Fueling the debate

Former Virginia governor and U.S. Senate Republican candidate Jim Gilmore is hearing a recurring theme on his working families tour across the commonwealth: Action is needed to cut soaring fuel costs.
“Families are facing a great deal of stress because of the higher gas prices,” Gilmore said Monday during a late afternoon stop at Waynesboro’s Reo Distribution.
Gilmore met with Reo Distribution officials and warehouse workers. He was winding down the first of a two-day working families tour that will take him from Winchester to Bristol.
Gilmore said decisive action is needed by Virginia’s next U.S. senator on the fuel crisis. That includes drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“We’ve got to drill in ANWR,” Gilmore said. “And we must drill offshore as well.”
President Clinton in 1995 vetoed legislation that would have allowed drilling in a small area of the 19 million-acre refuge. Opponents say drilling in ANWR would adversely impact wildlife there. Both presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, oppose drilling in ANWR. Environmental concerns also have blocked expanded offshore drilling, which McCain favors.
Gilmore said the rising gas prices are the top issue he has confronted in the early stages of his campaign against former Democratic Gov. Mark Warner.
Both candidates are seeking to succeed retiring Sen. John Warner in the November election.
Gilmore said farmers have told him fertilizer is costing them more because it is petroleum-based, and it costs more to ship their goods.
Gilmore promises to attack the fuel problem much like he did Virginia’s car tax. That levy still exists, but by the time Warner took office it had been slashed by 75 percent.
Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said Gilmore’s insistence on eliminating Virginia’s car tax while he was governor had disastrous consequences.
“His obsession with pushing through the car tax while there was a down economy put him at loggerheads with a legislature controlled by his own party. It caused a failure to adopt a budget and put the state’s triple-A bond rating at stake,” Hall said.
In addition to attacking the energy crisis, Gilmore said he brings valuable experience in fighting terror. The military veteran chaired a federal commission on terrorism and has visited a dozen foreign countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Hall said Warner also has strong credentials on fighting terror.
“Gov. Warner appointed the first cabinet-level homeland security official and convened a secure Virginia panel of law enforcement and government officials that led to 50 changes in law and policy regarding homeland security,” Hall said.
During his marathon tour of construction sites, plants and other working areas Monday, Gilmore sandwiched in fundraisers.
“We’ve done three today,” he said during his tour of Reo Distribution.
Gilmore said he is waging a grassroots campaign to pick up donations in addition to getting money from larger donors.
Despite narrowly claiming the Republican nomination over Del. Bob Marshall two months ago, Gilmore said the party is united behind him.
“The people who supported Bob Marshall are coming to us,” Gilmore said. Calling the Republican Party a diverse party, Gilmore said Republicans “can unite behind the common interests of the citizenry.”
Bob Roberts, a James Madison University political scientist, likened Gilmore’s strategy to that of a Southern populist, seeking first to win the hearts of voters beyond the reaches of big cities.
“Once he gets support in rural areas, he can take his campaign to more urban areas,” Roberts said.
But Warner’s substantial lead in money and the polls make Gilmore’s task a difficult one, he said.
“It’s almost insurmountable unless Warner makes some serious mistakes,” Roberts said.