Gilmore still carries clout

James S. Gilmore III has not been on the ballot for more than five years, but the former Virginia governor is still shaping the debate within the Republican Party and will play a key role in next month’s primaries.

At least three Senate Republican leaders, including John H. Chichester, of Fredericksburg, who disagreed with Mr. Gilmore’s stand on fully repealing the car tax, now face challenges from some of the former governor’s most avid supporters.

“[Mr. Chichester] voted to stop the repeal of the car tax,” said political consultant Mike Rothfeld, who is challenging the Senate Finance Committee chairman.

“This is a fundamental battle between those of us in the party who believe we must stand for smaller government, lower taxes and protection of the unborn, and those of us who want big government run only slightly better than the Democrats did,” Mr. Rothfeld said.

Mr. Chichester, who also serves as Senate president pro tempore, defended his actions. “The stance we took was within the law, and it kept with the governor’s promise to have triggers,” he said. “If we hadn’t [halted full implementation] we would be pretty close to, if not already, downgraded from our AAA bond rating.”

State Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., of Winchester, is facing a similar challenge from Mark Tate, a small-business owner who argues that the senator’s vote to stop the car-tax repeal showed how much he is out of touch with his district.

“He made it very obvious he was not a friend of the taxpayer,” Mr. Tate said. “It is not so much about Gilmore, but about taxes in general. He has voted to raise taxes 43 times.”

Mr. Potts disagreed. “I supported car-tax elimination, but I did not support changing horses midstream,” he said. “When Gilmore changed his mind because he wanted a political legacy, he left us with no choice. We rejected it because it was not fiscallyresponsible. Thank God the Senate of Virginia rejected it, because after [the economic effect] of 9/11, I would hateto see what shape we would be in now, if we hadn’t.”

The car-tax cut is Mr. Gilmore’s political legacy. In the 1997 gubernatorial race, Mr. Gilmore was trailing Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr., a Democrat, by 10 points in the polls until he announced the “No Car Tax” platform. Mr. Gilmore sailed to victory that November.

All 100 members of the House were up for election that year, so they saw how powerful the car-tax issue was among the voters. But the senators were not up for election. Most of the senators voted for the tax repeal in 1998 but were never big supporters of it.

In 2001, Mr. Gilmore wanted the car tax to be cut by 70 percent — up from 47.5 percent the year before. But, Senate leaders said there wasn’t enough money in the budget that both chambers could agree on. Before leaving office, Mr. Gilmore was forced to make cuts in state programs, but moved the car tax forward.

Since then, the car-tax repeal has been stalled at 70 percent because of the state’s financial condition. It is not clear when the tax will be eliminated.

Meanwhile in Williamsburg, the race between state Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr. and real estate manager Paul Jost has been mired in so much name-calling that Senate Majority Leader Walter A. Stosch has stepped in.

Mr. Stosch, of Glen Allen, has said the Republican caucus will not welcome Mr. Jost if he defeats Mr. Norment in the primary because Mr. Jost recently compared one of Mr. Norment’s colleagues with a Nazi. Mr. Jost has since apologized.

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