10 September 2008
Virginia 2nd Voters Face Familiar Choices in Senate Race
Two former governors try to convince voters to send them to Washington
Washington — No matter whom Virginia voters elect to the U.S. Senate in November, the face will be familiar.
Candidates Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore are both former governors of the state, and readily recognizable to the voters of Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.
The two served back-to-back terms from 1998 to 2006, with Warner succeeding Gilmore in the governor’s mansion. Gilmore could not run for re-election against Warner in 2001 because Virginia does not permit its governors to serve consecutive terms.
It almost seems as if Gilmore is running that race now.
During their first debate earlier this summer, the two criticized each other’s administrations, arguing that their gubernatorial records provide clues of how they would perform as a senator. That theme has continued as the campaign enters its final stretch.
Warner is focusing on the economy, saying the state's finances were a “mess” when he succeeded Gilmore and that he had to remedy $6 billion in budget shortfalls during the early years of his term. He has said Gilmore’s plan to eliminate a local personal property tax on cars cost three times as much as originally promised, and that Gilmore relied on tricks to balance the state budget, such as requiring businesses to pay levies early and delaying tax refunds.
Gilmore has used the car-tax issue, on which he ran in 1997, to show that he is true to his word, and charges that Warner reneged on a campaign promise not to raise taxes during his years as governor.
In the spring of 2004, Warner persuaded the Republican-controlled legislature to pass a $1.4 billion tax hike to increase funding for core government services such as education and public safety. Pointing to the car-tax cuts and tax hike, respectively, Gilmore paints himself as a fiscal conservative and Warner as a tax-and-spend liberal.
Even though past budget squabbles are ancient history for most voters, they are being dredged up in this Senate campaign as people weigh each candidate’s credibility and qualifications to deal with the current economic downturn.
Gilmore is also using the campaign slogan “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less,” echoing a national Republican push for new offshore oil drilling with the goal of lowering gas prices.
Warner has said Congress should empower states to determine whether drilling should be allowed off their coasts. He also has said more exploration is needed to determine if there are enough reserves near Virginia to merit drilling.
SPOTLIGHT ON HAMPTON ROADS
Warner and Gilmore are vying to replace retiring Republican Senator John Warner — no relation to Mark Warner — who has represented the state in the Senate since 1979.
Gilmore faces an uphill battle, trailing by more than 20 percentage points in a poll taken between September 5 and September 7, and dealing with Warner’s multimillion-dollar fundraising advantage. A rising star in the Democratic Party, Warner also was chosen by Senator Barack Obama to give a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.
As the presidential campaigns focus on Virginia as a potential battleground state, each Senate candidate is hoping that his own strong showing will help his party’s presidential hopeful. The Virginia 2nd — which includes a large black population as well as a significant number of military families — is seen as especially important, and the campaigns are paying attention.
In August, the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Coordinated Campaign opened a new office in Norfolk to handle local grassroots efforts on behalf of Obama, Warner and U.S. House of Representatives candidate Glenn Nye.
Obama visited a Norfolk secondary school September 10, vice presidential pick Joe Biden stumped in Virginia Beach last week and Obama’s wife, Michelle, visited Norfolk in early August. McCain has not visited the area since before Virginia’s February 12 primary, but there are reports that running mate Sarah Palin might visit Virginia Beach during the week of September 14.
A strong showing from Warner could help Obama’s chances, while excitement over the presidential race also could bring out more Democratic voters to support Warner.
“This is a unique situation, where there is both an up-ticket effect and a down-ticket effect,” current Virginia Governor Tim Kaine told the Washington Post newspaper earlier this summer. “The Obama effort on turnout is going to have a positive effect . . . that will help Mark, and I also think Mark will perform so well and organize so strongly in some traditionally Republican parts of the state that that will help [Obama].”
The Republicans are hoping strong support among veterans for Republican presidential candidate John McCain will trickle down and translate into support for Gilmore. The Virginia Republican Party has predicted that more than 800,000 veterans will vote for McCain, who has worked on major national security issues for decades.
Both Gilmore and Warner oppose setting hard deadlines to begin troop withdrawal from Iraq, although Gilmore has chided Warner for suggesting in a speech that troops should start coming home in January 2009. Gilmore also is stressing his own military service, hoping to appeal to military families in the Virginia 2nd and tying himself more closely to McCain, as evidenced by a recently released ad: “We need Jim Gilmore in the U.S. Senate and so does John McCain. Veterans who will keep America safe, keep taxes low, and bring down gas prices.”
This article is part of America.gov’s continuing coverage of seven of the 435 U.S. congressional districts during the 2008 campaign. Each offers a different prism from which to view U.S. politics. For more information, see U.S Elections - State and Local.
