The 2012 Race Begins, At Least in Virginia

There may be those that are not familiar with this story, but for me this is local.  Five years ago the senator from Virginia was running for re-election and during a stump speech he used the word Maccaca about a supporter of his opponent, who happened to have a video camera with him.  The video made national news and sunk his campaign.  Jim Webb became the junior senator of Virginia and George Allen's promising career seemed to be over. 

Senator Allen was also the governor before becoming our senator. He was much beloved in the state of Virginia and was on the short list for a run for the presidency in 08.  Of course that didn't happen, as he was still considered dead in the water.  Today, George Allen announced his candidacy for the senate.  He will be going up against the same opponent, the now senior Senator Jim Webb.  Webb, was once a Reagan republican, who ran as a moderate.  He has supported much of the Obama agenda.  He disagrees with Obamacare, but voted for anyway.  There are rumors that he may not even run for re-election, 

But, even with all this intrigue this isn't the most interesting part of the story.  Senator Allen once had an employee named Jamie Radtke.  Jamie is the founder of the Richmond Tea Party and is one the main organizers of the states Tea Party organization.  Virginia's Tea Party's are very well organized on a state level.  While they are all individual groups, there are mechanisms in place to organize on a state level for different pieces of legislation and to lobby our Governor.  We also had the first state Tea Party Convention.  Jamie was instrumental in getting this organized and it came off without a noticeable hitch, so needless to say she is well respected within the tea party community in the state. 

Jamie worked for Allen during his time as Governor as well as when he was in the senate.  She is also running for the republican nomination for the senate seat.  It is going to be an interesting nomination process. 

Senator Allen is very well respected in conservative circles (there are detractors of course, but he is mainly well liked) and has the huge advantage of being able to get a big megaphone.  He made his "official" announcement on Hannity, this after being interviewed by Virginia resident Mark Levin.