Warner Not Running After All?
Written by YellowJacket on October 12th, 2006According to The Hotline, former Virginia Governor Mark Warner will be issuing a huge announcement today at 11 a.m. Sources say that he is going to announce his decision not to run for President in 2008.
This is very interesting given his popularity in Virginia, which is more or less a red state, despite being a Democrat; one has to suspect that maybe Warner realized his recent cozying-up to DailyKos at the YearlyKos convention this summer wasn’t the best idea for his political future.
With all the posturing and PAC-forming, all the early primary-state-visiting and schmoozing, what has changed Warner’s mind now? Or, a better question: what does he know about the Democratic primary environment in 2008 that we don’t?
Then again, maybe the guy just flat-out doesn’t want to run or has a legitimate personal or family reason. Maybe he’s been pushed to run by close advisors and DNC operatives, but has simply decided that it’s not for him.
I’ll update when I get more information…
UPDATE: He officially bowed out, here are his remarks.
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A few thoughts:
1) Virginia is not red anymore. George Allen’s policies as Governor brought in a lot of tech folks. So did Warner’s. This fundamentally changed the nature of the electorate, greatly increasing the importance of Northern Virginia and making everything else (except perhaps Hampton Roads/Norfolk) fairly unimportant. Virginia is purple trending blue because of some incompetent gubernatorial candidates and a dysfunctional GOP Senate.
2) Warner’s run probably had less to do with DailyKos than the fact he was consistently running at the bottom of the pile. More likely than being president he would’ve been VP. If you’re entire recent adult life has been as a CEO that’s a position you’re not interested in.
3) Clinton. She’s getting tagged with the moderate label in the Democrat Party, taking away one of Warner’s advantages. He’s got less money, too. The only thing left for him is electability.
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Oh yeah, and Warner may want another run at the Governor’s Mansion (in which case he could go up against his predecessor Jim Gilmore) or at the Senate (in which case he could go up against his predecessor JIm Gilmore.)