$570,000: Rick Noriega Raises As Much As Casey, Brown, and Webb in COMBINED In The Same Period, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:

Monday, October 1^st, 2007 James Aldrete, 512-751-3448

Noriega Exploratory Campaign to report $570,000

Lt. Col. who served a tour of duty in Afghanistan exceeds benchmark

set by 4 out of 5 of the 2006 winning Democratic Senate challengers in his first federal financial disclosure report

(Houston, TX) — Rick Noriega announced today contributions of $570,000 for the October 15^th FEC financial disclosure report. The report, the first for the State Representative and Lt. Colonel’s exploratory campaign, shows growing momentum for his campaign to unseat incumbent Republican John Cornyn.

“Rick Noriega’s strength is his story,” noted his campaign manager Sue Schechter, referring to his long history of service, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan, playing a leading role in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Houston, commanding troops and serving five terms as a State Representative. “As our very first FEC report makes clear, Rick has the fundraising appeal and a growing network of supporters to ensure we’ll have the resources to communicate his story to the voters.”

Noriega’s fundraising totals put Texas on the map nationally, besting the benchmarks set by 4 out of 5 of the winning Democratic challengers in 2006 Senate races. As the attached chart shows, Noriega’s totals put him ahead of the 2006-October 15^th filings of John Tester (D-MT), Bob Casey (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Jim Webb (D-VA), whose victories last cycle helped secure Democratic control of the US Senate. Noriega’s totals are ahead of all winners except Claire McCaskill (D-MO) who was waging her third statewide race and received much of her support from national donors.

In addition to Noriega’s support from a growing list of the state’s leading Democratic donors, the campaign also raised $158,860 online from over 1,100 donations via ActBlue, the Democratic clearinghouse for online donations. That made the Noriega campaign the most successful non-incumbent Senate candidate on ActBlue during the 3rd quarter. The report also includes a $5,000 contribution from VoteVets.org PAC, the leading political organization of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, as well as a $50,000 loan Noriega made to his own campaign, and nearly 1,300 unique contributors.

“Our fundraising network includes pro-choice women from Dallas, business leaders from the Valley, Democratic icons from across the state, and small dollar donors from a retired woman in Wichita Falls to over 1,100 contributors on the Internet,” Schechter explained.

“We accomplished this milestone in the toughest fundraising quarter, after Col. Noriega served in a grueling legislative session, and lost two weeks of fundraising while he fulfilled his guard duty at Fort Benning, GA,” added Schechter. “We continue to run a lean operation, because we know we’re in this for the long haul,” Schechter continued, referring to aggressive efforts to minimize overhead expenditures. “But one thing is for sure, despite our primary opponent’s efforts to portray himself as the next Daddy Warbucks, more and more Texans are showing they prefer to invest in experience, not just a checkbook.”

Additional details on Rick Noriega’s report will follow mid-week along with a digital copy of the official disclosure.