Mark Warner running for John Warner's Senate seat

Mark Warner should be pretty hard for the GOP to beat. He left office as one of Virginia's most popular governors. If former Governor Jim Gilmore if silly enough to run against Mark Warner, I suspect it will be a massacre. Gilmore left office rather unpopular and his would be GOP successor, Mark Earley (a former law partner of mine) went down to defeat, in my view largely because he failed to disavow some of Gilmore's unpopular policies. Here is some of the Virginian Pilot coverage (http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=132386&ran=4033):

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate this morning, giving Democrats a solid chance next year to regain a seat long held by Republicans. In an e-mail to supporters and video on his campaign's new website, Warner said he will run in the 2008 election for the seat Republican Sen. John W. Warner will vacate next year after five terms. The two Warners are not related. No other Democrats have formally announced they would compete with him for the party's nomination.

The announcement starts what could be a high-profile race in Virginia. Two prominent Republicans are considering bids for the Senate next year: former Gov. Jim Gilmore, who preceded Warner in office; and U.S. Rep. Tom Davis of Fairfax County. Warner left the governorship with positive job performance ratings from 75 percent of Virginia voters, according to public opinion polls.

"What I hear over and over again is that people want elected officials to spend more time getting our coutnry fixed and less time on partisan bickering. Actually they're sick to death of the bickering. because our country is at a crossroads," Warner said in the video. "We're dealing with a mismanaged war. Our stature in the world is declining. We have no national competitiveness plan and no thoughtful approach on energy policy that would actually create jobs, make us more secure in the world and that deals with the threat of climate change." "I've decided the way I can contribute most to getting our country back on the right track is to serve in the United States Senate," he said.