Retiring Republican Sen. John Warner is waging one last fight for his home state, trying to fend off a decision by the Navy to base a new nuclear aircraft carrier in Florida instead of Virginia.

During his 30 years in the Senate, the former Navy secretary has become known for his ability to protect the huge naval presence in Virginia, particularly the nuclear aircraft carriers stationed there. Indeed, he’s been so skillful, he is sometimes called the “godfather” of nuclear carriers.

“Sen. Warner told me that, as long as he was a U.S. senator, the carriers would never leave Virginia,” said Paul Fraim, the mayor of Norfolk, where four nuclear carriers are based. “Then, three months later, he announced his retirement.”

Now, with Warner heading out the Senate door — he’s being replaced by newly elected Democrat Mark Warner — the Navy has announced that it expects to decide by the end of the year whether to begin preparing the Naval Station Mayport near Jacksonville, Fla., to base a fifth nuclear carrier in the Atlantic Fleet by 2014.

As one of his last acts in office, Warner is fighting to delay the Navy’s decision on the carrier relocation until Barack Obama’s administration is under way. And the incident is evolving into an uncharacteristically nasty tiff between Warner and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), widely known as two of the most polite members of the Senate.

Last week, Nelson rebuked Virginia over its desire to keep all five carriers, calling the state “a little piggy,” The Associated Press reported.

Warner fired back.

“I am of the old school in the Senate, which respects — not attacks — another colleague’s state and its people,” he said in a statement. “Decisions of this serious magnitude must be made on solid military and budgetary principles.”

Nuclear aircraft carriers are well worth fighting for. Each one is its own economic engine, worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year and thousands of jobs to its port city.

In recent years, though, the Pentagon has sought to save money and streamline its global military bases through realignment and closure, and Virginia and Florida — the two naval powerhouses on the East Coast — have fought to limit cuts to their military installations.

In 2007, Mayport lost its only carrier, the non-nuclear USS John F. Kennedy. And in 2006, officials in Florida — including then-Gov. Jeb Bush — sought to bring to Mayport the Navy’s newest carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, named for Jeb Bush’s father, the former president.

“Obviously, it would be fantastic for Florida, and for me personally, to have the USS George H.W. Bush at Mayport,” the Republican governor told The Florida Times-Union.

A commissioning ceremony for the new carrier is scheduled for Jan. 10, though it has not yet been decided which carrier might be based in Mayport.

The Navy and the Florida delegation argue that the carriers in the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet need to be divided to protect them from attack — or from a devastating hurricane or other natural disaster.

“The story really is, why did the Navy make the decision? The strategic imperative of dispersal,” said retired Adm. Robert Natter, who had lobbied on base realignment issues for the state of Florida.

After receiving a classified briefing from the Navy about its home-porting decision, Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) said the motivation is not politics or money. Even with the addition of the new carrier, the base in Mayport would shrink, according to a recent Navy report.

“The Navy made it crystal clear that the strategic imperative to disperse our nuclear aircraft carrier fleet and establish a second nuclear aircraft carrier maintenance facility on the East Coast drove the decision,” said Crenshaw, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

But carriers previously stationed at Mayport were not nuclear, so preparing the site for a nuclear vessel will take some work and money — at least $500 million.

The Virginia delegation and Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asking that the decision be delayed so it can be addressed by the new Obama administration. The lawmakers — including another former Navy secretary, Democratic Sen. Jim Webb — are arguing that the strategic argument for dividing the fleet is too weak, especially given the cost when the Navy can’t afford its own plans.

“There is no possible justification for the relocation of an aircraft carrier, to the tune of an estimated $1 billion, when the Navy has identified $4.6 billion in higher-priority unfunded requirements for its personnel, shipbuilding, aircraft procurement and installations,” Webb said. “This decision is fiscally irresponsible and contrary to the best interests of the fleet.”

In Norfolk, supporters trying to keep the new carrier are suggesting that the Bush legacy is playing a role in the decision.

They point to a conversation last June in which Navy Secretary Donald Winter told Fraim that he did not anticipate that the Navy would make a decision this year.

But by October, that stance had changed, Norfolk advocates said. And the Navy has moved forward with an environmental study in Florida. It plans to make the final decision just before the end of the year.

But the Navy disputes Winter’s conversation with Fraim.

“Winter’s intent was always to make the decision before leaving office,” said Capt. Beci Brenton, Winter’s spokeswoman.

Jack Hornbeck, president of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, said he sees the decision as a “bone being thrown to the Jacksonville congressional delegation” that sets up a Bush family reunion before the end of President George W. Bush’s administration.

“Obviously, they want to complete that action before the current president leaves office so that they can make the history of the current president and his father being part of this celebration,” said Frank Roberts, of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance. “Everything is being driven by that schedule rather than a timely progression of events.”

For now, though, Virginia politicians are hoping that they can push off an official decision by the Navy and that, as Warner leaves office, a new generation of Virginia politicians — including Sen.-elect Mark Warner and Republican Rep. Rob Wittman — will continue to press the case.

“We want to make sure the [Navy’s] decision considers everything,” Wittman said.