Warner, Gilmore attack at Labor Day event

The annual Labor Day Parade in Buena Vista is a rare time when our politicians gather to work the crowd and sell their campaign messages all at the same time.

Generally all the candidates on the ballot show up and this year was no different. We had both Jim Gilmore and Mark Warner who are running to replace retiring Senator John Warner. And Bob Goodlatte and his opponent Sam Rasoul were there as well. We even got a preview of the 2009 statewide contests as Democratic gubernatorial candidates Del. Brian Moran and Sen. Creigh Deeds and Republican Attorney General candidates John Brownlee and Sen. Ken Cuccinelli made appearances.

After the parade everyone walks up to a pavillion, where the candidates give a pitch for their campaign. I’ve covered this even for a decade and usually these speeches are mild. The candidates tend to talk themselves up and hit the major points of their stump speech. Rarely do we hear an attack. 2008 was different!

Jim Gilmore started the speeches and launched into a litany of differences between himself and Mark Warner including their positions on taxes, domestic oil drilling, and union memberships. Warner was next. He criticized Gilmore’s tactics, before launching a set of his own attacks on Gilmore’s leadership as governor.

Each man sat there as the other attacked. It was uncomfortable. These verbal assaults seemed out of place for this event and only underscored to me the dislike each man feels for the other. We already knew this, but Monday’s parade once again highlighted it and it showed that we may be in for a bruising fall campaign.