When I talked about Bob Marshall being able to bring out the base in a way Gilmore just can’t do, this is what I meant (Bloggers 4 Bob, emphasis added):
FRC Action, the legislative advocacy arm of the Family Research Council founded by Dr. James Dobson in 1983 to promote marriage and family and the sanctity of human life in national policy, on Tuesday endorsed Del. Bob Marshall for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.
“Delegate Marshall is the conservative candidate in this race,” Connie Mackey, FRC Action’s senior vice president said in a statement released from its headquarters in Washington, D.C. “There is a clear and significant difference between Bob Marshall’s claim to the pro-life mantle and Jim Gilmore’s.
“During his more than 17 years in the Virginia House of Delegates, Bob Marshall has exemplified what it is to be a statesman. It is a great honor for FRC Action to endorse Bob Marshall for the U.S. Senate.”
. . .
“[Marshall] drafted and led the way for Virginia’s partial-birth abortion ban bill,” Mackey said in her statement.
. . .
Gilmore, on the other hand, “has insisted that abortion remain legal for up to the first eight weeks of pregnancy,” Mackey said. “Under Gilmore’s policy, it would be legal for approximately 700,000 unborn children to be killed each year.”
For pro-life voters, that’s a difference wide enough for a truck – or in this case, a van full of voters. Mark Warner’s two previous statewide campaigns (a closer-than-anyone-expected second for U.S. Senate in 1996 and his gubernatorial victory in 2001) depended upon a divided and demoralized Republican base. The best way to prevent that from happening again is clear: nominate Bob Marshall.
Misspelled “just” as “jsut” in the first paragraph.
(Why is it that I always notice other people’s spelling mistakes, but not my own?)
Thanks. It’s been fixed.
Gee:
Marshall Drafted and Led the Way on Partial Birth Abortion?
Interesting, uhh, if there were no Gov. Jim Gilmore to sign the ban, would LG Don Beyer (who is really the previous version of Mark Warner) have signed the bill if he were not defeated by Gilmore?
NO…
It’s about electability, not grandstanding one issue, when clearly Jim Gilmore was the most successful Pro-Life Gov. in VA’s history. Name me a Governor that has done more? (insert Crickets chirping)
How many pieces of legislation did Jim Gilmore sponsor and draft in the legislature?
Zero.
How many bills will Gilmore get to sign in the United States Senate?
Zero again.
Executive experience is nice, but Marshall has 17 years of legislative experience, and given that we’re talking about a seat in the federal legislature, I think that means something.
I will agree with you that electability is important; but the FRC Action endorsement makes it fairly clear that Marshall is far more electable.