Melissa Noriega: An Awesome Candidate For Houston City Council

I rarely have much to say about city politics anywhere in Texas, be it Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio.

However, Melissa Noriega, who is running in the special election for Place 3 at-large on the Houston City Council (the seat vacated by Shelley Sekula-Gibbs in her run for Tom DeLay’s seat) is one of those progressive candidates that deserves some notice from this blog.

Most of us are familiar with Melissa Noriega because of her tenure in the House of Representatives. She served as a State Representative while her husband, State Rep. Rick Noriega (D-Houston) was in Afghanistan in 2005 and during the Special Session last year.

The field for this special election for the council seat is likely to be a fairly crowded field, but Noriega has the resume, experience and campaign operation to come out on top.

The daughter of an educator and writer, Melissia Noriega has lived most of her life in Houston and graduated with a BS in Psychology from the University of Houston, where she was president of Phi Mu Fraternity, and Vice-President of the Pan-Hellenic Council. She also earned a masters in Education and Counseling from the University of Houston.

A longtime Houston ISD staffer, she has worked in the Education and Research Departments, district administrative offices and Professional Development, and Parent Involvement, Leadership and Community Engagement areas of HISD.

Melissa and Rick married on February 14, 1991, just before more conflict was anticipated in Operation Desert Storm.

In addition to her work in education and as a mother, Melissa Noriega has an impressive resume of community service.

She has been President of the Eastwood Civic Association and has served as part of the Executive Committee of Parents for Public Schools.

There are many good candidates across the state who run for city council and school board every year. However, few stand out like Melissa Noriega does. I can’t wait to hear more from her and about her candidacy.

To keep up with regular Melissa Noriega news, check out Musings, which has good coverage of the campaign.

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