Jim Gilmore is now listed at SlateCard.com, make sure to add him to your list of candidates if you have an account:

While the Warner campaign has been quiet when it comes to what Mark Warner actually supports, they have taken a strong stand against something at least: Mark Warner firmly opposes any questions about issues or criticism, even from members of his own party.

Last night, the Warner campaign had several comments posted from Democrats. One was asking his stance on gay issues (and why a previous comment had been deleted) and another was critical of his campaign tactics. This morning, the comments are not only mysteriously gone, but the option to even comment is missing. Luckily, through the miracle of browser caches, Red Senate has been able to preserve these comments for posterity:

On December 12th, 2007 at 05:38 PM, Lenny wrote:
How come you took my comment thanking the Governor for standing with the GLBT community? Does he not support the GLBT community?

On December 12th, 2007 at 06:55 PM, John P. wrote:
It sure is a shame that Phil Forgit lost. The media says that with the low turnout it all boiled down to GOTV operations. Too bad we didn't have some extremely popular former Governor, perhaps even a Senate candidate, who could have thrown his weight around and helped turn another VA House district blue. Oh wait, we did have one. He just felt like sending out a couple of token e-mails and tooting his own horn. Gov. Warner, you need to realize that the world does not revolve around you. The special election last night reminded me of your announcement timing. We could have taken both chambers of the state house with a little more money but instead you felt like jumping the gun and announcing before the 2007 elections were over and funneled valuable resources to your needless "pre-emptive" announcement. Please remember that your are not the only Democrat in VA.

Rob Wittman has handily won election, not only that he won traditionally Democratic areas. All while the media was pushing Phil Forgit at every given opportunity and Democrats were confident of victory.

A sign of things to come?

The Richmond Times Dispatch is covering the story, first broke at BVBL, of the Warner campaign's spy in the GOP. At the time of the story's breaking, the few defenders of Mr. Payne attempted to paint him as nothing but a low-level policy worker with little interest in electoral politics. The fact that he is now a "strategist" for the Mark Warner campaign would seem to indicate that maybe his motives weren't quite as pure as they would like to pretend:

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner has hired a strategist from the Republican Party's failed bid to save its Virginia Senate majority to enlist GOP support for his Democratic U.S. Senate candidacy.

William H. "Will" Payne II joined the Warner campaign from the staff of Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, a key ally in Warner's successful effort to win a $1.4 billion tax increase in 2004 for schools, police and human services.

Payne declined to comment yesterday, deferring to Warner spokesman Kevin Hall.

"Will is able to reach out to those pragmatic independents and Republican-leaning folks who would be naturally inclined to Mark Warner's brand of leadership," Hall said.

But M. Boyd Marcus Jr., a senior operative for Warner's likely Republican opponent, former Gov. Jim Gilmore, said Payne's affiliation with the Democrat raises troubling questions.

"It was a grave violation of any kind of ethical standard to go out and hire someone from the other side who had access to immense amounts of sensitive information," Marcus said.

For reference, here's a posting from the comments at BVBL of one of Warner's defenders at the time:

Clean it up in '07 said on 15 Nov 2007 at 10:33 am:

Once again on this blog, much is being made out of these legislative assistant positions. I laughed when Fittzsimmonds supporters were actually asserting that these are some knd of “insider” policy shaping jobs. They aren’t. They are administrative posts that are VERY apolitical, and in some instances the positions are held by people of the opposite party of their bosses. There are some legislative assistants who have held their positions even as a different member of a different party was elected to the post. Some General Assembly members view this position just for what it is: a constituent affairs adminstrator…..and yes…they have to make coffee too.

They are people hardly in a position to be included in high level campaign and policy strategy sessions on the statewide level. Heck, Stolle himself probably has a hard time getting in on those conference calls.

It's hard to say if the dirty tricks or the transparent lies in defense of them are more sickening.

A number of Virginia bloggers have launched Bloggers 4 Jim Gilmore. Make sure to add it to your blogroll as it is sure to be a great source of news in the Virginia blogosphere and has a number of great authors from numerous blogs.

SWAC Girl reports:

Word has come out that the democrats had a tracker inside the Republican Advance over the weekend filming Jim Gilmore and others. The dems, of course, will be trying to repeat their "macaca" glory from last year ... and so the nasty games begin.

Spank That Donkey! follows up with this:

Do you have a Democrat on your list who lacks in ethics but has big wants in notoriety? We have found the perfect gift for you!

It's the Slime Cam! Fun to chase around any and all Republican Candidates when you know you don't have any issues and desperately need something, anything, to slime your opponents with!

Act now, and you can get a free carrying bag of dirty tricks!

Wait, That's not All ! What if you film a Republican saying something that no one has any clue, because the candidate himself doesn't even know! It doesn't matter, you can just make that crap up in Wikipedia....

And Remember, Desperate is, as Desperate Does! (Looks Like Governor Jim Gilmore has some people scared).

And let's not forget that Warner already had a mole listening in on sensitive GOP conference calls just before the election. Mark Warner hasn't opened his mouth once on any single issue even once, yet his campaign manages to find time to pull every dirty trick in the book.

What's next from the Warner campaign? Phone taps? Midnight break-ins at the Gilmore campaign office? Only time will tell...

Chris Saxman has stated in his RPV Advance speech that he is not running for U.S. Senate. As we speculated, it was a publicity stunt for a 2009 run all along.

