Warner in '08?

Probably the biggest winner in yesterday's elections was Mark Warner, the outgoing governor of Virginia and he is now being talked up for either spot on the Democratic ticket in 2008. Yet to head the ticket, he'd have to get past Hillary.

My history with Warner is insightful in this regard. In 1996, I was Vice President of the UVA Law Democrats. We had to decide what our involvement was going to be in the 1996 elections in Virginia. We ultimately decided that we would pick one race and really focus on it.

That year, Mark Warner, a relatively unknown businessman from Alexandria, was challenging GOP stalwart John Warner in the Senate race that year. One of the other executive members of the Law Democrats kept insisting that we should get more involved in supporting Warner's campaign. My view of Warner was that his only chance of winning was to pull off a Eddie Murphy-type-Jeff-Johnson-"The Distinguished Gentleman" name recognition snafu and somehow get elected by accident.

Instead, we decided to champion Virgil Goode, a UVA Law grad, who was running for an open House seat.

Well, election night came and I'll be damned if Mark Warner didn't almost beat John Warner. I was completely wrong about him. And five years later he was elected governor, and will leave office with record popularity.

And Virgil Goode?

Yes, he won in 1996. But he switched parties after the impeachment vote and is currently a Republican member of the House of Representatives.

So I've learned not to underestimate Mark Warner.
- posted by Joshua @ 3:10 PM