Sure, November 2008 is nearly two years away, but it’s
apparently never too early to declare one’s intention to run for president, and thus it’s never too early to get to know the people who might be the next leader of the free world. This month we’ll be taking a brief look at them.

James Gilmore III

Party: Republican

Age: 58

Status: Has Exploratory Committee

www.gilmoreforpresident.com

James Gilmore III, a former Governor of Virginia, served as the Chair of the Congressional Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction from 1999 to 2003. He currently serves as Chairman of the National Council on Readiness & Preparedness, and as President of USA Secure, a non-profit homeland security think tank based in Washington, D.C. In case you couldn’t guess, he plans to run for President on a platform of National Security.

Gilmore was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1949. His father was a butcher, and his mother was a church secretary. Gilmore attended the University of Virginia for both his undergraduate and his law degrees. He met his wife, Roxane, while attending UVA. After a 3 year tour of duty as a U.S. Army counterintelligence agent in Germany, Gilmore began his law career as a partner in a successful Richmond firm. After opening his own firm, Gilmore ran for prosecutor in Henrico County, Virginia and was elected in 1987 and reelected in 1991. In 1993, Gilmore ran for the office of Virginia Attorney General, which he won by a substantial margin.

In 1997, Gilmore was elected Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia on a platform promising to repeal the state’s infamous car tax. When he left the office in 2001, Virginia faced over 7 billion dollars of debt. While governor, Gilmore assented to a request from the National Organization for European-American Rights to make May European-American Heritage Month. After reporters from the Associated Press pointed out that the group making the request was a white supremacy group headed by David Duke, former Ku Klux Klan leader, the Governor rescinded the proclamation.

While still Governor, Gilmore was appointed by President Bush to chair the Republican National Committee, but resigned the chairmanship after his extremely brief tenure was fraught with tensions with the White House. Term limits had barred Gilmore from running for the governorship again and the Republican who was nominated in his stead, Mark Earley, lost in a stunning defeat to Democrat Mark Warner shortly after Gilmore took over the RNC. The loss of his home state to the Democrats caused a great deal of grumbling among fellow Republicans, particularly the president’s closest advisors.

Gilmore is pro-life, pro-death penalty, pro-drug war, and pro-tax cuts. He has pushed for offshore oil development and a state school voucher system in Virginia. He has said he would not support a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, though he does not support the surge either. As Governor, Gilmore established the Office of the Secretary of Technology, and has said he would like “Virginia to be recognized as the Internet capital of the world.”

Posted by Eli’s Intern: Sage Van Wing

Previously: John Edwards, John McCain, Bill Richardson, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, Sam Brownback, Christopher J. Dodd, Newt Gingrich, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Huckabee, Tom Vilsack, Joe Biden, Duncan Hunter, Tommy Thompson, and Ron Paul.