The meltdown of Jim Gilmore's bid for a Virginia Senate seat against Mark Warner continues:
Fairfax County Republican Vincent F. Callahan Jr., former chairman of the Virginia House Appropriations Committee and onetime ally of James S. Gilmore III, said he would announce Monday that he is supporting Democrat Mark R. Warner in the state's U.S. Senate race.
Callahan said Gilmore, Warner's GOP opponent, misled legislators and the public about the state's finances and the cost of his signature effort to eliminate the car tax when he was governor from 1998 to 2002.
"The figures Gilmore used were so utterly erroneous and far-fetched that they were mind-boggling," said Callahan, who helped Gilmore push his car tax proposal through the House of Delegates in the late 1990s. (emphasis mine)
Gilmore's campaign lashed out in response, sniffing that "we are comfortable [Warner] is going to get some support from 'country club Republicans.'" An appalled Virginia friend of mine who generally votes conservative emailed that he's debating who to write in in November, "Donald Duck, Ollie North, or my brother's guinea pig."
--Eve Fairbanks