Davis: Staying Put?

Those concerned -- or heartened -- that Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., might leave his longtime perch at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to run for the Senate in Virginia next year may need to do some rethinking. The Hill reports that Davis is now hinting he might not enter the race for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican John Warner. Instead, Davis said he theoretically could wait and take on Democratic Sen. James Webb in 2012.

“There are other races; this isn’t the only shot,” Davis said at a breakfast at the National Press Club on Tuesday. “You’ve got a very vulnerable guy sitting there in the other Senate seat right now who may or may not run in four years. And you know what? If you don’t go to the Senate, so what? I’ve been a committee chairman in the House. I’ve got my portrait hanging on a wall. I’ve been pretty productive legislatively.”

One assumes that Davis' thinking on this subject has been influenced by a recent Washington Post poll showing him trailing Mark Warner, the likely Democratic candidate for John Warner's seat, by 30 points.