Story by Chris Graham
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Jim Gilmore characterized his first TV ad of the 2008 campaign season as “Principled.” The response from the Mark Warner campaign highlights the “Preposterous” charges lobbed at Warner in the ad.
The 30-second ad will begin airing tonight in the same TV markets where the Gilmore ad that takes a stab at Warner’s record as governor is currently airing. The Warner ad features cameo appearances by two retired Republican lawmakers, former Senate Majority Leader John Chichester and former House Appropriations Committee chairman Vincent Callahan.
“To attack Governor Warner’s record on fiscal management in such a simplistic and negative way is just ridiculous,” said Del. Callahan. “After Gov. Warner took office in 2002, he spent more than two years working with the legislature in an honest and businesslike way to cut spending and address the fiscal mess he inherited from his predecessor.”
“It’s preposterous that this negative campaign ad simply glosses-over the bipartisan approach Gov. Warner took with the Legislature to solve Virginia’s very serious fiscal problems,” said Sen. Chichester. “Our bipartisan 2004 budget and tax reforms helped restore integrity to our budget process and helped us save Virginia’s sterling Triple-A credit rating.”
The Gilmore ad took Warner to task by playing a clip from a 2001 gubernatorial-candidates debate in which Warner said he would not raise taxes as governor and then highlighted his support of a 2004 bipartisan tax increase that raised needed revenues for education and transportation-system improvements in Virginia.
Jeffrey Frederick, the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, which paid for the ad to back the financially-strapped Gilmore campaign, said the spot is “a clear reminder to the voters of Virginia that Mark Warner doesn’t know how to keep his promises, and the more people learn about Warner, the more they don’t like what they hear. John McCain will need a strong conservative voice in the Senate from Virginia – someone who does what he says he will do,” Frederick said.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZOT0tuObWs&eurl=http://www.markwarner2008.com/pages/preposterous-ad]
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Chris Graham