The Jim Gilmore for Senate campaign is providing live coverage of the Donald Huffman Advance at their campaign blog and are uploading pictures as the day goes on.

As for Chris Saxman, one individual on the ground at the advance described his apparent level of support as "anemic."

It looks like we're not the only ones who think Chris Saxman is using his "Senate campaign" to angle for a run in 2009. Former State Senator, and Saxman supporter, Brandon Bell writes at his new blog Roanoke Red Zone:

I am heading up to Arlington for the Advance this weekend. Should be a fun and interesting weekend.

Looks like Chris Saxman will share the stage with Gilmore at the Straw Poll. Some believe he will announce that he’s running for the US Senate. That may be true, but I think there is a chance that he is using the platform as a potential Senate candidate to elevate his profile for a Statewide run in 2009 and will announce that he’s not running next year. If so, his plan has worked well.

Is Chris Saxman running for Governor and Senate at the same time?

That's the impression you would get listening to his rhetoric lately. At every given chance, Del. Saxman rails against the "Old Guard" of the Virginia Republican Party. Even Saxman supporters admit that his U.S. Senate bid is more to establish him as a "new face" for the GOP and to gain statewide support for a run for office in 2009. Prior to now, most people had assumed he had been planning a run for Lt. Gov., but his insistent attacks on the "old guard" of the GOP would seem to suggest he is setting his sights a little higher.

Saxman clearly intends to follow the example of Mark Warner, that is he intends to tank a U.S. Senate race in order to run again in 2009. With this tactic in mind, it becomes fairly clear that his rhetoric about the "old guard" is directed just as much at Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Gov. George Allen as it is at Gov. Jim Gilmore. Everyone knows that Saxman is going to lose and run again for something in 2009, why else would he be hitting the "old guard" unless he was looking at a confrontation with them down the road? Surely he isn't self-destructive enough to damage all of these campaigns at once unless he planned on running for Governor.

We at Red Senate on the other hand, would like to salute the so-called "old guard" for their service to Virginia. Bill Bolling, Jim Gilmore, and Bob McDonnell (the "old guard") have proven themselves as Republican leaders and dedicated public servants. Sen. Allen has served us with distinction in the United States Senate and will hopefully have another chance to serve the people of Virginia in the future, the objections of Chris Saxman and his ego notwithstanding.

We're not the only ones noticing Mark Warner's complete lack of substance on the issues. Take a look at this blog post from the Washington Post today:

Round One: Campaign Websites

Former governor Mark R. Warner (D) has been a U.S. Senate candidate for two months. Former governor James S. Gilmore III (R) has been a Senate candidate for two days.

Who do you think has the better website?

You can find Warner's website here. You can find Gilmore's website here.

You may notice one distinction. Warner's website doesn't include a section outlining his views on the issues yet. But Gilmore's includes his positions on illegal immigration, energy independence, taxes, transportation, education and terrorism.

James Atticus Bowden on Jim Gilmore's candidacy:

Gilmore will win, because he is with 55 to 60% of Virginians on every issue.

Gilmore will win, because the prospect of HRH Hillary I will galvanize at least 55% of Virginia, regardless of who is at the top of the Republican ballot. The movement to stop HER will be even bigger if Fred Thompson is the Presidential candidate.

Gilmore has to speak, write and act out the truth of what happened in his Governorship and afterwards - to rewrite the narrative, the huge lies, that provided fig leaves to the Transportation Tax Scam of '02 and the largest Tax increase in Virginia history in '04.

It would help if the words of his stump speech sang more than they marched. Presently, they are the good solid facts one would expect of a Commonwealth's Attorney. Not quite the soaring rhetoric that arouses the peasants and good people to stop HRH Hillary I and her Connecticut Yankee court lackey, Mark "I won't raise your taxes" Warner.

Perhaps a new cadence will come to Jim Gilmore's lips if he draws the clash of ideas, concepts, principles and worldviews in clear, striking tones - ringing in the ears of all who can hear.

As the Gilmore campaign launched yesterday, conservative bloggers such as Conservita noted that Gilmore's campaign was offering issue statements and forward-looking statements while Mark Warner's campaign seems to be more of a cult of personality around their candidate. Warner's campaign reinforced this theme in their petty statement regarding Gilmore's entry into the race for U.S. Senate, instead of offering any platforms or a forward-looking plan for the future they chose to regurgitate six-year old talking points that have been largely refuted.

Gov. Gilmore hit the nail on the head in a UPI article with his reaction to the Warner campaign:

Gilmore called that statement "a bit shrill."

Jim Gilmore was being more generous than some of Mark Warner's supporters when he called that statement "shrill." As of this writing there are only two comments on Mark Warner's campaign site in response to the statement, one of which reads:

On November 19th, 2007 at 06:42 PM, jereme wrote:

I believe both governors did a good job during their period of time as governor. I also thing to gloves should stay on to prevent the voters from being disgusted with the candidates. So please keep the snide comment to yourself Mr. Hall.

Snide comment, indeed.

Video announcement via Youtube:



Campaign site here.

Another video appeared on YouTube recently hitting Mark Warner over his lies in relation to Virginia's state budget. Take a look below:



This would appear to be a follow-up from the same person who distributed a video lampooning Warner over his use of government loopholes in amassing his personal fortune.