GOP Watch

Gilmore still in denial

Posted by Greg on Tuesday, June 19

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore's fledgling presidential campaign hasn't exactly caught fire yet, so you may have missed his interview on Bruce DuMont's "Beyond the Beltway" show last week.

In case you did, we've provided a clip below of one of the evening's highlights. Kris Anderson, treasurer of the Young Democrats of America, asked Gilmore about cost overruns on the Springfield Interchange and Jefferson Avenue Interchange projects during the Gilmore administration, prompting the governor to say "I'm not aware that we had overruns in the Springfield Mixing Bowl." He further bragged that he "kept the Mixing Bowl on time and on budget."

In reality, of course, the Mixing Bowl project has ballooned wildly from the initial cost estimate of $350 million in 1994, jumping up to $540 million in 2000 and finally $646 million last April. [VDOT News Release, 6/22/00; VDOT Fact Sheet; 4/12/06]

The Jefferson Avenue project in Newport News, meanwhile, was 10 months behind schedule and $25 million over budget when VDOT clashed with Archer-Western Contractors over construction blunders in 2001. [Daily Press, 9/23/01]

But good luck with the campaign, Gov. Gilmore. If it ends anything like your governorship did, we can look forward to a Democrat to cleaning up the mess in November.