Gilmore Beats Marshall In Nomination Nail-Biter

Gilmore, who denies he created a shortfall, shot back at Warner on Saturday, charging that the Democrat pushed through a $1 billion tax increase in 2004 that wasn't needed.

"Mark Warner said, 'I will not raise your taxes.' . . . And then he pushed through the largest tax increase in Virginia history," said Gilmore, calling the Democrat "a limousine liberal."

Recent polling shows Warner starting the race against Gilmore with a double-digit lead. The Republican's approval ratings have fallen since he was governor.

But Gilmore thinks he can make the race competitive by connecting Warner to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois, and other Democrats in Washington. Gilmore also plans to link himself to presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain, a senator from Arizona.

Although many observers say Virginia is up for grabs in the presidential election, Republicans point to the state's long record of supporting their presidential nominees. President Bush won the state by eight percentage points in 2004, and exit polls that year found that four in 10 Virginia voters described themselves as conservative.

"Barack Obama and Mark Warner are out of touch. I can tell you McCain-Gilmore will defeat Obama-Warner," said Gilmore, who added that both he and McCain have a reputation for "straight talk."

Gilmore pledged Saturday to oppose raising taxes and support cuts in spending if elected. He said he will push to put conservative judges on the federal bench, support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, protect the rights of gun owners and crack down on illegal immigration. Gilmore said he also wants to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in an effort to lower the price of gas.

Dick Leggitt, Gilmore's campaign manager, said, "We're going to base this campaign on an appeal to the working men and women of Virginia."

Warner, who opposes gun control and describes himself as a "radical centrist," has built a national reputation among Democrats for his ability to appeal to rural and working-class voters.

Warner expects to do well in Democratic-trending Northern Virginia, where one in three voters lives. But Gilmore vowed not to concede the region.

"I reject the idea the people of Northern Virginia will vote liberal and wrong," Gilmore said. "If we stand for something, we will carry Northern Virginia."

Because of Democratic strength in recent years in Northern Virginia, Republicans have suffered several setbacks, losing the governor's mansion, one of the state's two U.S. Senate seats and control of the Virginia Senate.

Gilmore, 58, hopes to reverse that trend. He has solid name recognition across the state, an asset he used to help force retiring Rep. Tom Davis, a moderate Republican from Northern Virginia, to stay out of the Senate race.

But Saturday's nomination fight, in which some Davis loyalists worked on behalf of Marshall, showed that Gilmore has plenty of work ahead to shore up his base even as he pivots to face Warner.

"It will be a bit of challenge for Jim, because the social conservatives are not enthused and the moderates still harbor some grudges," said former state delegate Richard H. Black, a conservative from Loudoun County who supported Marshall.

Gilmore also faces a hurdle in raising enough money to stay competitive with Warner, who appears to have strong backing from Northern Virginia's business community.

Gilmore has raised about $1 million, but he spent all but $200,000 of it on his campaign against Marshall. In May, Gilmore lent his campaign $50,000.

"He will have to work very hard to raise the kind of money he needs," U.S. Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.) said.