Why was Gilmore so bad? If I remember, the main problem was Warner could self fund, so he would have way more money than any Republican.
Yes, spending was an issue. Warner had close to $14 million and Gilmore had a paltry $2.8 million. Outgoing Sen. John Warner refused to endorse Gilmore, which was seen as a de facto endorsement of Mark (they didn’t come more weasely than John Warner, who rode the corpse of Dick Obenshain to the Senate). Mark Warner also blamed everything on Gilmore (a la “Bush’s fault !”). He led in the polls by 20% (he won by 32%). As it was, running an outsider in Bob Marshall would’ve been better.
I was thinking at the time on FR that it was more prudent to nominate Gilmore and had endorsed him, but he just never got out of the starting gate.