In the campaign for Virginia’s open Senate seat, former Democratic Governor Mark Warner is leading former Republican Governor Jim Gilmore in what can best be described as a popularity contest. Strangely enough, Gilmore’s labeling of Warner as “an elite limousine liberal” and “a hungry piranha” for the people’s tax money has not endeared him to voters. Gilmore’s platform more or less consists of attacking Warner for raising taxes despite campaign promises not to. The fact that the budget crisis during the Warner administration was left over from Gilmore’s and that Virginia was named (along with Utah) the best managed state in the nation under Warner seem to resonate stronger in people’s minds than conservative demagoguery, however. It is a shame that Gilmore cannot see the benefit in moderating his rhetoric to a state that has a Democratic governor, one Democratic Senator, a Democratic State Senate, and a huddled blue cluster of Northern Virginians that controls a good portion of the tax money which he supposedly wants to protect. It also doesn’t help that Warner edges him out slightly in the “most handsome” category:
Oh, and also: Gilmore apparently has corrupt friends in high places. On financial disclosure forms filed in May and June, Gilmore reported that he sat on the Board of Directors for a company called Windmill International, located in New Hampshire. Except Gilmore does not actually belong to that organization; the company to which he actually belongs, also named Windmill International (no affiliation) is based in Virginia, operated by a man who is a Gilmore campaign donor and appointee to the State Council of Higher Education during Gilmore’s governorship. Gilmore’s connection with the group is obvious, even if his position cannot be pinned down in a single title (although the website currently lists him as a member of the “team,” though he denies this is so). The big deal is this: the company’s owner and one of the other board members are being sued for having “conspired to defraud the government” by working on behalf of a contractor banned from Iraq to obtain additional contracts for that company. To explain the complicated predicament, the ex-governor responded by calling the information listed on the forms a “clerical error.”
Now, I am not saying that Gilmore should not be elected because he knowingly lied or because he may somehow be implicated in a fraud charge (his smears and illiberal stance on the issues is enough of a reason). I am just saying that this may be his own “Macaca” moment to lose the public’s trust. Of course, I am referring to the more publicized 2006 Senate campaign between Republican incumbent George Allen and Democratic candidate Jim Webb: Allen had a 19 point lead over his opponent before he was caught on video at a small rally referring to the Virginia-born but ethnically Indian videographer (a mole from the Webb campaign) as “Macaca,” and proceeded to welcome him to America “and the real world of Virginia.” After the tape was released to the media, Allen’s lead evaporated and, combined with an Allen security guard strong-arming a presumptuous blogger and other incidents, narrowly cost him the election. (Remember the maxim “all politics is local”? If Allen had not been caught making that comment in Middle-of-Nowhere, Virginia, Republicans would not have lost control of the U.S. Senate that year.)
Given that the Democratic candidate is leading in polls this round, it might be up to Warner to doom his campaign with a verbal gaffe, but somehow I doubt that will be the case. As it stands, unless Gilmore can overcome the legacy of Republican name-calling, racism, and corruption, Mark Warner will undoubtedly carry the election, and not just in the heretofore blue parts of the state.
7/24
