RICHMOND-- Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly isn't running for the U.S. Senate seat fellow Democrat Jim Webb is leaving next year.
Connolly issued a statement Friday ruling out a statewide race next year and imploring Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine to run.
The former Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairman narrowly won a second House term last fall in his Democratic-leaning northern Virginia district.
He was the only one of three Virginia Democratic House freshmen elected in the 2008 Democratic sweep to survive November's GOP sweep.
Friends and advisers to Kaine say they don't expect an announcement from the former governor until he returns early next week from a vacation.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
