Gilmore begins statewide intro tour

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Former Governor Jim Gilmore begins a statewide airplane tour of Virginia Tuesday to reintroduce himself to voters as he opens his Senate race.
  Gilmore, who left office seven years ago, commences a hard summer campaign against his Democratic successor as governor, Mark Warner.
  Early independent polling makes Warner a favorite to put both of Virginia’s U.S. Senate seats in Democratic hands for the first time since 1970.
  Warner also has a huge fundraising edge over Gilmore, raising nearly $8 million to nearly $1 million for Gilmore.
  Gilmore hopes to portray Warner as a wealthy ``limousine liberal’‘ who doesn’t feel the pain of working families terrified by gasoline prices soaring past $4 a gallon.
  Warner has been campaigning as a pro-business moderate who lifted Virginia out of a budget mess that he says resulted from Gilmore’s fiscal bungling.