Cornyn Files Candidacy Papers, Prepares To Defend Senate Seat

(AP) — Republican Sen. John Cornyn stepped into election season this weekend, filing his candidacy for Texas’ GOP primary and preparing for what could become a contentious general election battle in 2008.

“There’s a lot at stake, for this generation and others, to make sure that we keep the promises that we have made, the commitments we have made for a better life for all Americans,” Cornyn said, surrounded by a large group of supporters.

He said the United States needs to fix its “broken immigration system,” and he predicted the war in Iraq will be a dominant issue in next year’s election. Cornyn defended the position he has taken backing President Bush on the war.

“I think it’s wrong to say that we ought to just pull the covers over our head and hope the threat goes away,” he said.

Cornyn presented his candidate paperwork for the March 4 primary at the Republican Party of Texas headquarters, alongside Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams. As he introduced Cornyn, Williams inadvertently said Cornyn “now serves us as a member of the United States Supreme Court,” before correcting himself.

“We’re going to give him that one, too,” Williams quipped, chuckling about his mistake.

Cornyn once served on the Texas Supreme Court and was Texas attorney general before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002. He began his career in elected office as a state district judge in Bexar County.

Consultant Larry Kilgore also is running in the Republican primary against Cornyn.

The winner will face the Democratic nominee. State Rep. Rick Noriega and teacher Ray McMurrey are in that race.

Noriega, when he filed his candidacy nearly two weeks ago, pelted Cornyn with criticism, saying he’s a “show horse” who takes one stand in Washington on issues such as immigration and children’s health insurance then comes to Texas for photo opportunities to try to cast himself in a different light.

“I’ve never thought of myself as a show horse,” Cornyn said, responding Saturday to a question about Noriega’s remark. “I think most of my friends and people who know me will say I tend to be more a work horse rather than a show horse.”

Cornyn didn’t dive into any criticism of Noriega. He said he’s concentrating on winning his own party’s primary while the Democrats hold theirs.

“No one is going to be handed those nominations on a platter. We’re going to have to run for them, and there will be plenty of time for me to talk to whoever the Democratic nominee is when they win that primary,” he said. “We’ve all got to earn it.”

Some polls have shown Cornyn to be vulnerable, but he said his own polling shows “we’re doing just fine.”

Cornyn not only has the advantage of incumbency, but he’s the leader in money-raising. As of last month, Cornyn had about $6.6 million in the bank. Noriega, the biggest-name Democrat running, had $510,000.

Cornyn said he favors keeping taxes low and government small. He warned against what he said are the dangers of turning the health care system over the federal government, which he said would make it an expensive and bureaucratic system.

He said he wants to make private health insurance more accessible and portable from job to job.

The immigration system needs fixing, he said, so that and some people don’t jump in line ahead of others who are trying to legally come into the country. He said the rule of law has to be respected.

“That protects all of us regardless of where we come from or how we pronounce our last name,” he said.

As for the Iraq war, Cornyn said Bush’s troop surge plan is working.

“Some of the people who thought that the surge was lost or the war was lost have been proven wrong,” he said. “They voted against our men and women in the military, and that’s always a bad bet.”

He said during his re-election bid he will continue “to point out why our national security depends on eliminating the threat of Islamic extremists and denying them safe havens in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, where they can organize, train, finance their efforts and then export attacks against us here at home.”