Williams and O’Brien to challenge for Virginia State Senate

Too Conservative reports that two challengers have emerged for the 2011 State Senate campaigns in the 33rd and 39th Districts – Michael “Spike” Williams and former State Senator Jay O’Brien respectively.

Williams is “a hard working [R]ealtor who owns his own firm. He’s a close ally of FCRC Chairman Anthony Bedell and is currently Hunter Mill District Chair for the FCRC,” according to TC. It’s possible that this sets up a GOP nomination contest between him and Patricia Phillips. The 33rd used to be a Republican seat until former Attorney General Bill Mims vacated the seat to work for then Attorney General Bob McDonnell. The district is currently represented by Sen. Mark Herring (D).

TC also got the scoop that O’Brien is ready for a rematch with freshman Democratic Senator George Barker. Barker beat O’Brien by a mere 151 votes in 2007. I should have known this was in the works when I saw that he had a profile on Facebook. O’Brien was also a member of the House of Delegates (elected in 1991) before being elected to his only term in the Senate in 2003.

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JR Hoeft

Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.