Not to be outdone by anyone else in his quest for media attention, Del. Bob Marshall is apparently gearing up to make abortion illegal, in the hopes that President Bush will float a conservative nominee to replace outgoing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
A couple weeks ago, Not Larry Sabato, Inc., posted musings on whether the debate over Justice O'Connor's retirement would affect Virginia's 2005 elections. In general, I do not believe that her retirement and the resulting media siege will affect all that many local races, which have their own individual flavors and dynamics to them. But Marshall is making it clear that he wants abortion to affect at least one race - his own.
The problem with Marshall's proposal to resurrect a law that dates to 1847 is that he makes it a whole lot more painful for anyone outside of the hard-line anti-abortion movement to vote for him. Many of Marshall's Green friends are likely to have one foot out the door at this point. I'm still not willing to throw this thing to Roemmelt, but Marshall sure is trying to make it a whole lot more competitive.
