|
|
|
| Wed, Dec. 02 - - Mobile - RSS | |
|
|
GOP's factions clash over nominee
When Republicans meet in Richmond this weekend to choose a U.S. Senate candidate, it will in some ways be a test of the strength of the party's social conservatives.Date published: 5/30/2008
RICHMOND-- When Republicans meet in Richmond this weekend to choose a U.S. Senate candidate, it will in some ways be a test of the strength of the party's social conservatives.The race is between a former governor Jim Gilmore and Del. Bob Marshall. Marshall has based his campaign largely on his credentials as a give-no-quarter pro-lifer, and he believes that without the like-minded members of his party, Gilmore has no prayer of beating Democratic former governor Mark Warner in the November election. "You cannot win if you alienate the social conservatives," Marshall said in an interview this week. "They are the biggest conservatives, the most intense. They will walk to more doors, stuff more envelopes, register more voters than anybody else." Gilmore says he's pro-life too, but he's betting that abortion isn't the defining issue for the majority of delegates. He thinks his own platform, focused more on economic issues, will appeal to more convention delegates and to voters in November, and makes him a stronger candidate against Democrat Warner, also a former governor. The convention will prove which man's vision of the Republican Party's priorities is true. Marshall and his supporters say Gilmore isn't pro-life enough because he accepts Roe vs. Wade as the law, and hasn't opposed abortion in the early weeks of a pregnancy. Gilmore has advocated waiting periods for abortions and outlawing partial-birth, late-term abortions. Marshall supporters also oppose Gilmore's position on the board of Barr Labs, which makes the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B. While Marshall has positions on other issues, he says abortion is the top issue for his supporters. "Jim Gilmore is going to infuriate the right-to-lifers, there's no way he's going to get their votes," Marshall said. "The only way you're going to beat Mark Warner is precinct operations. Gilmore can't do that, he can't get the hardest-working people. I can." In a nearly hour-long interview in his campaign consultant's Richmond office last week, Gilmore talked about social issues only when asked, saying that he has "shown a record of being concerned" about pro-life and pro-family topics. But what he really wants to talk about is gas prices, energy and taxes. Gilmore said the top issue among voters he has talked to is high gas prices. "I'm worried about the impact on people's lives," he said. "People have got to drive to work."
Date published: 5/30/2008
Both wrong for Virginia
(posted by
edwinking
, May 30, 2008 11:12 am)
I think it is great...here we have a never-was fighting a has-been. It can't get an better than that for Virginia. Bob has been the mouth of the raging, roaring, righteous,do=nothing-but-talk right in the House for years as things got worse. Gilmore, likely the most incompetent man to ever serve as governor of Virginia, embarrassed the state. Now they both want to be a real senator. Sorry, I don't know wheather to laugh or cry.
amusing
(posted by
larryg
, May 30, 2008 10:57 am)
Neither candidate can win if they only appeal to social conservatives?
What part of this is not understood?
The social conservatives totally puzzle me... they say they cannot 'win" if they are not conservative 'enough'...
well.. DOH... you sure as heck are not going to win if the only ones who vote for you are social conservatives...
at the end of the day - you have to ask the question:
"Do you want to represent ALL Virginians"?
if that is not your agenda..then what are you doing?
Virginia doesn't need either of these losers...
(posted by
Chiswald
, May 30, 2008 9:57 am)
so who cares? Neither will be elected senator.
|
 |
|||
|
|||
