Virginia Republican for President

National Review's Jonathan Martin writes of a recent conversation with former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore about his possible 2008 run here.

Virginia Republican for President
Jim Gilmore wants to fill the slot George Allen’s defeat left open.
By Jonathan Martin

Not a few conservatives take a look at the current presidential field and ask, “Is that it?” Surely, they say, there is a candidate in the wings sans the personal or ideological baggage that each of the prospective hopefuls seems to carry.Jim Gilmore, the former Virginia governor and chairman of the Republican National Committee, is one of these not-fully-satisfied Republicans.

“There is a need for a conservative who’s electable,” Gilmore argues emphatically in a conversation with National Review Online at his Georgetown law office. And Gilmore has somebody in mind who could fit that bill. Jim Gilmore.“I’m considering a national candidacy,” he says bluntly.

He’s been to Iowa four times, South Carolina twice in just the last month, and was in California in August to speak to their state party’s convention. He’s also reached out to longtime GOP activists in some of these key states, sounding them out about a potential White House bid. To Gilmore, nobody else in the presidential mix has his credentials: Army intelligence officer, local prosecutor, state attorney general, governor, national party leader, and chairman of a terrorism and homeland-security commission that predated 9/11.