That's D'Amore!
By: Lowell
Published On: 2/15/2005 2:00:00 AM
According to Jeff Shapiro in today's Richomnd Times-Dispatch, State Senator H. Russell Potts, Jr. (R-Winchester), has moved one step closer to ruining Jerry Kilgore's year. Potts, who has been seriously considering a run for Virginia governor as a moderate Republican or as an Independent, has now hired Thomas J. D'Amore, Jr., former Chief of Staff to Connecticut's popular ex-Governor and ex-Senator, Independent Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (side question: why are so many of these guys "Juniors?").
In other words, it is sounding like Potts, who the Richmond Times article describes as having "moved to the center, decrying Republican hostility to taxes and emphasis on social issues," is leaning heavily towards a run for Virginia governor. If so, this will represent a serious, moderate Republican challenge to Jerry Kilgore's "flat-earth policy" wing of the party, as Potts calls it. As we discussed a few days ago, Russell Potts could be "This Year's Marshall Coleman", a candidate who "would greatly damage Kilgore," according to UVA political science professor Larry Sabato.
In Thomas J. D'Amore Jr., what Potts is getting is a serious dose of political experience and a track record of proven success. For those of you who aren't familiar with his career, D'Amore's former boss, Lowell Weicker, ranks with Jesse Ventura as one of the few politicians who have ever won statewide office running as an Independent candidate. Like Potts, Weicker was a loyal Republican who grew increasingly unhappy with his party's drift to the far right. In addition, Weicker was angered by the behavior of Republican President Richard Nixon, culminating in the Watergate scandal.
Does any of this sounds familiar? If not perhaps it should, because today we have a Republican Party even further to the right than ever, and a President (Bush) who has divided the country and led us to war on false pretenses. And here comes Russell Potts, a political soulmate of Lowell Weicker's (and Marshall Coleman's), looking like a candidate for Governor in Virginia this year.
For Jerry Kilgore, that is bad news, no two ways about it. But for Russell Potts, and especially for our man, Tim Kaine, "That's D'Amore!"
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