Sparks fly at Labor Day parade

BUENA VISTA — There were plenty of spectators, balloons, floats and pageantry — and some political fireworks — at the annual Buena Vista Labor Day parade Monday.
The sultry humidity of the late summer day was matched by the rhetoric between Virginia U.S. Senate candidates Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore. Both are vying to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. John Warner in November.
Republican Gilmore, well behind Democrat Warner in the polls, promised to drill for oil, produce a strong energy policy and preserve tax cuts, all issues he says he differs with Warner on.
“There are a matrix of issues we differ on,” said Gilmore in Glen Maury Park after the morning parade.
Warner said Gilmore couldn’t pass a budget his last year as Virginia governor.
The Democrat said he was proud of his record as governor from 2002-06, and said it is a record Virginians know well.
“I’m proud of the bipartisan support I received. The last thing Washington needs is another slash-and-burn politician,” Warner said.
Warner ran the parade route through Buena Vista streets and sweated profusely, changing clothes when he finished before heading to an afternoon political event in Covington.
During the latter part of his parade jog, Warner said he was pleased to deliver the keynote address at last week’s Democratic National Convention.
“I was happy to highlight Virginia’s story and glad to talk about bipartisanship,” he said. Warner said he senses that people want “things fixed” and are not interested in strictly Democratic or Republican solutions.
Warner said the top issue is the economy, and said a stronger economy will also help with national security.
“We have to keep the country protected, and one of the ways is with a strong economy,” he said.
Of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, Warner said his acceptance speech “was a great first step. He got an opportunity to reintroduce himself.”
Warner said he was pleased Obama offered specifics.
And if Obama is elected, he needs to practice fiscal conservatism and cut federal spending, Warner said.
He said both political parties have failed to show discipline in federal spending.
Gilmore said Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin brings a lot to the ticket headed by Sen. John McCain.
“She has more executive experience than either Barack Obama or Joe Biden. And she’s from an energy state and will bring that to the discussion,” he said of Palin’s Alaska roots.
Palin will garner the votes of people who want women to “have an opportunity at the national level,” Gilmore said.
In addition to Warner and Gilmore, other notables present for Monday’s parade included 6th District Congressman Bob Goodlatte, his opponent, Democrat Sam Rasoul, and 2009 Democratic gubernatorial candidates Sen. Creigh Deeds and Del. Brian Moran.
Moran, who has traveled across Virginia in his quest to become governor, believes the economy, the war in Iraq and energy independence top the issues on Virginia voters’ minds.
Deeds is confident about his chances of getting the Democratic nomination.
“I’ve run statewide,” he said of his narrow loss by just over 300 votes to Bob McDonnell for attorney general in 2005. “He’s [Moran] been elected to a Democratic district in Alexandria and Faifax.”