by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
I have no idea what to make of the Harris Miller-Jim Webb primary in Virginia. In many ways, it's the mirror image of the Montana race, where the "fiery populist" (whatever the heck that means) had lots of out-of-state support, but "people who win in Virginia", like most of the Democrats state legislature, tended to support well-financed Harris Miller (except "Mudcat" Saunders, who may be the most important Democratic political operative of the last five years). I tended to think Miller's biography as a rich lobbyist and a party activist wouldn't do him much good, but in mid-2001, Mark Warner was just a rich telco executive and party activist who had a failed Senate bid to his name, so maybe it wouldn't matter. Sponsor a truck in the Craftsman Truck Series, give him a little bluegrass ditty, and he'll do just fine. Miller ran the most generic political ad in the history (viewable on his homepage) pulled straight out of a mid-90s time capsule that Bill Clinton and Mark Penn buried in Alexandria, which certainly turned me off. But all in all, I think each candidate had their strengths; Miller seemed better able to style himself as a "Warner Democrat", Webb as a "Reagan Democrat". Both would have had a reasonable longshot chance against George Allen.
