Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic fundraiser and Clinton family friend, tells the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he is going to run for governor again -- unless Sen. Mark Warner runs.
Then, he says, he'll be the first to endorse Warner.
McAuliffe jumped into the governor's race in 2009, in what became a three-way race for the Democratic nomination. The two other contestants were Sen. Creigh Deeds and Rep. Brian Moran. Moran had spent years building a campaign network, and was considered the frontrunner.
In the three-way race, Moran recevied about 76,000 votes, McAuliffe took about 84,000, and Deeds walked off with 159,000 votes and the nomination.
The low-key -- some would say lackluster -- Deeds went on to get slaughtered by Republican Bob McDonnell.
This election cycle, McAuliffe is the only Democrat publicly talking about running. So what does Warner have to say?
In a meeting with the Daily Press last week, Warner was quite clear that he loved being governor -- the best job he ever had, he said.
He was asked if that meant he was going to run for governor again and if so, when.
Warner said something vague about how "the model would have to be different," then spoke for several minutes about how Virginians all used to know someone from other parts of the state.
When he concluded his somewhat lengthy, wistful monologue, he was then asked what that had to do with him running for governor.
"Nothing really," he admitted. "I was trying to punt on that."
Our conjecture is that the "model" he referred to had to do with how to organize and run a campaign. And it was clear that it wasn't the first time he'd given it thought.
Our suggestion for Terry McAuliffe would be: Don't jump in just yet -- and thanks for trying to flush Warner out of the brush.
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