Virginia Senate campaign picks up

BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO
Media General News Service
Published: September 9, 2008

Jim Gilmore is on the attack again in the U.S. Senate contest — this time, in his first television commercial — while Mark R. Warner is harvesting endorsements from Republican-friendly groups.

Gilmore, trailing in the polls and fundraising, hits Warner in a 30-second ad for breaking a promise not to raise taxes as governor. The spot also ties Warner to fellow Democrat Barack Obama, the presidential nominee.

The commercial, paid for by the Republican Party of Virginia, is running on cable and over-the-air stations in all areas of the state but the pricey Washington, D.C., suburbs. The ad went up over the weekend.

Warner, meantime, picked up the backing of the state wing of the Fraternal Order of Police and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The FOP’s national unit is supporting John McCain, the Republican nominee for president. The chamber has been closely aligned with the GOP on tax, regulatory and employment issues.

The state FOP endorsed Gilmore for attorney general in 1993, but supported his opponent for governor in 1997 because of legal opinions the group considered hostile to police. The FOP backed Warner for governor in 2001.

Gilmore, who preceded Warner as governor, has steadily pelted the Democrat on the defining event of his administration: a $700,000 annual tax increase passed in 2004 for police, education and human services that Warner said was necessary to restore state finances disrupted, in part, by Gilmore’s costlier-than-expected car-tax cut.

Warner, who joined FOP leaders and law-enforcement officials from across the state at a General Assembly Building news conference, dismissed the Gilmore commercial as “tired, old partisan politics.“

While he described Obama as “the right choice,“ Warner said that the nominee — to carry Virginia, a state that hasn’t backed a Democrat for president since 1964 — “has got to get past the media image that has been created.“

The Gilmore ad claims Warner is committed to “even higher taxes, bigger spending and limiting domestic oil production — costing you more at the pump.“ It seeks to channel support for McCain to Gilmore, saying both “will keep America safe, keep taxes low and brings down gas prices.“

The Warner-Gilmore duel played out on the eve of Obama’s latest trip to Virginia. This afternoon, Obama appears in Lebanon, in Southwest Virginia, hoping to win over white working-class voters, some of whom may tip to McCain.

Warner, who campaigned earlier this summer with Obama in Bristol, will not join Obama today. Warner will be raising money in Hampton Roads.

McCain and his vice-presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, visit Northern Virginia on Wednesday. Gilmore will be there, though it was not clear whether he would appear with the ticket.

“We are still ironing out the final details, but Gov. Gilmore will be there,“ said Gilmore press secretary Ana Gamonal.

Jeff E. Schapiro is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.