Sabato: GOP can't touch Mark Warner's U.S. Senate seat

So Larry Sabato says Mark Warner is safe in his U.S. Senate seat. The reasons he gives are that Virginia's GOP has gone so far right that

Sabato: GOP can't touch Mark Warner's U.S. Senate seat

Republican Party of Virginia's central committee voted in May to hold a convention for the U.S. Senate candidate in 2014, deep-sixing chances for a viable GOP candidate to run against very popular Democratic Senator Mark Warner.

Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics wrote:

Republicans were always going to have an uphill climb against wealthy Sen. Mark Warner (D) next year, but their chances got even slimmer when they opted to select their nominee via convention next year. Having a convention rather than a primary increases the possibility of the GOP picking an unelectable far-right candidate...

Sabato moved that seat on his chart from "Likely Democratic" to "Safe Democratic." Read his entire Crystal Ball predictions here.