Gilmore Starts Senate Race With Tax Vow

RICHMOND, June 10 -- Republican James S. Gilmore III launched his general election campaign for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday by casting himself as a friend of "working men and women" and calling his Democratic opponent, Mark R. Warner, a liberal elitist who wants to raise taxes and weaken national security.

In a campaign swing that also took him to Norfolk and Manassas, Gilmore sought to sharpen his ideological differences with Warner and said he will take his message to more than 40 Virginia locations in the coming days.

"This is a crusade for the working men and women of Virginia," Gilmore said. "Today, working families and regular folks are in an awful lot of distress. They are very concerned they cannot make ends meet."

Gilmore was joined by Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R), Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) and Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick, a state delegate from Prince William County.

All four hammered Warner for pushing for a $1.4 billion tax increase in 2004 when he was governor. Gilmore, who preceded Warner as governor, said the tax increase was not needed because Virginia had a $1 billion surplus shortly after it was approved.

"Mark Warner is like a hungry piranha," said Gilmore, who vowed to oppose all tax increases. "There is just no end to his appetite for the people's tax money."

Polls show that the popular Warner has an early advantage over Gilmore. By focusing on blue-collar voters, Gilmore hopes to tap the well of support that he says will flow to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) rather than Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the presidential race.

Gilmore called Warner, whose personal fortune is estimated at $200 million, "an elite limousine liberal who doesn't keep his word."

Kevin Hall, a Warner spokesman, accused Gilmore of engaging in "negative, name-calling politics of the past."

"Gilmore's positions will lead to bigger deficits, higher oil company profits, and will offer no real relief for working families," said Hall, noting that Gilmore also is a millionaire, according to his financial disclosure reports.

On Tuesday, Warner attended a fundraiser in Tysons Corner hosted by Donald Upson, who was secretary of technology in Gilmore's administration. Warner also picked up endorsements this week from former delegate Vincent F. Callahan Jr. and former Senate president John H. Chichester Jr., both Republicans.

"Even Republicans are rejecting Jim Gilmore's effort to rewrite history and his failure to lay out a plan for positive change for our country," Hall said.

Gilmore said his campaign will center on relieving the price of gas. He favors drilling for oil offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. "We have to drill here so we can all pay less," he said.

Gilmore, an Army veteran who chaired a federal national security commission, also noted that Warner has never served in the military.

Although he wrote an open letter to President Bush in The Washington Post last June calling for a drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gilmore now says that the "surge" is working and that troops should remain indefinitely.

Gilmore also held open the possibility of supporting a military strike against Iran because he said it is interfering with the U.S. mission in Iraq.

"Who do you want in the United States Senate?" Gilmore asked. "Someone who has foreign policy experience and who has demonstrated an ability and history of strength, or a name [Warner] who does not know anything about foreign policy?"