The Virginia Blogosphere's right-wing is abuzz with the news that Del. Chris Saxman (R-Staunton) has formed an exploratory committee and is now seriously contemplating a run at the GOP nomination for John Warner's soon-to-be open U.S. Senate seat. With Jim Gilmore having officially announced his candidacy, this would set up a veritable "old guard vs. new guard" matchup.
The GOP nominee is to be decided by a convention, instead of a primary. This makes Saxman's impending challenge even more interesting.
In an interview with The New Dominion, Sean O'Brien of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership talks about the possibilities of Saxman vs. Gilmore.
“Chris Saxman and Jim Gilmore really appeal to different bases - geographically different and, I think, ideologically different,”
“I think Jim Gilmore has a challenge in that he is well-known - and for some people that’s a negative, and for some people that’s a tremendous positive. Chris Saxman’s challenge, of course, is that he’s not well-known beyond the Shenandoah Valley and the Republican inner circle. It’s a convention - so that makes it a lot easier for him, because it will be a smaller audience that he will be talking to,” O’Brien said.
Saxman also did an interview with Chris Graham for this week's "The New Dominion Show".
Below The Beltway considers this a good thing, as it prevents Gilmore's candidacy from becoming a "coronation".
The upcoming weeks should be very interesting. Considering I'm not a big Gilmore fan, I'm definitely open to the possibility of a different candidate for Senate.
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