Mark Warner for governor? It could happen

Mark Warner appears to be giving serious thought to a run for governor in 2013, according to multiple sources.

PilotOnline.com reports that Warner is giving himself a Thanksgiving deadline to make a decision on a possible run.

Several published polls taken in 2012 have Warner as a prohibitive favorite in a race with either Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling or Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Those same polls have both Bolling and Cuccinelli running ahead of the two men now considered to be the frontrunners for the Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination, former Democratic National Committee chair Terry McAuliffe and former one-term Virginia congressman Tom Perriello.

Warner would be up for re-election to the United States Senate in 2014. He was elected to the Senate in 2008 with a landslide victory over another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore.

Warner’s entry into the race would clearly redefine the electoral landscape in Virginia heading into the 2013 season. Barack Obama and Tim Kaine both posted statewide victories for Democrats in Tuesday’s elections, but Obama and Warner similarly won in the Old Dominion in 2008, and a year later, Bob McDonnell joined Bolling and Cuccinelli in a GOP sweep of the three top state offices.