Jim Gilmore

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Jim Gilmore : biography

October 6, 1949 –

James Stuart "Jim" Gilmore III (born October 6, 1949) is an American politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia, 68th Governor of Virginia, and a member of the Republican Party. A native Virginian, Gilmore studied at the University of Virginia, and then served in the U.S. Army as a counterintelligence agent. He later was elected to public office as a county prosecutor, as the Attorney General of Virginia from 1994 to 1998, and as the 68th Governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002.

Gilmore campaigned for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination until July 2007, when he became the first major Republican candidate to leave the race. Gilmore was nominated as the Republican candidate for Virginia’s United States Senate seat being vacated by John Warner. In the November 2008 election, Gilmore lost to his Democratic opponent Mark Warner.

Presidential candidacy in 2008

A "Draft Gilmore for President" group was formed in August 2006 encouraging Gilmore to run for president. On December 19, 2006, Gilmore announced he would form an exploratory committee to "fill the conservative void" in the race. On January 9, 2007, Gilmore officially filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to form the Jim Gilmore for President Exploratory Committee.

Gilmore said he represented "the Republican wing of the Republican Party" in the race for the 2008 Presidential nomination; the comment mirrored the slogan used by Howard Dean when seeking the Democratic nomination in the 2004 election, who lifted the slogan from Senator Paul Wellstone. Gilmore officially announced his candidacy on April 26, 2007.

In the first quarter of 2007 Gilmore raised $174,790, the second lowest of any of the major-party candidates. Gilmore hosted only one in the first quarter due to a late exploratory announcement.

On July 14, 2007, Gilmore announced that he was ending his campaign. Gilmore said that it would be "impractical" to run, citing the difficulty of raising enough money to be competitive in early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.Mike Allen, , The Politico, July 14, 2007

Other positions, 1997–2003

Gilmore taking questions during a 2004 National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee meeting. During his term as governor, Gilmore chaired the Congressional Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. The Commission was charged with the task of making recommendations to the United States Congress on Internet taxation. The Commission’s Report to Congress opposed taxation of the Internet.

From 1999 to 2003, Gilmore chaired the Congressional Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, nicknamed the Gilmore Commission. It presented five reports to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and to Congress each December 15 from 1999 through 2003.

From January 2001 to January 2002, Gilmore was the Chairman of the Republican National Committee .Stuart Rothenberg, , CNN.com, December 3, 2001 Gilmore, who desired to focus on electing conservative candidates across the United States, resigned from this position due to differences of opinion with the Bush Administration, who wanted the RNC to focus on re-electing the President to a second term in office.

Military service

Gilmore enlisted in the United States Army after attending college, receiving training and preparation for service in the Military Intelligence Corps at the newly created United States Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Gilmore also received rigorous foreign language education at the United States Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, California. Gilmore then worked for three years in the early 1970s, in the 650th Military Intelligence Group. Serving in West Germany during the Vietnam War and fluent in German, he served as a U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent.

Governor of Virginia

In 1997, Gilmore faced then-Lieutenant Governor Don Beyer in a bid to succeed George Allen as governor. Gilmore campaigned heavily on the twin promises of hiring 4,000 new teachers in public schools and phasing out Virginia’s personal property tax on automobiles. Gilmore was elected, winning 56% of the vote to Beyer’s 43%.