In my email box this morning: a column from the irrepressible Paul Goldman wondering if Sen. Mark Warner could, if he so desired, be a Senator and Virginia’s governor at the same time:
The latest Washington Post poll indicates Senator Mark Warner would be the prohibitive favorite in the 2013 Governor’s race. Commentators, legal scholars and political activists have thus been debating the pros and cons of whether Mr. Warner would give up his Senate seat to run for Governor again.
But I ask: Why can’t he serve in both offices at the same time?
My legal scholar friends say this is not permitted, pointing to the fact it has never happened in Virginia or anywhere else in the country. They are sure it violates any number of laws and Constitution provisions.
But is that so?
Paul goes on to cite both the U.S. and Virginia constitutions which would appear to make such dual office-holding possible. And hey…Huey Long dd it (briefly) in the 1930s, so why couldn’t Mark?
It’s all an intellectual exercise and Paul writes that there is “No reason to speculate right now.”
Perhaps. But it’s important to remember that Paul’s speculations have a habit of taking on lives of their own.
While I seriously doubt Warner would want to be cast as Virginia’s version of Huey Long, the idea that some Democrats believe he could is quite revealing…about the abject weakness of the potential Democratic field in 2013 and beyond.
In just over three years, Virginia Democrats have gone from phoenix to ashes. They will surely rise again. But if their best and only hope is Mark Warner running for and winning multiple offices, I’m betting on the ashes.
