The Debate’s On, and Voters Are the Victors

The News & Advance
Published: September 15, 2008

Saturday morning, common sense must have prevailed in the headquarters of Mark Warner’s campaign for U.S. Senate.

A few weeks ago, the former governor stiffed the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, refusing to agree to participate in the League’s planned statewide debate in the U.S. Senate race. Republican Jim Gilmore, trailing badly in the polls and with practically no money in the bank, signed on early; Democrat Warner, with a double-digit lead and millions in his account, balked and pleaded a scheduling conflict.

Right.

Gilmore may be celebrating today, but Warner’s agreeing to the debate just might be the final nail in the acerbic Republican’s political coffin.

After enduring scathing editorial comments from newspapers across the state and across the ideological divide, the Warner campaign evidently decided enough was enough and agreed to a live, televised debate with Gilmore.

On Oct. 3, the two former governors will face off in Roanoke in the studios of WSLS-NBC 10, owned by Media General, which also owns The News & Advance. The debate will begin at 7 p.m. and last an hour.

Gilmore, the dictionary definition of “underdog,” desperately needs the debate and the statewide exposure that will come with it. Previously, the two had debated just once, back in July at the state bar association’s annual convention at the Homestead resort. They have a debate coming up Thursday in Fairfax before members of the county’s chamber of commerce that will be televised on a regional cable network.

He’s running a shoestring campaign operation, boasting about putting campaign ads online on YouTube and conducting so-called Working Families Tours around the state, trying to garner a little publicity for his flagging senatorial effort.

Gilmore’s advisers are high-fiving themselves today over news of the statewide debate. “We’re popping champagne,” strategist Dick Leggitt told Media General News Service. “The alligator has taken the bait.”

They had better enjoy the buzz they’ve gotten from their cheap booze now, before the hangover sets in.

Gilmore has tried to paint Warner as a liar for promising, during his 2001 gubernatorial campaign, not to raise taxes, but then pushing a $1.4 billion revenue package through the General Assembly to balance the state’s books. The fiction that Gilmore has been trying to sell Virginia’s voters is that he left his successor a solid, balanced state budget that the Democrat then proceeded to muck up.

That’s simply not the case, and Gov. Gilmore knows better.

During the Oct. 3 debate, Gilmore will try to tar Warner as a lying, tax-and-spend liberal, but he’s going to have to answer for his mishandling of the state’s finances. Virginia’s revenue picture began to slide in early 2000 when the tech bubble burst and the national economy slid into recession — fully a year and a half before Gilmore left office. Gilmore ignored warnings from financial experts and General Assembly leaders that the economy was tanking, intent on preserving his signature car tax repeal. He and his political cronies replaced good fiscal policy with smoke and mirrors to keep the car tax repeal alive, and Warner had to clean up the mess when he took office in 2002.

That’s the truth, Gov. Gilmore, and we relish the prospect of Mark Warner calling you on that pitiful record before a statewide audience.