GOP Tries to Negotiate Differences, Eliminate Divisions

HOT SPRINGS, Va., Dec. 2 -- Virginia Sen. George Allen received a standing ovation Saturday from hundreds of Republican activists who are reeling from his loss and eager to find a new formula for success after a half-decade of internal party division.

Allen gave no clues to his future in his first public comments since conceding the Senate seat to Democrat James H. Webb two days after the election. But he hinted that he is not finished with public office, promising to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the state's Republican leaders.

"Next month, I will no longer have the responsibility and privilege of serving as your United States senator," he told a ballroom packed with 600 subdued GOP activists gathered for the annual winter meeting and party fundraiser. "But I pledge to keep working with all of you . . . to advance our shared principles, our missions that are so important to the future of Virginia."

As its first official act after Allen's loss, the GOP's state central committee chose former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie to lead the party. A national figure with proven fundraising and organizing skills, Gillespie vowed to return the party to the winning column in state and federal elections during the next three years.

But he also offered a practical warning for a state party that is at war with itself over the issues of taxes and transportation: Virginia Republicans must find a way to stop bickering with each other.

"Somebody who agrees with me 80 percent of the time is my friend, not my enemy," Gillespie said. "We are all one party. We can live with differences. But we can't live with divisions."

Although most of the people who attended the Advance, as the annual meeting is called, are die-hard conservatives who oppose raising taxes and hold traditional Republican views on social issues, the divisions were still evident. Many of the party's leading moderates did not show up.

The gathering still was dominated by hand-wringing about how to bring the party together without compromising its principles.

"This is a challenge to our leaders in our legislature to find some common ground," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R). "The voters look at our legislature today and see the fighting between the different factions and say: 'Are we capable of governing?' That's going to be our challenge in 2007."

Since Allen's loss, Davis has been in discussions with House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and others in the legislature about how the anti-tax House Republicans can reach a compromise with the state Senate's more moderate GOP leaders on the issue of transportation.

If something doesn't happen, he told activists, the Democrats will win more seats, especially in more moderate Northern Virginia.

"I've never seen them so emboldened," he said of Democrats. "They are out-recruiting us and out-raising us. That's got to stop."