Two former Va. guvs to vie for Senate seat

David Lerman

Former Republican Gov. James S. Gilmore III announced Monday he will be a candidate for the U.S. Senate next year.

In a widely anticipated announcement that was e-mailed to supporters, Gilmore said he offers the experience required to fill the Senate seat being vacated by veteran Republican Sen. John Warner.

``I can offer Virginians unparalleled experience and a strong and steady hand in the Senate," Gilmore said in an annoucement video on his new campaign Web site, www.jimgilmoreforsenate.com. ``Virginia's legacy of solid principles and values is ingrained in me."

If he wins the Republican party nomination, Gilmore is likely to face former Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner, who succeeded him in the governor's mansion. A recent Washington Post poll found Virginians favoring Warner over Gilmore by a 2-to-1 margin.

The race is likely to be one of the most competitive and closely watched Senate contests in the country. Democrats are counting on picking up the seat next year to expand their majority in the Senate.

Gilmore was spared a brusing battle for the GOP nomination when U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Fairfax, opted out of the contest last month. Davis, a Republican moderate, ruled out a challenge to the more conservative Gilmore when the state party decided to choose its nominee next year at a convention of party activists instead of a primary election. Conventions typically draw the party's base of hard-core conservatives, while Davis was counting on a primary election to draw more moderate, independent-minded voters.

Gilmore, 58, is a Richmond native with modest roots. He was the son of a supermarket meat-cutter. A University of Virginia graduate, he served in the Army and then practiced law in Henrico County. He became a county prosecutor in 1987 and was elected the state's attorney general in 1993.

In 1997, Gilmore won the governor's mansion by pledging to eliminate the state's hated car tax. While the plan was popular, it proved too costly for the state to eliminate the tax entirely as the state's economy began sagging in 2001.

After backing President Bush for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination, Gilmore served a year as head of the Republican National Committee, but clashed with operatives of the Bush White House. He also headed a commission on terrorism that warned the country was not prepared for a terrorist strike before Sept. 11, 2001.

Earlier this year, he launched a quixotic campaign for president that had little backing. Gilmore billed himself as the conservative alternative to GOP frontrunners who he suggested were either too liberal or inconsistent in their policy positions.

But Gilmore raised little money and was never more than an asterisk in national polls. Gilmore later said he entered the race too late and did not have the national network of donors needed to compete effectively.