As expected, former Democratic Governor Mark Warner has announced that he will seek the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Senator John Warner (no relation) in Virginia. Mark Warner will be the favorite to win in 2008. Possible opponents on the Republican side include former Governor Jim Gilmore and current Rep. Tom Davis.

For the past few election cycles, the GOP establishment in Washington has chosen which candidates to support in local congressional races, both primary and general. Incumbents were supported no matter what, and the selection of new candidates was based on who had paid their 'dues' to the GOP rather than who was best suited for the job. Hence, you had the GOP supporting people like the liberal Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee for re-election in the GOP primary rather than staying out until the people chose who they wanted as their nominee. Chafee beat his challenger, Steve Laffey - but would not have without the national GOP's interference and money. The end result of that particular race was the voters in Rhode Island electing a real Democrat to the Senate (Sheldon Whitehouse), rather than re-electing a more liberal candidate who pretended to be a Republican. The same thing happened in Pennsylvania in 2004 in the Specter-Toomey race, although Specter held on to his seat. Since then, he's been one of the Democrats' best friends.

In a new post, Patrick Ruffini brings up the specter of Specter and Chafee in noting that many grassroots Republicans have had it with the old ways. There's a movement to get Rep. Eric Cantor to run in the Republican Senate primary in Virginia based on the fact that he is more representative of the conservative base than either Gilmore or Davis. Ruffini tells us that Warner has even started to poll Cantor, and it seems that Cantor might run stronger against the Democrats than either of the two other candidates mentioned. Will the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot again?