mark warner, slam dunk.

Mark Warner, Bobby Scott, or Creigh Deeds.

Then....

Leslie Byrne
Bobby Scott

or...for a wild card...

Paul Begala...heh..he does live in Alexandria

=oP

I still think Warner will be the VP on the presidential ticket.

Mark Warner would be the obvious choice.  If he wanted to skip it and run for Governor in 2009, maybe Creigh Deeds, Don Beyer, L.F. Payne (my choice if Warner is out), Leslie Byrne, or maybe Bobby Scott.

I doubt it would happen, but I think Rick Boucher would be hard to beat as a senatorial canidate.

He could win Southwest VA, and kick major butt in NOVA.

But of course we would lose his representation here in the 9th, and a Republican challenger would have a very good shot of replacing him. 

I'm not so sure he'd beat Davis in Nova, who has to be considered the prohibitive favorite to garner the GOP nomination.

Outside of Warner running (he'll shoot for VP or Governor in 09 in my mind), I think we're heading into 08 the slight underdogs to pick up that seat. If Davis gets it, we won't be able to count on huge NOVA margins and we'll need to do much better downstate. I don't think he has any plans on leaving his current job, but I'd love to see Doug Wilder jump into the ring.

Boucher would probably win, but I wanna keep him around here for a while. :)

Doug Wilder would make a great Senator and a great candidate (entertaining too), but he's something like 70 or 75, I believe.

Mark Warner.

If the GOP is smart they'll run Davis to peel of some Dem. NoVA support. 

A smart counter move would be to look outside of NoVA for a credible Dem challenger. 

One growth opportunity that I noticed during the general election was in the 3rd district (under 50% turnout).  If Bobby Scott runs this would likely increase turnout to 50%+ in a strongly Democratic district.  Provided margins don't fall off elsewhere, this would be one strong possibility

Deeds would also be a formidable challenger against Tom Davis.

He has not been a loyal Democrat and I am tired of people having to kiss his ass to get his endorsement. It's gone to his freakin head. That being said he's also too old. I'd say Bobby Scott or Creigh Deeds assuming we can't have Warner.

.... me, Bryan Scrafford.  :):)

On a serious note though, I think Brian Moran would make a good statewide candidate. Although it does appear as though he's making a serious run at getting the nomination for Governor in 2009. If there there remains to be a strong possibility of Warner running for governor again, however, I wouldn't be surprised if Moran were to make a bid for the senate seat.

I think he'd do well.

The guy darn near won the state (320 votes) while being outspent by his opponant 3:1. 

I would love to see this guy elevated.

I'd like to see Creigh Deeds run. He's not my favorite, politics-wise, but we're a big tent party and this is VA. I just don't think he wants the job. I could very well be wrong though, and even if he has his eyes on richmond for now, a senate term would be over just in time to run for governor in 2013, so I can't imagine the US Senate being a bad move for him.

Leslie Byrne would be great! If she's willing to do it, I'd probably be safely in her camp. Women tend to be really good fundraisers, especially for Senate races. One of the main issues is foreign policy, and whether Warner is still around. If Iraq is still a partisan issue, and Warner runs for re-election, I can see that putting Byrne at a disadvantage.

Boucher would be a good pick, although I'm not sure he'd get the base up. I don't know if he's more or less conservative than Deeds, but he's in the same ballpark, and the base loves him. Plus, a lot of us seemed to get excited about Webb in part because they were excited about doing well in red country (not to the exclusion of all the other reasons), so who knows?

One thing's for sure, Boucher has a safe seat in SwoVa, and I can't imagine a Democrat succeeding him any time soon. I know he does a great job for his constituents, and I think he does a great thing for the party by representing Democrats to the district, so I'd rather see someone else as the nominee, but if it were Boucher, I'd still be pretty excited about his chances.

but would Wilder be interested?

If Mark Warner ran, he would be unbeatable, and could hold onto that seat for as long as he pleased. 

But that's a big "if"

Leslie Byrne lost the Lieutenant Governor's race in 2005; she's too liberal for the state.

I have lots of people tell me something similar about Hillary Clinton.  And more than half of them have no answer when asked  on exactly what issue they disagree.

You're right -- so many people just spout what they hear, say, on TV, and have no substance behind their conclusions.

What she is is darn smart.  And Bill is too.

I have a theory that GW Bush is in an intelligence range that makes it easy to succumb to  the "a litle knowledge is a dangeous thing" syndrome. 

50.47% to 49.32% isn't exactly a landslide. Can you really blame that 1.15-point gap on her liberalness? I suppose you can, but when a race is that close there are a thousand things that can be pointed to as "the" reason for it.

Not that I'm saying Byrne ought to be the candidate.

Byrne was meant in jest, right?

-Archie

Creigh Deeds, Bobby Scott or Brian Moran.

All 3 would be slam dunks in NoVa. Not sure if Moran would sell down state though.

Creigh was very strong in the 3rd, 11th, 8th and held his own in the 5th, 10th & 9th district.

Bobby could pull alot of votes from the majority of the 2nd as well as the 5th district.

Weighing these....Creigh is the obvious choice.

shount  jim moran run, and brian moran run for jims seat in congres?????

Personally I want Warner as VP in 08 or Governor in 09.

Deeds is my choice.

Leslie ran a terrible race last year. Half the time I did not even know she was running. Never saw her or heard much about her. Cannot remember any yard signs, etc. Wasn't sure if she really wanted the job or if it was thought her name was all she needed to win.

Leslie Byrne was in Nelson twice at least.  She came to Lovingston that day it was so insanely packed for the breakfast and we had to set tables up on the stage. She was also at the Faber fire station for the primary for that breakfast as were Chap and Viola. Deeds was at Faber that day as well.

She's lost twice already, once to Tom Davis, who is supposedly going to run for the Senate in 2008.  He'd crush her again. How many more times does she need to lose before we get the message?  It's going to be hard to beat Tom Davis because he's so popular in NOVA.  Deeds is probably the best hope, if Mark Warner doesn't want to run.  I'm hoping someone else will rise to the surface if Mark doesn't run.

What do you all think about the idea of Jody Wagner as a statewide candidate?  Do you think she's be viable?

Mark Warner, Jim Webb, and Tim Kaine are the best known democrats statewide.

Tim Kaine's vote against Estate Tax will hurt him.  He cut into his base with that.

Why not Tim Kaine ? He's certainly has statewide name recognition and could carry NOVA. Tom Davis will have a major disadvantage anywhere in the western 3/4 of Virginia because he has virtually no name recognition outside NOVA and has little in his record that SW Virginians can relate to and not much that he can relate to in their area.

To a somewhat lesser extent, but still pretty significant, the Tidewater voters mostly have never heard of Davis or if they have they don't really know what he has done or might do for them.

I don't know if there would have to be a special gubernatorial election to replace Tim until the 2009 election, or if the Lt. Governor would be serve out the last year. But I don't know that it matter a lot anyway if we can win a Dem. majority in the House of Delegates in 2007 - which I really believe we can do.

  Tom Counts,
proud member of Senator-elect Jim  Webb's  Brigade.

or Former AG CandidateCreigh Deeds.

I'm ready to quit my job and travel across the state full time for a Don Beyer candidacy.

Don Beyer is unquestionably the best candidate for the Democrats in the 2008 Senate race.

He knows just as much about Virginia politics as anyone.  If he can win, he would know.  Half-joking/Half-serious

Steve.  Jarding.

Happy turkey day.