Northern Virginia Congressman Tom Davis told The Examiner he will discuss his political future today during a media breakfast in Washington. But he may not answer the biggest question hanging in the air: will he run for U.S. Senate?
Political observers once viewed Davis as the Republicans’ likely choice to replace John Warner, who is ending his three-decade Senate career next year. When state Republicans decided this month , however, to pick the nominee in a convention instead of a statewide primary open to all voters, the likelihood of a Davis for Senate campaign began to shrink.
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“Only hard-core party activists go to conventions,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington. “They are very hostile to moderates from Northern Virginia like Tom Davis. [Former Gov. Jim Gilmore] would certainly win a convention.”
Davis said he will discuss “the political climate, the Senate race and anything else[reporters] want to talk about” during a breakfast this morning sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
He would not commit to answering whether he will seek the nomination, however, and his aides have previously insisted he will not decide until after Virginia’s legislative elections on Nov. 6 – elections that include his wife’s bid for a second state Senate term.
“I am still going back and forth,” Davis said when asked whether he had made up his mind.
If Davis decides to skip the Senate campaign, he then must decide whether to stay in the Democrat-run House or bolt for a lucrative private-sector job. He could also choose to wait four years and launch a Senate run in 2012 against freshman Democrat Jim Webb.
Davis considers Webb much weaker politically than the Democrats’ 2008 likely Senate candidate – former Gov. Mark Warner, whom polls have shown trouncing Davis and Gilmore in head-to-head contests.
“You’ve got a very vulnerable guy [Webb] sitting there in the other Senate seat right now who may or may not run in four years,” Davis said in a speech last week, according to The Hill newspaper.
