Sen. Webb gets first GOP challenger

A Tea Party candidate has become the first Republican to officially enter the race to challenge Democratic Sen. Jim Webb (Va.).

Jamie Radtke, the chairwoman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots, has filed papers to run in the 2012 Republican primary, the Wall
Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Radtke, who is also the head of the Richmond Tea Party, gained notoriety in Virginia this year for organizing a Tea Party convention in the state capital that drew nearly 3,000 people, according to the Journal.

The Virginia Senate race is expected to be one of the top campaigns of the 2012 cycle, when President Obama will run for reelection. A first-term senator, Webb has not yet said whether or not he will run for reelection. 

The GOP primary could become crowded and will likely feature some Republican heavyweight candidates. Former Sen. George Allen (R), who lost to Webb in 2006, is taking a serious look at running for his old seat.

Allen found himself in trouble during the 2006 campaign for using the racial term “macaca” against a Webb volunteer, leading him to spend much of the past few years out of the limelight.

The race could also test the strength of Obama’s coattails in the Old Dominion, which he won for Democrats for the first time since 1964.

Virginia has tilted Republican, though, since 2008. Voters there elected a GOP governor and attorney general in 2009 and flipped three House seats from Democrat to Republican.