA will really help him out if he decides to run again for Senate in the future.

Plus, we'll have someone heading FEMA who actually knows something about disaster management for a change.

[Lithos]

8. Cool

This would be really good grooming for future office.

[blogslut]

9. cool

I came to really like Rick. I hope he gets a great appointment.

[tammywammy]

10. That's really great!

[ceile]

11. Wow!

That's great news!!