Roll Call: This May Be Tom Davis' Last Term in Congress

By: Lowell
Published On: 2/15/2007 8:59:06 PM

Today's edition of Roll Call has some interesting info on Rep. Tom Davis:

*"Davis said unambiguously that he will run for the Senate in 2008 if five-term Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) decides to retire."

*On the other hand, if John Warner runs, Davis says he "would stand out front and take a bullet for him."

*"...regardless of Warner's decision [Davis] has doubts about seeking an eighth term in the House."

*Davis "has little to no interest in other statewide offices such as the governorship."

*Davis almost retired last year, but decided not to do so because it would have gone to the Democrats ("I think had I left last year, which we contemplated doing, [the seat] would have gone. I don't think there's any way you would have held the seat last year")

*Davis argues that "Republicans' old formula for getting elected - managing losses in Northern Virginia and then making it up with large margins in the rest of the state - is outdated and that his party will continue to lose if it does not accept that."

For the full article, see here, but keep in mind that it's by subscription and therefore behind a "firewall."

Comments



Democrats.. (drmontoya - 2/15/2007 9:56:00 PM)
Get ready for a Dogfight in the "fightin 11th"

:-)

It's not my district, so.. I remain neutral! Good Ol James P. Moran Jr. represents me.



Please, no Gerry Connelly (Chris Guy - 2/15/2007 11:02:24 PM)
If it were up to him George Allen would be cruising Iowa and NH, and the GOP would have control of the Senate.

Kate Hanley, Leslie Byrne, who else we got?



The plan (Kindler - 2/15/2007 11:09:32 PM)
So Davis wanted to wait until...another Davis (a female one perhaps?) was ready to run for his seat.  Then, if Warner doesn't retire, Tom Davis can move on to some corporate lobbyist position and make outrageous sums of money representing cluster bomb manufacturers or something like that. 

I do tend to believe he's not interested in state government.  He's an ambitious guy with bigger fish to fry.



Oh, it'll be Gerry. (varealist - 2/15/2007 11:54:58 PM)
He's salivating; he's going to cruise to re-election this year, and Congress is clearly a place he wants to return to (he spent 10 years as a staff member on the foreign relations committee).


Draft A Challenger to Gerry Now (ixtx - 2/16/2007 10:22:59 AM)
A (real) Democrat can win the 11th. Unless we want to see Gerry cruise through the nomination process, we need to start working now. How does the process work? Is it a primary, caucus, or something else? When will the decision be made? Any ideas for candidates?


Tom Davis told me at the PWC fair last Aug. that he will run for Senate (Tom Counts - 2/16/2007 12:57:37 PM)
I don't think there is any doubt that Tom Davis intends to make this will be his last year in the U.S. House. For starters, when he stopped by our booth at the Prince William County fair last August (wearing my Jim Webb for U.S. Senate, of course), the first thing Tom told me was that he would "never say anything bad about Jim Webb". Then I asked him if there was anything to the rumors that he intends to run for John Warner's Senate seat in 2008 if Warner reire. Davis told me that those "aren't rumors" and confirmed to me that is his intention.

I also mentioned to him that I'd heard that it was becoming more and more difficult for him to have to start campaigning again as soon as he's sworn in after each election, and especially to have to be in a constant state of fundraising. He didn't quite answer me directly, but he did acknowledge that was one of the factorsin his decision.

So, bottom line is that I do believe that he was pushed by the GOP leaders to run one more time because of the fact that they had no other viable candidate and were fearful that Andy Hurst would win in a landslide and carry other Dems. along too.

I also don't think there is any doubt about Gerry will be (I think already is in a way) running for Davis's seat, and that we must recruit a candidate to challenge him in the 2008 Dem. primary. Granted, Gerry has been popular as the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, but Devolites was also popular with her BOD constituents too and with the backing of the Va. GOP plus all of her husband's influence, I think she would beat Gerry.

I have been thinking for months about who should run in the 11th CD Dem. primary in 2008 and I think I've narrowed down my preferences to 2-3 (I'm not sure if the 3rd could win in the general election).

Keep the ideas flowing re a good 2008 candidate - but lets not forget that we still need to get some people elected in 2007. One important goal we need to focus on is beating Devolites this year, which I think would take the Davis family out of the mix since he would then be able to say to the GOP that he needs to focus 100% of his resources on winning the Senate seat - which would certainbly be true if Mark warner decides to run for the U.S. Senate in 2008.

  Tom Counts.

  Honored to be a Jim Webb Democrat.