Mark Warner’s people are worried enough about Eric Cantor that they’ve polled his name as a potential opponent.

Mark Warner has seen public and some internal polling that indicates he is well ahead of both of his prospective Republican challengers, former Gov. Jim Gilmore and Rep. Tom Davis. But Warner’s advisers have also included in some of their polling a third name: Rep. Eric Cantor.

“Cantor does a bit better than either Gilmore of Davis in the southern part of the state,” says one campaign adviser. “But Cantor isn’t getting into this race.”

The Warner campaign is already admitting that Cantor is their strongest opponent — but don’t worry, he isn’t running. (So why poll him then?) Considering that Cantor doesn’t have the name recognition of either Davis or Gilmore, to poll stronger than each of them with more potential for growth is a testament to Cantor’s political appeal.

So why I do keep harping on Cantor when the media is totally focused on Davis or Gilmore? Because we’ll lose if we limit ourselves to the conventional choices or blindly accept the names handed down from on high. I am growing more and more convinced that we need a grassroots recruiting push within the Republican Party that brings new people to the table. No conventional recruiting process could have given us future president Bobby Jindal. And Democrats didn’t find names like Jim Webb, Jon Tester, or Heath Shuler by looking inside the box.

Conservatives are constantly worried about keeping their people in line on legislation. They wouldn’t have to as much if we focused on recruiting the kinds of candidates who were already predisposed to score high on the CFG’s RePORK Card and who can win in their districts. We need to worry about this stuff before people get to Washington, not after.