JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Virginia's top lawmakers and the state's governor spoke out Thursday against the Navy's plan to move an aircraft carrier from Norfolk to Mayport Naval Station as soon as the Florida base is upgraded to berth a nuclear-powered ship.

"We believe (the move) is ill-timed, ill-advised, and not supplied by economic logic or strategic logic," Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., told WAVY-TV. "There is no economic logic to this proposal particularly at a time right now when we are in such an economic crisis in this country."

Florida's legislative delegation announced the news about Mayport on Monday after a conference call with Secretary of the Navy Donald Winters. While Florida officials touted the economic impact of the decision for Mayport -- which has suffered since the USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned in March 2007 -- the Navy made the decision to enhance the nation's security by not having all carriers in the Atlantic fleet homeported in one place -- Norfolk.

Webb, along with Sen. John Warner, R-Va.; Sen.-elect Mark Warner, D-Va.; and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine cited the $400 million price tag of the upgrades to Mayport as the main reason not to move a carrier out of Norfolk. They called on Winters to hold off on a decision until his successor takes office next year.

"It would be disrespectful not to give the next administration, taking office in 2009, an opportunity to voice its views," Webb said.

Norfolk city leaders say losing an aircraft carrier will cost the community 5,000 jobs and as much as $1 billion a year to the local economy. That's exactly why Florida's congressional delegation has lobbied since the retirement of the JFK was announced four years ago to get a new carrier homeported at Mayport.

But it was the military readiness and security argument that convinced the Navy -- believing that keeping the entire Atlantic fleet in one location is risky, given the consequences that played out during the Pear Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

"I think anybody who's ever been in the Navy and studies history at all would agree with that," said former Atlantic Fleet Adm. Bob Natter, who is retired and now lives in Jacksonville.

Newly elected Rep. Glenn Nye, R-Norfolk, told WAVY that he doesn't believe having all East Coast-based carriers homeported in Norfolk is a threat to national security.

"The fact is, those carriers are very rarely in the port at the same time," Nye said.

Fresh off getting the good news about a new carrier for Mayport, Florida's political leadership said it will fight any efforts to change the Navy's concern about Norfolk.

"The Navy looked at more than a dozen different options and agreed with me and Sen. (Mel) Martinez and Rep. (Ander) Crenshaw that it's in our country's national security interest not to keep all of our Atlantic fleet nuclear carriers in just one port in Virginia," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "The fleet should be dispersed."