Today’s Washington Post profiles the decision that former Governor Mark Warner is faced with now that Senator John Warner has announced his retirement:
RICHMOND — When former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner abruptly aborted his exploratory campaign for president a year ago, he vowed he had “a lot more campaigns” in him and would one day reemerge onto the political stage.
Sometime this week, Warner (D) could begin the next phase of his political career by announcing whether he plans to run for the U.S. Senate next year or try in 2009 to get back his old job as governor, as Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) prepares to leave office.
For Warner, the decision comes down to whether he wants to try to return to Richmond as one of the most popular governors in Virginia’s recent history or run again for a federal office in which he would have a nationwide platform to talk about fiscal responsibility, ending the war in Iraq and reshaping the nation’s energy policy.
Warner, 52, still says being Virginia governor is “the best job in America” but sounded at times Friday as if he had made up his mind to declare for the Senate.
“I know what still needs to be done at the state level, but there is also an enormous need at the national level to get things fixed,” Warner told reporters after a speech at the University of Virginia, where incumbent Sen. John W. Warner (R) announced Aug. 31 he was retiring. “Whoever the next president is, if you continue to have a Congress caught in gridlock, then the ability to have the kind of transformative change around restoring America’s stature in the world, energy, a national competitiveness plan, is going to disappear.”
Warner said Friday he would make a decision within a week.
This all boils down, I think, to whether Warner has ambitions for national office notwithstanding his aborted run for the 2008 nomination. If he does, then the retirement of John Warner and an open Senate seat present a golden opportunity that could lead to serious consideration for a Vice-Presidential slot, or even a candidacy in his own write in 4-8 years depending on how the 2008 election goes.
If that does happen, one hopes he will do better than the last President from Virginia, whose disastereous impact on world history is still being felt today.
