Warner Wins Virginia Senate – Democrat Pickup

Both CNN and Fox are projecting that Mark Warner has defeated Jim Gilmore for the open Senate seat caused by the retirement of Republican John Warner (no relation).   This was widely expected.  Gilmore barely campaigned while Warner has been out in force for months.  Warner was a very popular governor, while Gilmore was largely an afterthought.

Liberals Unbound

A WSJ editorial makes the most compelling case for electing John McCain, one that the campaign has barely touched upon: the need to check unalloyed liberalism. If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4 and Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities, probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it. Without the ability ...

Virginia Continues Blue Trend

Virginia has long been considered a Republican hotbed -- the last Democrat to win the state's Electoral College vote was Lyndon Johnson in 1964 -- it has now elected two Democratic governors in a row, has a Democratic Senator and may be about to have two. Last night, Democrats gained four seats to take control of the Virginia Senate. Democrats ...

Congressman Paul Gillmor Dies

Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 68. According to an inter-conference email obtained by The Hill, Gillmor did not show up to the office this morning causing his staff to become concerned. When they went to his apartment to check on him, they found that the lawmaker had passed away. Capitol Police is ...

Jim Gilmore Drops Presidential Bid

Jim Gilmore is ending his presidential run six months before the first primary, citing his inability to raise funds and blaming a late entry into the race. This gives him the distinction, according to Yahoo! News' headline writer at least, of being the "first major candidate to drop out." Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore ended his long-shot campaign for presidency ...

Kucinich: Edwards Trying to Rig Election

Dennis Kucinich is mad as hell and he's not going to take it any more. An angry Dennis Kucinich lashed out at John Edwards on Friday, saying his Democratic rival showed "a consistent lack of integrity" by suggesting fewer candidates should participate in presidential forums and then trying to explain his remark to reporters. "This is a serious matter and ...

McCain Done Before Primaries?

John McCain will be forced to withdraw from the race before the first primary unless fundraising and poll numbers reverse themselves in a hurry, the Sunday Times claims. The speculation, vigorously denied by McCain’s camp, is sweeping Republican circles after a disastrous few weeks in which the principled Arizona senator has clashed with the party’s conservative base on immigration and also ...

1st Republican Debate of 2008 – Video, Transcripts, Reax

I caught perhaps half an hour of last night's so-called debate between Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and eight other guys. I don't feel deprived at not having seen the rest. The format was awful and the not unreasonable decision to include people whose candidacy has no shot (Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul, at a minimum) made the time to ...

Fred Thompson the Great Conservative Hope?

There has long been frustration among the party's social conservative wing that there were no "real conservatives" in the race, despite guys like Tom Tancredo, Mike Huckabee, Jim Gilmore, and Duncan Hunter being in the race. I guess they mean "real conservatives who have a snowball's chance in hell of winning." Enter Fred Thompson. The former Tennessee Senator and ...

Gilmore: McCain, Guiliani, Romney Phony Conservatives (Video)

RalphHallow reported in yesterday's Washington Times that, Former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III will become the first Republican presidential contender to say publicly that the three top-ranked party candidates are phony conservatives. Unlike the Democratic competition for the presidential nomination next year, where supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois already ...

CPAC – Jim Gilmore

Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore came by to shake hands and I managed to talk to him one-on-one for a few minutes. His term preceded my having moved back to Virginia in 2002, so I mostly knew him from his time as RNC Chair and a few appearances on the Sunday shows. He was quite impressive. What ...

Republican Candidates Almost Invisible on the Web

Via Kevin Drum, I see that Micah Sifry has done some comparative analysis and found that the Republicans mentioned as leading contenders for the 2008 presidential race are "almost invisible on the web." To give you just one example, if you add up all the friends all the Republican candidates have on their MySpace pages, and compare it to all the ...

People Who Won’t Get Elected President

While good pundits, especially those with multiple degrees in political science, are supposed to qualify all predictions about elections nearly two years into the future with some sort of disclaimer, I will eschew that convention and predict that the following people will not be elected president in 2008 or thereafter: Dennis Kucinich Christopher Dodd Ron Paul Mike Huckabee Sam Brownback Tommy Thompson Chuck Hagel Duncan Hunter Tom Tancredo Jim ...

Jim Gilmore Explores 2008 Bid

Add Jim Gilmore to the 2008 White House spelunking society. James S. Gilmore III, a former Virginia governor and chairman of the Republican National Committee, announced today that he would form a committee to explore a presidential bid in 2008, saying the Republican field lacked a “committed conservative” capable of making a credible campaign for the White House. “A void exists,” Mr. ...