Prince William’s Marshall misses nod for Senate run

By BOB LEWIS, The Associated Press
Published: May 31, 2008

RICHMOND—A sharply split Virginia Republican Convention nominated former Gov. Jim Gilmore to run for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. John Warner.

Gilmore won 50.3 percent of the delegate votes Saturday over conservative Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, the Virginia General Assembly's most ardent foe of abortion and gay marriage.

The slim margin—about 65 votes, less than a percentage point—leaves Gilmore to face popular, well-funded Democrat Mark Warner in the fall election in a state where the GOP lost the past two gubernatorial races and the 2006 Senate election.

Gilmore assailed Warner in his speech as a tax-prone "limousine liberal'' who will say anything to get elected. He ignored Marshall in his remarks to the approximately 3,500 delegates.

"He will go to the Senate and vote with the liberal Democrats who are out of touch with the na-tion,'' Gilmore said. "Mark Warner doesn't care what you have to pay for a tank of gas.''

As he spoke, a team of his aides wearing blue and orange baseball caps worked the convention floor, mak-ing sure his delegates cast their votes.

Marshall's loud, sign-waving supporters, many of them church-based social conservatives new to the intricacies of party maneuvering, packed the convention.

"Go, Bob, go,'' they chanted through his remarks, the roar drowning out Gil-more's supporters.

In conceding defeat, Marshall noted that he had only $78,000 to spend compared to nearly $1 million Gil-more raised. "And I still came within 80 votes.''

Marshall joined Gilmore briefly onstage and called for a GOP victory over Warner, but never endorsed Gilmore or mentioned his name.

Even in victory, Gilmore's supporters expressed doubts about his chances against Warner, who was elected to succeed Gilmore as governor largely by blaming Gilmore for a state budget crisis.

"Anybody against Warner, I have my doubts. I wish I didn't think that and I hope I'm proven wrong,'' said Gilmore delegate Cathy Liggins of Gloucester.

Sensing the division and doubts after the sometimes raucous contest, Gilmore addressed them in his speech. He said his supporters can't afford to be intimidated by Warner's strong showing in statewide polls, his reputation as a moderate, the nearly $8 million he has raised or his strong base of support in the state's most populous region, northern Virginia.

"The Mark Warner you see on that TV ad is not the Mark Warner you will see in the United States Senate,'' Gilmore said.

"We're going to broaden this party, and people who say that you can't win in northern Virginia are just flat wrong. We can win in northern Virginia, and we will,'' he said.

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Associated Press Writer Dena Potter contributed to this report.