Gilmore still carries clout

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

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.