Can Va.'s Davis Team Divorce Themselves From Politics?

Able to name every member of the House by the time he was in seventh grade, Davis is renowned as a gifted statistician whose brain contains a virtual almanac of political and demographic data. And he has seen for some time that the Republican Party was headed for trouble in Virginia. The GOP lost eight seats and control of the state Senate in Tuesday's election. He has also believed that as a moderate Republican with a long record appealing to both Republican and Democratic voters in rapidly urbanizing and diversifying Northern Virginia, he could play a key role in forging a path for the GOP's future.

And so it was all the more embittering to Davis to watch the Republican State Central Committee last month opt for a convention instead of a primary to nominate its candidate for U.S. Senate. The choice gave a big advantage to conservative former governor James S. Gilmore III, who has more support among the party activists who populate state conventions. Davis viewed it not only as a slap in the face but as political suicide for the party, given how poorly he believes Gilmore's conservatism will play against the pragmatic moderation of the likely Democratic nominee, former governor Mark R. Warner.

"He's clearly disappointed," said Michael W. Thompson, a longtime friend who is president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a center-right think tank based in Virginia.

Thompson believes that Davis chose to throw himself into his wife's reelection campaign not to salvage his own political career but out of love. Others believe it was a little bit of both. Had he helped Devolites Davis to victory, he and she would likely have promoted the win as a huge vindication of his political potency.

Even Thompson conceded: "If he had won it, there would have been all sorts of celebrations." But he added: "Jeannemarie's race was the equivalent of winning the lottery. It was a long shot. Just because she lost it doesn't mean he's a eunuch."

But it does mean both husband and wife are at a crossroads, adapting to an abrupt shift in the balance of their personal relationship. Should they plan for him to try for Senate next time? Should she regroup and try for office again? Should they both ditch it, Tom when his term is up, and make a new and more lucrative life for themselves in the private sector?

"That is the $64,000 question," said Baise, the couple's friend from McLean. "If he truly believes that he cannot achieve his ultimate goal of being U.S. senator, then my money would be on him taking one of these jobs and hanging it up."