At the moment, I don't see ANY republican in our state that would be a clear front-runner for Warner's seat, especially if Mark Warner runs as a democrat.
If John Warner retires, we will likely have TWO democrat senators. And worse, if Tom Davis runs for the seat, we'll probably lose his house seat to the democrats as well.
There are plenty of good Republicans around to replace Warner--Jo Ann Davis, Virgil Goode, Tom Davis, Frank Wolf, Bob Goodlatte...or perhaps an outsider such as Frank Beamer.
Maybe we could get that epitome of Democrat virtues to run ~ you know the guy, Jim Moran, the Congressional drunken wifebeating childmolester who accepts campaign financing from AlQaida.