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Republican Senate candidate Jim Gilmore stopped at the party’s Lynchburg headquarters Wednesday to say momentum is swinging his way in the race with Democrat Mark Warner.
“People decide this race, not the polls,” Gilmore said, without appearing to be intimidated by several polls that show Warner favored by about 60 percent of the voters. “As long as people know where I stand on the issues and where Mark Warner stands, I’m going to get their votes,” Gilmore said.
He said right to work is emerging as an issue in the race, with Warner on record as being supported by labor unions that want federal law changed to allow unions to organize workplaces when more than half of the employees sign union cards.
“He’s going to vote on behalf of unions to eliminate the secret ballot election for unions,” Gilmore said.
Warner has said he might support some changes to the organizing process, but not one that would eliminate secret-ballot elections if workers choose to have them.
Gilmore added to his repertoire of issues Wednesday by saying that as attorney general of Virginia in 1994 he helped organize other state attorneys to take a hard line against church burnings in the South.
“Those burnings stopped,” Gilmore said.
But about the same time, he said, Warner was making a speech in the Washington area that criticized “people in the Christian Coalition, people who are right-to-lifers, people who are members of the NRA, people who are home-schoolers — he was saying they were threatening what it means to be American,” Gilmore said.
After a tape of that speech emerged during this year’s campaign, Warner said the comments were “over the top” and “I think I’ve learned a lot” in the 14 years since.
Gilmore said, “That’s the difference between us. My history of toleration and that kind of radical statement he was making. I think it means I’m going to get the votes here in Lynchburg.”
Gilmore said he has boosted his chances in Tuesday’s election because he has shared the platform at several Republican presidential campaign appearances in Virginia and hoped to join John McCain and Sarah Palin at appearances this weekend in Newport News, Springfield and Richmond.
“Virginia is probably going to end up voting for McCain,” Gilmore said. “They’re doubling back now to Virginia to make sure it stays where it belongs and I’m very excited.”
Most polls since mid-October have shown Democrat Barack Obama with either an edge or a lead of up to 10 points in Virginia. Another poll from the Mason-Dixon Research organization is due out this weekend.
(newsadvance.com)