Posted on 06/02/2008 5:09:59 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
By a paper-thin margin, former Virginia governor James S. Gilmore III captured the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Saturday at a state party convention here that exposed some GOP doubts about Gilmore and highlighted the influence of social conservatives.
Gilmore defeated Del. Robert G. Marshall, a staunch opponent of abortion rights making his first bid for statewide office, by about 70 votes out of 10,378 cast. The margin was less than one percentage point.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Another RINO wins, by spending 8X the money of his opponent. Wow, such a strong platform. /s
And now Mr. Gilmore will get creamed by Mr. Mark Warner.
Gilmore isn’t a RINO. He was insufficiently pro-life compared to Marshall (btw, everybody is, but Gilmore is one of those really squishy “pro-life” types who believes in abortion for rape and incest; some also fault him for being on the board of a major Virginia drug company because that company makes the morning-after pill — this same issue was used by the Democrats to attack George Allen in 2006).
Gilmore was a relatively successful Governor who is strong on many conservative principles, but who allowed his legacy to be defined by his successor (Warner) and who was also hated by the “moderate” republicans in the state Senate (who might as well have been Democrats for all the help they were the last 8 years).
Marshall was a brighter face, well-known yet somewhat unknown which gave us a better “new direction” factor (which the Democrats have used to their advantage). However, Marshall was really a “slightly” Ron Paulish conservative — he wasn’t enamored of the war in Iraq for example even though he supports keeping the troops in for now, and who is a strong conservationist which some find disturbing even though he also is strong on property rights and would support drilling in ANWR.
I supported Marshall, but will be able to support Gillmore, even though it’s going to be hard to get as much passion into his campaign from the pro-lifers, who propelled Marshall from a late start in the race to within 55 weighted votes.
I would also note that for a couple of months, Marshall was in session at the state house, and was not free to directly raise funds and had a limited time to campaign.
Bad news.
Well, my knee-jerking reaction to Gilmore is due more to the fact that he’s the former head of the RNC- the source of much bone-headedness lately.
Your description of Marshall being sort of Ron Paul-ish maks me like him even more!
Voters in Virginia do not care very much about abortion and gay marriage, and when abortion becomes the big issue ina campaign, Republicans lose. George Allen was elected Governor based on his promise to end parole and reform education. Gilmore was elected because he promised to end the car tax. When Republicans find these sorts of conservative issues to run on, they win in Virginia. That's why I am glad Gilmore won the Senate nomination. His record as Governor stacks up very well against Warner's. Warner was more of a showhorse while Gilmore was a workhorse.
Mark Warner will probably win anyway, but Gilmore will have a better showing than Marshall in the state election. Gilmore is a former governor and chairman of the RNC. He is a more forceful speaker than Marshall and makes a better visual impression. On the morning of the election, Gilmore circulated his signed no amnesty pledge that was similar to the NumbersUSA pledge signed by Huckabee. Gilmore needs to play the immigration issue hard to distance himself from McCain and Bush and Mark Warner. This will help him in NoVA, which is turning more Democrat.
Gilmore is really pushing the energy issue. He is against cap and trade and is for drilling in ANWAR, unlike Marshall and Mark Warner and John McCain. This is another winner for Gilmore.
The best thing that happened was that VA Delegate Jeff Frederich was selected as the new chairman of the VA GOP. He is young, energetic, and conservative. He will in the long run revitalize this party.
Yes! As a delegate, I studied them both and talked to Gilmore's campaign and Del. Marshall personally. I was very concerned about Marshall's embrace of gloBULL warming. After I told him about the 31,000 scientists actually signing statements debunking the lies he agreed we should also drill ANWR and elsewhere, but claimed it would not bring down gas prices, which I also objected to.
His biggest issue with the war was that the Iraqis should be funding their own rebuilding as they had a $56 million surplus last year. I informed him they were beginning to invest in their own rebuilding. I pointed out that in a mere 2 years the Iraqis seated their government and have taken control of their country, built an economy that gave them that 56 mil and their security forces are taking the lead in securing their country. I asked how much our government had accomplished in those same 2 years and he laughed. He certainly supported the war, but was unaware of the more recent developments. As a citizen legislator with a job and campaigning I can understand that, as one needs to search for the good news on Iraq. He did ask that I send him the info I referred to, which I did.
My biggest problem with Gilmore is this --
Gilmore also plans to link himself to presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain, a senator from Arizona.
along with Gilmore shuns Bush in race for Senate.
.
Well, if you're going to align youself with someone it is better to link up with the head of the ticket rather than a president with dismal approval ratings. Heck, even McCain is doing his best to be seen with Bush as little as possible. The President's role in the upcoming campaign will be as a fundraiser only. I'd me mildly surprised if he appears live at the convention.
Had you seen the reaction at the convention any time those issues were mentioned, you would not make such a sweeping statement.
Also, his campaign spokesperson said he believes life begins at conception, but does not believe it can be legislated.
Ping ~~~
His campaign said he resigned over the national party position on illegal immigration. The "bone-headedness lately" can be attributed to John Hagar, who was soundly defeated Saturday. Notice they did not mention that much in the article.
Everytime I see the number, it goes up. The article said 70, you say 80. Everyone in my section came up with the same number at the convention...64!
You may be right. I spoke briefly to Ken Cuccinelli. He mentioned that if just one or two Marshall voters had showed up for Carroll [sp] County, which had 104 votes, Marshall would have won. 64 votes would have made sense in that case. In any event, the vote was extremely close. If just a few Marshall delegates had actually showed up at the convention, he would have won.
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