Warner adds Callahan endorsement to Chichester

No doubt nearly everyone has seen the TV ad for Mark Warner featuring former Senator John Chichester, a Republican who served the Virginia Senate from 1978 to 2007. (If you haven’t see the ad, check out this post.) The Warner campaign announced this morning that Vincent Callahan, a Republican who retired from the House of Delegates this year after serving since 1967, also endorsed Warner’s candidacy.

I just finished a conference call featuring all three men. While they do not agree on the choice of president – Warner said he is “a strong supporter of Obama” while both Chichester and Callahan support McCain – what was clear from the comments was that these men believe in one thing: putting Virginia first. Both Chichester and Callahan expressed some dismay at the direction of the Republican Party in Virginia is taking, with Callahan commenting that his and Chichester’s support of Warner is “just the tip of an iceberg,” indicating that they believe other Republicans will follow. Chichester chimed in that in his time he has seen a lot of “Virginians for…” groups – Virginians for Holton, Virginians for Robb, etc. – come into being. “Virginia is a centrist state and doesn’t tolerate extremes in either party, ” Chichester said.

One issue that will be central to this campaign is the budget inherited by Warner from Jim Gilmore, the Republican candidate for Senate who preceded him in the governor’s mansion. Gilmore has called what others refer to as a “financial mess” a myth. Callahan didn’t mince words, calling Gilmore’s stance “absurd.” Yes, Gilmore gave them a balanced budget, as required by state law. However, Callahan said that the revenues were erroneous and you “can’t balance a budget with smoke and mirrors.”

Warner said he is anxious to get the campaign underway and compare his record to Gilmore’s. More important to Warner is what will happen going forward in dealing with the issues currently facing the country. Warner said he had a bipartisan approach when he was governor and he wants to take that approach to Washington.

As for speculation that he might run as Obama’s VP, Warner said that he believes that he can be most valuable in the Senate, building a bipartisan coalition. When pressed on the issue, Warner said he “made the decision that I am only going to run for US Senate.” I guess that’s a no 😉