Spank That Donkey

Chris over at Mason Conservative has this excellent observation:

Rasmussen just did a poll for the yet-to-be-started Virginia Senate race, and Mark Warner, oh ye-of-70% approval, has a 15 point lead on Jim Gilmore. Not too bad, consideirng people were saying Warner was up by 30 points a few months ago. More interestingly, is that Warner is only at 53%, which means there are plenty of voters out there for Gilmore to go out and win. With the weak showing of Hillary Clinton in Virginia, and I believe she will be the nominee, Gilmore has all the oppurtunity to make this into a real fight. Don't get me wrong, I wish my guy was up by 15, but my guy WAS up by 15 last go around and we know what happened there.

G.A. Harrison over at Delmarva Dealings takes it a step further at B4G:

Well, it's January now. Ten months to go until the general election. Is Warner still ahead? Yep, but now the lead is down to 15%! As our colleague Chris at Mason Conservative notes, there's "Blood in the Water"!. The latest Rasmussen poll shows the spread at Warner - 53% to Gilmore - 38%.

There are myriad reasons why Jim Gilmore will be the Commonwealth's next senator. Not the least of which is Warner's seeming inability to maintain one stance on a given issue. Warner makes John Kerry look almost steadfast by comparison.

There is one area that cannot be overlooked - the African-American vote. Unlike certain states up north, you can't simply walk in and pull the Democrat lever. Virginians actually have to vote for each candidate.

While I am confident that Warner will garner a huge share of votes from African-Americans in Virginia, every vote will count in this election and sizable numbers of African-Americans have proven that they will vote for the right Republican candidate. While I was unable to find any exit poll numbers from Gilmore's 1997 election, I do remember that George Allen polled surprisingly well from African-Americans in his 1993 race for Governor.

Let us remember a few things from Gilmore's 1993 race for AG as well as his 1997 gubernatorial run. Jim is a tireless campaigner and impressive on the stump. He is a man of humble beginnings and that background shows through, and well, with working class voters.

My good friend friend Shaun Kenney notes that Gov. Gilmore has an approval rating of 45% even after barrage, after barrage of bad press dumped on him by the MSM, Liberals, and RINO GOP Senators?  That is the definition of resilience!  The citizen taxpayers know a good Governor, and one who not only knows how to return tax dollars back to them, but also to roll back college tuition 20%, while getting dollars to K-12 Education and Transportation.

During a time of surplus, Governor Gilmore didn't waste our tax dollars, no indeed, he truly invested them back into the citizenry, and the infrastructure of our Commonwealth.  We need his common sense attitude in the US Senate!