Former Republican Governor Jim Gilmore is plotting his political comeback in the state, so says a column by veteran state political reporter Bob Gibson in today's Charlottesville Daily Progress:
"For weeks, the biggest rumor in Virginia conservative circles was that former Gov. James S. Gilmore III, R-Henrico County, hungers for another statewide bid for public office.
Gilmore acknowledged his hunger last week and said that recent Republican gubernatorial nominee Jerry W. Kilgore wasn't willing enough to blast Gov. Mark R. Warner's record $1.4 billion tax increase last year.
Gilmore has his eye on the mansion again in a 2009 bid to return to public life if U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Alexandria, doesn't decide to retire and create an open-seat Senate race first in 2008."
Bring it on Jim. It's the legacy of your failures as Governor of the state which helped elect Mark Warner and then Tim Kaine in the first place.
And be sure to keep pushing that anti-tax message at any cost too. Virginians remember what your fierce embrace of that philosophy did to the state's budget during you initial term as Governor.
I can't think of any candidate the Democrats would rather see on the ballot in 2008 or 2009 than Gilmore. Please run, Jim.