Will Tom Davis Have A Key Role in the McDonnell Campaign?

by Bob Holsworth

January 30, 2009

The Weekly Standard, a conservative opinion leader, published a major piece on Bob McDonnell last week. The article confirmed my sense that the McDonnell candidacy is attracting GOP attention nationwide.

Republicans who meet McDonnell from outside the state are invariably impressed. Political insiders tend to make quick and brutally honest assessments of candidates- snap judgments about almost everything, ranging from general intelligence to public speaking skills to camera-friendliness. These are precisely the kind of crucial first impressions that Malcolm Gladwell talks about in bestsellers like Blink.

McDonnell has passed the Blink test with flying colors. Good Man, Good Candidate- that’s quickly becoming the conventional wisdom among Republicans who are looking at Virginia as a possible catalyst for a strong showing in next year’s congressional elections. Maybe he could do it.

Wouldn’t it be great to beat Obama in the home state of the new DNC chair?

Talk about egg on the face.

But no matter how good a Republican candidate is, he or she still has to counter the precipitous decline of the party in Northern Virginia. Obama carried Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun by more than 220,000 votes while winning the entire state by 202,000 votes.

And I found a fascinating clue to how McDonnell might go about this in The Weekly Standard article. The article quotes one Northern Virginia Republican extensively about what wrong for the party and how it might revive its appeal.

Former Congressman Tom Davis.

Let’s take a look at this.

Davis has been one of the most successful GOP vote getters in NOVA for almost two decades. He is also one of the most astute political analysts in the state- his understanding of electoral trends is legendary. He could have made a handsome living in the punditry business.

Thankfully, he has refused to join us in stooping this low and would like to be a statewide office holder, preferably, I think, a U.S. Senator. Yet he can’t get there, in part because conservatives in his own party have erected an electric fence around the nomination gate that zaps anyone who has supported a tax increase in recent memory.

But what if he joins Bill Mims, McDonell’s talented Deputy who also hails from NOVA- in becoming an advisor to the candidate on a northern Virginia strategy.

Davis helps McDonnell try to address the GOP’s critical electoral challenge. In the process, he rebuilds credibility among conservatives who will wield influence over the GOP’s nomination process for the foreseeable future.

And just maybe Davis could obtain the Republican nod to take on Jim Webb in 2012.