Former GOP delegate supports Mark Warner

BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO
Media General News Service
Published: June 10, 2008

Another Republican headliner is breaking with his party to back Democrat Mark R. Warner for the U.S. Senate.

Vincent F. Callahan Jr. of Fairfax County, former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he is supporting Warner over Republican Jim Gilmore because of Warner’s record of bipartisanship.

Welcoming the endorsement, Warner pledged to work with Republicans if he is elected in November.

Callahan singled out Warner’s handling as governor of the state’s budget crisis, which members of both parties claim was aggravated by Gilmore’s car-tax rollback. Gilmore preceded Warner as governor.

Callahan joins another prominent former GOP legislator, Senate Finance Committee Chairman John H. Chichester of Northumberland County, in endorsing Warner for the seat of retiring Republican John W. Warner.

The two Warners are not related.

Callahan and Chichester were the chief sponsors of Gilmore’s car-tax phaseout in 1998. At the time, they said the state could afford the program, which quickly ballooned to $1 billion.

Chichester later aligned with Mark Warner in capping the tax cut at 75 percent. Chichester and Callahan split in 2004 over Warner’s $1.4 billion tax boost to balance the budget. Chichester backed it; Callahan was opposed.

Chichester appears in a Warner television commercial that went on the air shortly after Gilmore was nominated May 31.

“They’re supporting Mark Warner because they know Mark Warner stands for higher taxes,“ Gilmore said as he headed into a fundraising luncheon yesterday for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

During the event, McCain twice plugged Gilmore’s candidacy.

Though he badly trails Warner in fundraising, Gilmore vowed to be competitive: “So in the event, we have the [finances] to get our message out there, we will win the election.“

The McCain fundraiser at the Richmond Omni drew several Republican benefactors who are voting for Warner, including moving-and-transfer executive Charles W. McDaniel of Fredericksburg and financier James C. Wheat III of Richmond.

They cited Warner’s ability to work with both parties.

“He reached out to everyone,“ McDaniel said.

Wheat said, “I’m McCain-Warner. I’m going to have two bumper stickers on my car.“

Jeff E. Schapiro is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Staff writers Olympia Meola and Tyler Whitley contributed to this report.