Jim Gilmore- Victory through Divisiveness

1. Virginia: Start warming up the bus. This one is all over. Barring some sort of unforeseen political catastrophe, Mark Warner will be the next senator from the commonwealth. Rep. Tom Davis's decision not to run for the Senate leaves former Gov. Jim Gilmore as the almost-certain nominee. And after the results of last week's state elections in Virginia, it's hard to even find a Republican who thinks Gilmore has a chance. (Previous ranking: 1)

But apparently Jim Gilmore thinks he can win- by playing up his extreme partisanship that divided even the Republican Party and by criticizing Mark Warner for working with Republicans in the General Assembly for "consensus" solutions to Virginia's problems (SERIOUSLY- HIS WORDS!):

A Gilmore-Warner Senate contest would not only be a partisan brawl but also would offer voters a sharp choice between a Republican with an appetite for confrontation and a Democrat who prefers consensus.

I think its an excellent strategy on Gilmore's part to play up and highlight why Warner is Virginia's most popular elected official- I think a good Gilmore campaign slogan would be: "Damn Good Government, Full Speed Ahead with Gilmore".

UPDATE: Teddy has a great one in the comments section: "Damn Good Government! Retrograde with Gilmore" (What do people think about having a Raising Kaine slogan contest for the Gilmore campaign? :p)

UPDATE 2: I think a particularly good quote about Jim Gilmore's divisiveness comes from REPUBLICAN State Senator Ken Stolle: "I think Jim Gilmore should run because I think he should be exposed for the fraud that he is," said Stolle, who remains bitter about that year's tax policy clash that he said Gilmore made unnecessarily personal. "He (Gilmore) drove a wedge between the House and the Senate, and he drove a stake into the heart of the party," said Stolle, R-Virginia Beach.

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