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Democratic candidate Mark Warner (left) listens as Republican Jim Gilmore answers |
HOT SPRINGS--The first debate between former Govs. Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore proved to be a tense exchange of accusations about trust and mischaracterized records.
Gilmore, the Republican, and Warner, the Democrat, faced off at The Homestead resort at a U.S. Senate candidates' debate sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association.
For more than an hour they traded barbs about fiscal responsibility, taxes and energy plans.
Warner characterized himself as a bipartisan problem-solver who will get things done in Washington; he painted Gilmore as adhering to a car-tax cut to the detriment of the state's budget.
"We'll probably hear more name-calling. At the end of the day, name-calling doesn't get results," Warner said, adding that Gilmore "helped drive Virginia into a fiscal ditch."
Gilmore repeatedly said he's the candidate voters can trust to keep his word, and he accused Warner of breaking a promise by raising taxes even as state revenues improved after an economic downturn.
"Who will keep his word? Who has a track record of doing what he says he's going to do?" Gilmore asked. He said Warner has "a natural instinct to raise taxes" and said he "casually brushes aside those kind of fundamental commitments to the people of Virginia."
Apart from general questions of trust, the dominant issue of the debate was drilling for oil offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, currently forbidden by a federal moratorium.
Gilmore favors drilling in both areas and wants the federal government to have the final say. Warner opposes drilling in ANWR. He says the federal moratorium on offshore drilling should be lifted but that states can decide for themselves whether to actually drill.
"The 'drill here, drill now, pay less' sound bite isn't going to solve the problem," Warner said. He called it a gimmick.
Gilmore has made domestic oil drilling a centerpiece of his energy plan; apart from drilling, he and Warner both favor a variety of other energy initiatives, including more emphasis on alternative fuels.
Drilling domestically "makes a significant difference. It must be done," Gilmore said. "Mark Warner has said he is against drilling in ANWR, and he has fuzzed up and confused his position on offshore drilling."
Warner has said that while he favors exploring for oil and gas offshore, he's concerned about the environmental impact of developing potential oil reserves.
At the debate his message seemed more favorable to drilling, but Warner said he has made no change in his position.
"Jim Gilmore refuses to take 'yes' from me on offshore [drilling]," he told reporters after the debate.
Warner accused Gilmore of ruining the state's budget with a car-tax cut that ballooned far beyond original cost projections.
"Your fiscal policies had actually gotten Virginia to the point that its credit rating was in danger," Warner said.
He was referring to a warning by Moody's, a bond rating agency, to downgrade Virginia's treasured AAA bond rating because of shaky state finances; Moody's cited the car-tax cut as a factor.
Moody's threat helped prompt lawmakers to support Warner's tax package in 2004.
Gilmore suggested that while lawmakers were debating that tax package Warner deliberately hid letters from his secretary of finance indicating that Virginia's revenues were improving.
Warner said he hid nothing, that revenue figures are public and open to the legislature, and that the tax package was necessary to fix a long-term problem.
"Did you inform Moody's there was a big fat surplus coming up?" Gilmore asked Warner.
"The majority of Virginians know we did the right thing," Warner answered.
Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com
