U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., has been coy about whether he’ll run for re-election, leaving Democrats pondering potential contingency plans as they try to rebound from a 2010 election in which three incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives were drummed out of office. “I think the Democrats, both nationally and in Virginia, want to know what’s going to happen sooner rather than later,” longtime Virginia political analyst Bob Holsworth said. “The reality is that Democrats at the moment don’t have a deep bench.”
Former Gov. Tim Kaine, now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has been floated as a possible candidate should Webb decide not to run but has indicated that he will stay on to serve his full term at the Democratic National Committee.
Another name that has been mentioned is Tom Perriello, who lost his bid for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in November but has remained popular among the rank-and-file of Virginia Democrats for his amicable, straightforward style.
“I like him a lot, but he’s never won statewide,” state Democratic activist Lowell Feld said of Perriello.
Feld also acknowledged that the political winds likely will be vastly different in 2012 than they were in 2006, when Webb rode a blue surge to beat George Allen by less than 1 percent.
“We had the energy in 2006,” Feld said. “It’s always different the second time around.”
And while Webb hasn’t said much about 2012, Feld, one of the leaders of the “draft Jim Webb” movement during the 2006 election cycle, noted that his last campaign started relatively late.
“In 2006, we didn’t know Webb was going to run until early February,” Feld said.
