The Virginia Republican Party took a beating last fall in VA-33, when Bill Mimms stepped down to take the deputy attorney general under Bob McDonnell (R).
Mark Herring beat Dick Black (think Santorum Jr.) soundly.
Now the VAGOP is pulling out the stops, by recruiting ex-NFLer Darrell Green, star cornerback of the 1980's powerhouse Washington Redskins. Is this a desperation move?
It is also interesting that another story was published a day before, having to do with variances that race makes in voting across party lines.
From the Green recruiting article for GOP candidate in VA-33:
GOP Courts Ex-Redskin for Va. Senate Seat
Former Washington Redskins cornerback Darrell R. Green is being urged to run for the state Senate from Loudoun County next year by leading Northern Virginia Republicans who hope he can use his fame on the football field to oust newly elected Democrat Mark R. Herring.
Green, one of the most well-known Redskins from the team's recent golden era, lives in Loudoun and has been running a nonprofit foundation since he left the team three years ago.
The other article, from a day before:
Whites Take Flight on Election Day
...white Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black, says economist Ebonya Washington of Yale University in a forthcoming article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. White independents are similarly inclined to vote for the white Democrat when there's a black Republican running, according to her study of congressional and gubernatorial voting patterns between 1982 and 2000, including five Senate races in which the Republican nominee was black.
It will be interesting to see how the electorate in Northern Virginia reacts to a J.C. Watts-like candidacy. I'm sure George Allen is behind this in a big, big, way. I wonder if football fandom is enough to turn the tide back to (R) for a state senate seat? Mark Herring won the special election and plans on running in the general election this coming November against the Republican's choice, potentially a local sports star.