Gillespie will challenge Warner, hire Obenshain campaign
manager
January 09, 2014, 09:31 pm
By Cameron Joseph
Former Republican National
Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie has decided to challenge Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and will announce his campaign next week,
two sources close to Gillespie confirm to The Hill.
Gillespie is also close to
finalizing much of his campaign staff
and has selected Chris Leavitt as campaign manager — a young GOP
strategist who most recently ran Republican Mark Obenshain's 2013 race for
attorney general. Obenshain lost the race by fewer than 1,000 votes,
out-performing the rest of the GOP ticket.
Much of the rest of Gillespie's
team will be veterans of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's (R) successful 2009
campaign, on which Gillespie was a senior strategist.
"He is running. It'll be
announced next week," one of the sources said Thursday night.
Gillespie himself wouldn't confirm
or deny that he'd firmly made a decision to run in a brief phone conversation
with The Hill earlier Thursday evening.
"I've been asking folks and
talking to people about advice, that kind of thing. I've got until Feb.
1st," he told The Hill, referencing Virginia's
filing deadline.
When asked if he had been telling
people he was definitely in or not, he again demurred.
"I've been having
conversations with folks. People are asking what my intentions are. I'll let
you know as soon as I'm ready to announce a decision one way or the
other," Gillespie said before ending the call.
The New York Times first reported
Thursday evening that Gillespie was telling Republicans that he had decided to
run
The longtime GOP strategist and
former top advisor to President George W. Bush brings a number of assets to the
race, though Republicans acknowledge he's the underdog against the popular
Warner.
Gillespie is telegenic and folksy,
has long ties to Virginia
races, and will likely raise huge sums for a campaign, closing the spending gap
against the well-funded and personally wealthy Warner, who has $7.1 million in
the bank.
He also has long been a proponent
of comprehensive immigration reform, a stance which could help him woo suburban
voters and the state's fast-growing Hispanic population — though it might hurt
him with the GOP base.
Republicans admit Warner will be
very difficult to beat, though they believe Gillespie gives them a much better
chance than they had thought they would have and President Obama's numbers are
weak in the swing state.
Gillespie's deep Beltway
connections could hurt his ability to contrast himself with Warner, a former governor
who remains popular in the state.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee wasted no time in ripping Gillespie.
"Virginians don’t want to
elect a DC shadow lobbyist like Ed Gillespie who epitomizes the reckless and
irresponsible Republican economic agenda. Gillespie won't work to strengthen Virginia's economy, cut the nation's debt or work to find
common ground in Washington
the way Mark Warner has done, and Virginians know that," DSCC Executive
Director Guy Cecil said in a statement.
Before facing Warner Gillespie
will have to secure the GOP nomination at a June party convention and could
face resistance from some of the movement conservatives who often dominate the
state's GOP conventions, though the two Republicans currently in the race are
little-known and lightly funded.
Mark Warner
Mark
R. Warner is a U.S. Senate
senator, a member of the Council on
Foreign Relations (think tank), and a director at the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank).
Note: George Soros is a member
of the Council on Foreign Relations
(think tank), and the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank).
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