Picking a nominee that is virtually unknown with little to no public record is a dicey proposition, and in normal election years it happens very rarely. 2010 is not one of those years!

There are advantages and disadvantages to this strategy. On the plus side, unknown candidates don’t have a voting record to pick apart and often they don’t have a string of public statements to dissect.

But, the downside can be the unexpected, which is what we’re seeing with a slew of recent Senate nominees.

First there was Rand Paul in Kentucky, who after he won the GOP primary over the establishment candidate stepped in political pothole after political pothole.

Then there was Sharon Angle in Nevada. She’s another upstart candidate who seemed very unprepared for the national spotlight that comes with taking on the sitting Senate majority leader.

And now we have Christine O’Donnell in Delaware who just had one of the biggest upsets of the entire primary season, defeating a longtime congressman and former governor. But since her victory, we have had almost a daily dose of her past, and it’s not pretty. From her financial past, to sniping by former staffers, to her college record and transcript, and finally to her past public comments as a conservative operative… we’ve seen it all. The most shocking came this weekend, when Bill Maher released 13-year old video of O’Donnell from his Politically Incorrect show where she talks about witchcraft and having a date on an alter with blood as a prop.

WOW! Talk about a surprise soundbite! But, this is the gamble when an unknown wins.

In Virginia, rarely does an unknown prevail. Mark Warner didn’t in the 1996 Senate contest and Terry McAuliffe didn’t in the 2009 Democratic gubernatorial primary. In fact, the last unknown candidate to win in Virginia may have been former U.S. Senator John Warner, who had never held elected office before winning a U.S. Senate seat in 1978, and he did it with the help of a celebrity wife named Elizabeth Taylor.

Of course Mark Warner went on to win the governor’s mansion five years later after he invested more time and energy in Virginia. And Terry McAuliffe appears to be following a similar strategy as he crisscrosses the commonwealth in advance of the 2013 elections.

Will Angle, O’Donnell, and Paul win? I would say in a normal election year… no way. But again, 2010 is not a normal year. The voters are angry. They’ve showed that in primary after primary and they may just do it again on November 2nd.