RICHMOND — (WMAL) Mark Herring hasn’t said he won’t EVER run for Governor. It just won’t be in 2017.

The Virginia Attorney General announced Wednesday he will instead run for a second term in his current job.

Virginia Political Analyst Quentin Kidd with Christopher Newport University believes Herring is finding plenty of skin in the political game in his current role, and that he wants to protect his turf.

“He’s worried that if the [Governor’s] office changes hands to a Republican at the end of his one term, that lot of what he’s accomplished will be undone,” says Kidd.

Kidd also believes Herring wants to avoid dividing the Democratic Party by taking on current Lt. Governor Ralph Northam in the 2017 primary election.

None of this is to say that Herring won’t take a shot at the Governor’s mansion some day.

“If he served eight years as Attorney General and he felt like he had accomplished a lot in those eightt years and people were happy with the job that he had done, don’t see why he couldn’t come back and run in 2021,” says Kidd.

Copyright 2015 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Mark Herring YouTube/ Video Still)