MARK WARNER PRESS CONFERENCE

* Mark Warner was focused on "paying tribute to John Warner".

* Mark "admired how John approached issues and put the interest of the Commonwealth ahead of party" and added that as Governor, John was a "great partner".

* Mark added that he would "make his announcement in the next week" and hinted that he had already made a decision but as he said "My bumper sticker in 1996 was MarkNotJohn, today is about JohnNotMark".

*  Mark will be on a major tour campaigning for legislative and local candidates downstate this weekend.

*  Mark went with a light blue shirt, royal blue tie with small light blue stripes and a blue suit with pinstripes on it.  Not a great outfit but fine for TV.  Because of lighting, Mark had his back to the river, which was strange since the background shot would be Maryland- but I'm probably the only one who noticed that.

*  Four reporters showed up including me.  Politico.com, Channel 9, Washington Post and NLS.  If you don't count the internet reporters, Mark had more staff come down for the statement (3) then reporters (2).  More on this later, but the whole "Presidential" part of his campaign (handlers) is going to have to end quick if he wants to keep the local media happy. 

*  In my opinion Mark is the frontrunner for this seat, but there are a lot of very conservative Presidential year only voters in Virginia, especially in Hampton Roads and the Richmond suburbs that may not even know who Mark is.  He is a narrow frontrunner, this will not be a slam dunk.

*  For those of you still speculating, read between the lines:

|||||||||||||||||||||||||Mark Warner for Senate|||||||||||||||||||||||

Comments

Great coverage on both the Warners. Thanks for all the details!

Laura

[asmith]

Good coverage.

You're probably right about the Richmond suburbs, but you need to come down to Hampton Roads.

The middle aged vacationers from NY/NJ/Penn move here when they retire and they're bringing their moderate to liberal politics with them. The older been here's are conservative.

Where's the next House dirty dozen?

NLS,
Is it because of your belief that he needs to lose the "presidential" part of the campaign that you removed the little ad you've had running the last few days saying you supported him for president?

[Dannyboy]

Ben:
Mark Warner is still very popular in Hampton Roads. Even still, you're right about these same people who supported him for Governor (and Kaine, for that matter) voting against the Dem for Pres in 2008. The trick for Warner, obviously, will be keeping himself seperate from the Dem Candidate (aka Hillary) in SWVA and Hampton Roads while using it to his advantage in NoVA. But again, you know this already, don't you? :)

Dear Republican Leader:

With the announcement today that U.S. Senator John Warner is retiring after 29 years of capable leadership, our party must begin the search for a strong new steward for this important post.

We believe the person our party should nominate for this key position must be a solid, reliable conservative.

We must nominate a candidate for the U.S. Senate who has run and won statewide, who can carry every region of the Commonwealth, who understands and is guided by our party's principles, and who has proven courageous enough to stand up for those values that we all share.

We believe our candidate should be someone who has a record of tax cutting, has a record of protecting our 2nd amendment rights, has worked to protect life, has created jobs and economic opportunity, has a record of working to secure our borders, has improved education and who has a clear vision of Virginia's future needs.

We believe the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate should be former Governor Jim Gilmore! And we are asking you to join us in urging Governor Gilmore to seek the nomination of our party for the Senate seat that will be available as a result of Senator Warner's retirement.

Jim Gilmore has won statewide election twice -- carrying Northern Virginia both times against wealthy Northern Virginia opponents who were early favorites.

Jim has also proven he can win in rural Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. He has unquestioned integrity and a record of accomplishments – cutting taxes, hiring 4,000 new teachers, and making major improvements to the state's transportation system.

Jim Gilmore is the son of working class parents who served as a member of U.S. Army counter-intelligence. He has also served Virginia as a crime busting prosecutor and a no-nonsense Attorney General. He has been awarded the Friend of the Taxpayer Award three times by Americans for Tax Reform and he is a nationally recognized authority on homeland security.

And, most important, Jim Gilmore keeps his promises -- to us and to the people of Virginia!

That's why he led our party to its only sweep of all three statewide offices and helped us capture majorities in the General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction.

We hope you will join us in encouraging former Governor Jim Gilmore to become a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. Please call Governor Gilmore's office at 703-888-1751 or email him at jgilmore@virginiapatriot.com and urge him to enter this race because we need his campaign skills, his dedication and his commonsense approach to the important issues facing our country.

