State Del. Bob Marshall (R-13th) of Manassas announced his second attempt at running for U.S. Senate this past week.

Marshall, who has served in the Virginia state House of Delegates for the last 20 years, is the first GOP primary challenger to former Sen. George Allen (R) with significant name recognition throughout the commonwealth.

Allen is still the front-runner for the nomination due to his own popularity among the Republican electorate in Virginia along with his campaign infrastructure, fundraising and organization.

He led Marshall by 60 percentage points in a poll conducted last March among GOP voters.

What Marshall brings to the table in the GOP race that also includes three other lesser-known candidates is a dedicated grassroots following of social conservatives willing to volunteer their time, money and efforts to Marshall's campaign.

"I already have a 'can do' record of challenging Tim Kaine and winning in the public arena on major economic and social issues, and I can do it again," said Marshall in his press release, referring to the former governor and front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

The 67-year-old consultant is currently serving his 11th two-year term in Richmond. His district includes parts of western Prince William County as well as the City of Manassas Park.

Marshall did not return a phone call seeking comment on Monday but did say in a brief interview last Thursday that he planned on announcing his candidacy "soon."

That came in contrast to his official press announcement on Jan. 16 in which his campaign stated that Marshall's entry confirmed "speculation" that he would enter.

A Hampton Roads-based conservative blog Bearing Drift first reported on Thursday that Marshall was planning to announce his bid on Jan. 13.

When called for comment, Marshall said that the date was inaccurate but confirmed that he was, in fact, running.

He also told reporters in Richmond before a Republican caucus meeting that he would be entering the race.

This came after weeks in which Marshall laid the seeds of his candidacy. He mailed out petitions for voters to sign throughout the commonwealth so he could gain the requisite 10,000 signatures to appear on the June 12 primary ballot.

Marshall needs 400 signatures from each of the 11 congressional districts.

Former Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation chairwoman Jamie Radtke (R) sent a letter to legislative leaders in Richmond asking them to clear up whether signatures would be valid from the old congressional lines or the new congressional lines which, as of press time, had not been signed into law yet.

Radtke joins attorney David McCormick (R) and Exodus Faith Ministries Bishop E.W. Jackson (R) as the other candidates in the GOP field.

Marshall is centering his candidacy on the idea that he is best equipped to defeat Kaine, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, who faces a nominal primary challenge from United States Marine Corps veteran Courtney Lynch (D) and brain injury advocate Julien Modica (D).

Modica briefly ran for Senate in 2008 against former Gov. Mark Warner (D) but dropped his bid.

That fall, Warner went on to defeat former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R) by a nearly two-to-one margin.

Gilmore defeated Marshall in a GOP nominating convention that summer by about one percentage point. Marshall claims to this day that something went on behind-the-scenes that allowed Gilmore to win.

There are two big differences between 2008 and 2012 for Marshall's campaign.

One is that the process for nominating a candidate will be determined in a primary instead of a convention.

That means anyone throughout the commonwealth can vote. Republican conventions are usually dominated by hardcore GOP activists, and those activists generally are more ideologically conservative than the Republican electorate at large.

Such an audience benefits candidates with strong grassroots followings against those considered "establishment" candidates though the "establishment" candidates usually win anyway.

Following up on Gilmore's win in 2008, then-state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R) of Fairfax won a contested race for attorney general at the 2009 Republican convention against two outsider opponents. Cuccinelli went on to defeat former Del. Steve Shannon (D) in the general election and has since moved to Nokesville.

Cuccinelli gave Marshall's nominating speech at the 2008 convention and so far has been neutral in the GOP Senate race.

Marshall and Cuccinelli are ideologically similar to Marshall's campaign chairman, state Sen. Dick Black (R-13th), who represents parts of western Prince William County.

They all support restricting abortion and gay rights, champion anti-tax policies, and believe in a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, especially regarding states' rights.

It was a bill sponsored by Marshall that Cuccinelli used as the basis to challenge the federal health care overhaul in court, which is still playing out.

Cuccinelli voted for a constitutional amendment co-written by Marshall that banned same-sex marriage or any other type of legally-recognized union than that of one man and one woman. It was approved by voters in 2006 over objections of then-Gov. Kaine, as Marshall noted his his press release.

He used that defeat of Kaine as one of several instances in which he has "beat" Kaine statewide, according to his press release. He also cited a 7-0 decision by the Virginia Supreme Court that overturned a key taxing provision of a transportation bill Kaine signed into law that would have allowed non-elected regional authorities to raise and levy taxes.

Despite being made up of elected officials from different localities, those panel members would not have been elected directly to their posts on the regional authorities. That part of HB 3202 was deemed unconstitutional.

Marshall was the only legislator to challenge that law and he used that fact during his campaign against Gilmore, questioning why he did not add a voice to his lawsuit. Marshall can be expected to do the same against Allen this time around.

Meanwhile, Kaine's campaign has has trumpeting Marshall's challenge to reporters for the last two weeks.

The reason is not because they think Marshall would be a weaker general election opponent but because they want Allen to have to spend as much time and money possible fighting for the Republican nomination instead of focusing his efforts strictly on the general election.

By focusing on the general election, Allen is able to engage Kaine directly. Kaine's campaign is hoping that Marshall is able to move Allen to the ideological right on social issues.

Doing so would put-off a large chunk of Democratic voters, possibly helping Kaine gain votes down ballots by Democrats who show up strictly in presidential years. It could also be potentially off-putting to independents who identify as fiscally conservative but socially moderate.

For instance, Marshall told the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill in 2010 that Allen "voted to increase the debt limit" and "voted for hate crimes legislation. That sort of thing will burn the social issue people."

Allen voted to raise the debt ceiling four times and voted to add sexual orientation to the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

The former allows the country to pay its bills. The latter is part of Allen's tough-on-crime mantra (he eliminated parole for felons while serving as governor in the mid-1990s).

Allen has an anti-abortion voting record from his time in the U.S. Senate but has consistently said throughout his career that he supports abortion rights in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.

Marshall opposes abortion in all cases and does not make an exception for the cases of rape and incest.

Gilmore had a similar philosophy to Allen in 2008, only with the caveat that he also abortion rights during the first trimester of a pregnancy.

To make the point that Kaine's campaign wants to tie Allen as close to Marshall as possible, Kaine's spokesperson Brandi Hoffine sent out a press release using the phrase "Allen/Marshall agenda" at point.

Allen's campaign has publicly ignored Marshall while privately pushing back on the idea that Marshall could be an actual burden to Allen during the GOP primary.