Who Knew He Was Running?
Filed under: 2008 elections, Conservatives, Politics — pamelaleavey on July 15, 2007 @ 6:24 am CEST
Note to Michael’s readers: Greetings from the liberal side of the aisle and many thanks to Michael for the opportunity to post here while he’s on vacation. The readers at The Democratic Daily have enjoyed Michael’s posts there, I hope his readers will enjoy mine.
In every presidential race there are always some longshot candidates that decide to make a bid, but I had no idea this guy was running… Until he dropped out:
Former Virginia governor James S. Gilmore III ended his long-shot Republican presidential campaign yesterday, saying he was unable to raise enough money to communicate his conservative vision to Americans. He held out the possibility, however, that he might soon run for public office again in Virginia.
Gilmore, the son of a butcher who had improbably risen to become a local prosecutor, a state attorney general and a governor of Virginia, dropped out of the crowded GOP primary field a day before reporting that he had raised $211,000 between April and June.
Gilmore said yesterday, “I think I have the record and credentials to actually be the president…”
But apparently not to many people agreed:
Since January, he has raised $381,000, while his rivals have collected tens of millions of dollars.
The Washington Post also reported today that the presidential race is heating up in Florida where Republicans “Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney both spent heavily in Florida over the past three months.”
Florida’s elevated status owes to its new Jan. 29 primary date, which places it one week ahead of the crush of early primaries in delegate-rich states such as California, New Jersey and New York.
It will be interesting to see how this front loaded primary system pans out for both sides of the aisle.
Cross posted from The Democratic Daily.
1 Rich Horton
July 15, 2007 @ 6:40 am CESTYou beat me to posting this!
I’m sure a couple members of Gilmore’s family will be crushed by this news.
2 pamelaleavey
July 15, 2007 @ 6:59 am CESTRich
I honestly had not even heard he was running. Mind you I haven’t been paying too much attention yet to ‘08 and I know I should be, but I missed the big announcement I guess. Maybe only his family knew?
3 kritter
July 15, 2007 @ 11:50 am CESTI always wonder whether candidates like Gilmore delude themselves into believing that they actually have a chance to win the nomination, or are running for some other unknown reason. Maybe a few supporters pump their already huge egos up into believing they are presidential material. In any case, I did know Gilmore was running (he was a less than stellar governor of Virginia a few years ago) but also predicted he would be the first to drop out. Can Tommy Thompson, Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo be far behind??
4 Rich Horton
July 15, 2007 @ 7:06 pm CESTWell, there is also the belief that having run previously is a benefit for a future run, at least on the Republican side (ala Reagan and Dole). Gilmore might be looking more at 2012 (assuming a Democratic victory in 2008.)
5 kritter
July 16, 2007 @ 9:49 am CESTThere’s no reason to believe that he would have any better chance in 2012 than in 2008, but I get your point.