Cordially,

Morton C. Blackwell Anne P. Petera
Virginia Republican Virginia Republican
National Committeeman National Committeewoman

[Sean Holihan]

Yes.

Please draft Jim Gilmore against Mark Warner.

Please.

HAHAHAHA, the last time Gilmore won in Northern Virginia was 10 years ago! Hasn't changed since then...

If Jim Gilmore keeps his promises, why can I expect my car tax bill in September?

[Not Boyd Marcus]

I can not believe they have the balls to mention transportation as a Gilmore positive. He and his hand-picked no experience 30 something year old VDOT Commissioner Chippy Somethingorother made a laughing stock out of the highway planning & funding process. And that was before Transportation Secretary Shirley "First Class Only" Ybbara take her taxpayer paid vacation to Europe. Yes, by all means, lets encourage Gilmore to run.

[Jim]

I have been wrong once on here today. I guess i should make it twice. I still think Mark will wait and hope to get the VP nod and if no, run for governor in 2009.

[Doug]

Jim, I just can't see that. Why give the press conference if that's the case? Wouldn't he be off fishing if that were the case?

Course, I got the milk stand wrong... I think...

Didnt know Ben Tribbet was considered a reporter.

[Doug]

Jealous, table for one!

[Arlington Hostage]

Mark Warner is as savvy as they come.

He can go for the Senate seat in 2008, probably have to deal with Sen. Clinton at the top of the ticket, and face sky high turnout - with the prize being a US Senate seat, not exactly a great road to bigger/better things (at least not since 1960).

OR - he can take a seemingly easier path to Gov. in 2009, which could put him on a path to a Prez nomination in 2012 or 2016.

I wouldn't think M. Warner Senate '08 is a foregone conclusion.

[brimur]

I think Mark saw that running for president in the age of the internet, requires a national profile. The Senate is his best option.

[NoVA Scout]

I think that Gilmore nonsense was a plant by Democrats to convince us Republicans to throw in the towel. No question that Warner (M) is a formidable opponent, but the only reason to run Gilmore would be to concede the race while still going through the motions of having an R show up.

[Sam]

Speaking as a Democrat, nothing would make me happier than to have Jim Gilmore run for the Senate...

[Janie Oldham]

Warner's a slam dunk. He's in like Flint, Done deal.

[Doug]

Wow Janie- you surprised me for the first time. Didn't you mean to say he was a pedohile or something?

[phriendlyjaime]

I have always wondered why Janie posts at the times she does.

[Pete in Williamsburg]

As much as I want Gilmore anywhere on a general election ballot, Republicans aren't that self-destructive. I just don't think they'll let him get a nomination.

My prediction is that he will have a respectably big campaign kick-off event and get some decent press. But, he'll only have good fundraising for a quarter or maybe less.

He has a core group that continues to support him and protect him from reality. As soon as he exhausts their efforts and their money, he's going to run into a brick wall of Republicans who are willing to be friendly to him, but want him to accept that there is no political future for him.

[Mitch Cumstein]

Gilmore has a much chance of becoming the next Senator from Virginia as he does of, say, becoming the next President of the United States.

An interesting note in one of the papers - Gilmore's core group can't donate twice to him for federal office, so where his money is going to come from is a big question.

[Not Boyd Marcus]

"He has a core group that continues to support him and protect him from reality. As soon as he exhausts their efforts and their money, he's going to run into a brick wall of Republicans who are willing to be friendly to him, but want him to accept that there is no political future for him." This quote from Pete in Williamsburg is dead on & worth repeating. Gilmore is delusional. Because people are kind & do not laugh in his face, he actually thinks he has more than a chance.

[Interested Observer]

Ben is right on here about Mark Warner - he is clearly the front-runner for US Senator from Virginia, if he chooses to enter the race.

I just paid my car tax bill. Wasn't Gilmore going to get rid of that, but the numbers never added up? Oh yeah. And then Warner came in and cleaned up the mess that Gilmore and Allen had made of the Virginia budget. If I were Warner, I would welcome this sort of comparison.

The reason Warner won in the first place is that people were disappointed in what Gilmore did. And the reason Kaine won after Warner is because they approved of Warner (75% approval rating?) Gilmore hasn't run in Virginia in a decade. As (former) Senator Allen can attest, Virginia has changed a lot in that time.