According to today’s Post, Mark Warner announced yesterday that he’s running for Virginia’s now-open Senate seat — via an email to his supporter list. That’s not the first sign that the former tech executive would rely heavily on the Internet: before he bailed on the presidential race late in 2006, his campaign was already noteworthy for an intelligent and innovative approach to the ‘net. For details, see this post-mortem discussion of Warner’s presidential campaign by key members of his online staff, and also this piece on Jerome Armstrong in Personal Democracy Forum. Warner says that he won’t start campaigning in earnest until November, so between now and then, let’s keep an eye on whom he hires for his online staff.
In other election news, check out the multiple hatchet-strikes administered to Ol’ Fred today in the Post op-ed pages. George Will takes a solid swing at him over campaign-finance reform, a particular Will bugaboo, as well as the claims to piety of a man who rarely makes it to church. Bob Novak brings it dirty and nasty (shocker) with the claim that Thompson’s biggest problem is his close advisors — and has Republican political operatives willing to go on record by name to back him up. C.f. David Broder’s generally favorable column on Mitt Romney, and you can see the pundit-industrial complex indicating its collective preference. All bow before it.
– cpd