Dem Warner Runs for GOP Virginia Senate Seat

ABC News’ Teddy Davis and Nancy Flores Report: Former Democratic Virginia Gov. Mark Warner announced via YouTube video on Thursday that he plans to "work like heck" to get Virginians to hire him to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican John Warner.

"Six years ago," Warner says in  video, "we brought a bipartisan agenda of change to Virginia. It’s time to bring that same approach to Washington and our nation."

View the video HERE.

Republicans reacted to his entry into the race by launching — www.dontmarkwarner.com — a website which goes after him for backing higher taxes as governor.

"Moderate Democrat or just another tax and spend liberal? You decide" writes John Randall of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in an e-mail to reporters announcing the website’s launch.
Warner’s two most likely opponents are Rep. Tom Davis, a long-time congressman who represents northern Virginia, and former Gov. Jim Gilmore, who ran for president in 2008 before dropping out in July due to insufficient funds.

Warner’s Senate bid is expected to give the Democrats an excellent pick-up opportunity: the higher taxes he backed were used to close the state’s budget deficit and he left office with high approval ratings.

After ending his single term as governor, he actively explored a run for president before announcing in late 2006 that he was passing on the race for family reasons.

Warner’s decision to enter the Senate race will take him out of contention for the number two spot on the Democratic presidential ticket in 2008.

"It would be very difficult for a nominee to go to Sen. [Chuck] Schumer and say, ‘We would like to have one of your best Democratic pickup opportunities leave the Senate race,’" a Warner adviser told ABC News. 

2008 would not be Warner’s first run for the Senate.

In 1996, John Warner — the incumbent Republican senator — beat him by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent.

Mark Warner likes to joke that the "most memorable" part of his ’96 Senate run was the bumper stickers one of his supporters printed up which said: "Mark, not John."

As Warner tells it, "Someone in Southside, Virginia pulled up next to us one day and said: ‘Excuse me, sir, what kind of biblical reference is that?’"