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The presidential campaign of James Gilmore was notable as much for its shortness as its inimitable episodes. The former Governor of Virginia and Chairman of the Republican National Committee was drafted successfully to run by his peers in January 2007, and officially began the campaign in April after filing papers with the Federal Elections Commission. Gilmore was committed to conservative principles throughout his run, which ultimately ended in July 2007 due to a lack of sufficient funding. The campaign led to Gilmore's decision to run in the 2008 Virginia Senatorial race, which he lost to Democrat Mark Warner.〔 〕 ==Early stages== In August 2006, an effort arose to convince Jim Gilmore to run for president of the United States in 2008. The volunteers cited Gilmore's past experiences as qualifications for the job including his service as a counter-intelligence officer for the U.S. army, his post of attorney general of Virginia, his services as chairman of the Gilmore Commission and the National Council on Readiness and Preparedness, as well as his role as president of the non-profit homeland security think-tank USA Secure.〔 〕 Gilmore decided to listen to the draft efforts, and weighed a possible presidential run when he became the sixth Republican to enact an exploratory committee on January 10, 2007. During his announcement, Gilmore cast himself as a "mainstream Reagan conservative that has always kept his promises" alluding to his record of tax cuts as Governor of Virginia. On March 14, Gilmore attended his first forum along with other, mostly Democratic presidential candidates. The meeting addressed the International Association of Fire Fighters labor union. Gilmore discussed how his policies as president would "be supportive of the troops" in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he agreed with the policy for a troop surge in Iraq. Gilmore received no applause from the crowd after making the latter comment. Later in March, Gilmore was interviewed by the Associated Press where he affirmed his pro-life, pro-gun, and anti-tax positions on the issues. He stated that "The moment is there for a candidacy such as mine" while criticizing the frontrunners for the Republican nomination for their views. He stated that Arizona Senator John McCain "hasn't made his reputation as a conservative", he reminded his audience that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is "for gun control,...gay marriage,...(is ) pro-choice" and described former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as a "very liberal Northeast Republican". At the end of March, it was revealed that Gilmore had raised $200,000 for his exploratory committee. Early in April, Gilmore coined the term "Rudy McRomney" to describe the three Republican frontrunners, whom he labeled as liberals during a forum in Des Moines, Iowa. On April 16, ten days prior to his official announcement, polling results revealed that Gilmore hovered between 1% and 2% support among the Republican electorate. A ''Washington Post''-ABC News poll found that Gilmore was in twelfth place among Republicans with 1% of participants, compared to 0% in February and 1% in January. Somewhat promising results showed that among Newt Gingrich supporters, Gilmore had 2% support; up from 0% in February. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jim Gilmore presidential campaign, 2008」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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