Gov. Gilmore Bulldozes His Way Forward

The Hill

June 27, 2001

Jim Gilmore is the sort of fellow one should never underestimate. When he ran for governor of Virginia he started out behind and the book on him was that he was a lackluster campaigner and bull-headed to boot.

Lackluster? Maybe. But the man came up with an issue that resonated. He would, he said, abolish Virginia's hated "car tax." Moderate Republicans hemmed and hawed when asked what they thought of the Gilmore proposal and his Democratic opponent, himself a car salesman, laughed at the idea.

Bullheaded. Definitely. But in that gubernatorial race bullheadedness turned out to be a virtue. Had the man been any less bullheaded, he'd no doubt have listened to those who said eliminating the car tax was irresponsible or impossible. He didn't and he won.

What's more, once in office he dedicated himself to delivering on his promise. It hasn't been easy. Many Republican legislators have been loath to cooperate in actually reducing the moneys available for pet projects that, as members of the party controlling the legislature, they might now vote for themselves.

Over the course of the last few months they have cajoled, threatened and maneuvered to sidetrack their bullheaded governor. And they've failed.

I suspect it might have been this bullheadedness that impressed governor, candidate and then President Bush in his dealings with Gilmore.

Here, after all, is a guy who, like Bush, actually believes in delivering on his campaign promises; a man who will fight rather than go back on his word. The sort of man they tell me they admire down in Texas.

At any rate, Gilmore soon found himself chairing the Republican National Committee (RNC) while spending most of his time fighting to deliver on the promises he made to the people of Virginia. RNC members, who are never particularly happy when a president forces a chairman on them, are grousing that he isn't paying enough attention to them. His critics claim—or are continuing to claim—that he doesn't take advice well; that he's, well, too bullheaded to succeed.

The Democrats meanwhile were, until just last week, gleeful because they were convinced that Gilmore would, as RNC chairman, be forced to preside over electoral disasters in New Jersey and, most embarrassingly, in his own state of Virginia.

These are the two states in which off-year gubernatorial contests are used by the media to gauge the success with which a president is being received by the public.

Virginia looked most savory. Gilmore's attorney general and lieutenant governor were engaged in what appeared to be a duel to the death that would leave the ultimate winner crippled and facing a young millionaire ready to spend whatever it might take to win the governorship.

As a prelude, Republicans looked like they might be in trouble in a special election to fill the 4th Congressional District seat held by a Democrat for some 29 years. The district seemed ready made for the Democrats. By winning it they could embarrass Bush and Gilmore and get the media to report that the GOP since Sen. Jim Jeffords (Ind-Vt.) jumped ship has been coming unraveled.

Virginia's 4th District seemed made to order because it's a district that should go to a Democrat. It's 39 percent black and the Democratic candidate was a well-known black female legislator; just the candidate they needed to generate money, publicity and enthusiasm as they worked to replicate the "knock and drag" tactics that have been so successful elsewhere in boosting black turnout.

But last Tuesday, their candidate lost to a candidate who not only defended Bush's policies, but ran on them. The only good news that came out of the campaign for the Democrats was that their effort to drag black voters to the polls still works.

The bad news was that their campaign against Bush's policies didn't work. The district's voters weren't about to elect a Democrat because the Republicans in Congress and the White House cut their taxes and they resisted demagogic attacks on the Bush Social Security reforms as well.

Gilmore keeps moving ahead. It doesn't look like he'll be embarrassed at home, the car tax fight is behind him and he's finally got the time he needs to mend his fences at the national level and even to put things in order up in New Jersey.

A lot of Republicans and Democrats have bet against Jim Gilmore in the past and they've invariably lost. He doesn't give up and he doesn't lose. The man is just too bullheaded.

David Keene is the chairman of the American Conservative Union and a managing associate with the Carmen Group, a Washington, D.C.-based governmental-affairs firm.