Archive for the ‘Jim Gilmore’ Category

Photo H/T: Bearing Drift

Blow out
Bearing Drift
The real question now, with the margin of victory as large as it is, will McDonnell have a mandate?

Contests serve as warning to Democrats: It’s not 2008 anymore
The Washington Post
On Tuesday, Virginia moved back in the direction of Republicans, a reminder that the political landscape is far more fluid than it appeared to be a year ago — and a challenge for the White House and the Democrats as they look toward 2010.

Dems, incumbents get wake-up call
Politico
Tuesday night’s trends were emphatically not in Obama’s favor. Among those paying closest attention are dozens of Democrats who won formerly Republican congressional districts in 2006 and 2008 and are up for re-election in 2010.

The Obama magic has faded
The New York Post
And — until it started looking as if they might lose — the Obama people were suggesting that these races would seal their mandate and encourage congressional wafflers to toe the line on health-care reform. Not so much, as it turns out.

Disregard The Talk Of VA Voting Against The President’s Party For Gov.
Virginia Virtucon
Do you see a pattern emerging here? When GOP candidates run on specific issues of importance to people in their every day lives, they not only win, but they win BIG.

In the race for U.S. Senate from the Commonwealth of Virginia, The Write Side has already endorsed Jim Gilmore.  But let’s be a little more clear about the reasons why.

I’m not a Jim Gilmore fan.  Anyone who believes otherwise hasn’t been paying attention.  But that’s another story.

Jim Gilmore made a huge mistake in his run for the White House, and his lack of success in that endeavor pretty much proves we’re correct.  Saving those resources would have made him much more competitive in the race for the Senate.  In addition, Gilmore’s “No Car Tax” theme of 1997 was a brilliant campaign strategy to propel Gilmore into office. But it was implemented as bad policy.

Having said all that, Gilmore did not bankrupt the state, he did not create a financial mess that Mark Warner had to clean up.  The numbers are out there and anyone can look them up. When Gilmore left office, after the dot com bubble burst and after 9/11, yes revenues were growing more slowly than projected.  But the state budget still grew and Gilmore left a sizable amount in the Rainy Day Fund.

Enter Mark “I will not raise taxes” Warner who broke that pledge some 40 days into office with his first attempt at a tax increase.  The same Mark Warner who, with the help of some liberal Republicans pushed through the largest single tax increase in the history of the Commonwealth.  The same Mark Warner who signed that very increase with the knowlege that revenue projections were going to produce a surplus roughly equal to the amount of the tax increase.

And, somehow, Jim Gilmore got blamed.

Gilmore is also right on the issues.  He’s right on the issues of taxes, of life, of energy (and offshore drilling).  He’s a native Virginian who knows and loves this state.

I’m not a member of his fan club.  Never have been.  But I know he’d be a better Senator than Mark Warner.

Sadly, I don’t think anyone sees that happening.

Still, this vote is in his column.

Let hiim tell you in his own words.

UPDATE: Mark Warner made these remarks to the National Jewish Democratic Council on May 24, 1994 in an attack on GOP Senate candidate Oliver North. Mark Earley called him on it. Mark Warner denited it.

Warner was chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia at the time.

Let’s face it, I’m supporting Jim Gilmore more because I don’t want Mark Warner as my Senator, and because of Warner’s revisionist budget history than any other reason.

But Gilmore doesn’t need people like this around.

Gilmore Suspends His Communications Director
Virginia Politics, The Washington Post

Republican Senate candidate James S. Gilmore III suspended his communications director, Ana Gamonal, for two weeks without pay because she allegedly sent a misleading email to Democratic candidate Mark R. Warner’s campaign.

And now, he doesn’t have her around.

I could have spared them all some grief. Send a constituent, non-political, email to Governor Kaine’s office.

You’ll get on all (or most of, anyway) the Democratic lists.

P.S. Mr. Gilmore, put her salary into whatever ad buy it will get you.