I never believed that surrendering the executive power should be a condition of getting the second term. The second term should stand on its own feet.

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The Virginia Constitution forbids any Governor from serving consecutive terms so Gilmore could not run for a second term in 2001. On December 19 2006 Gilmore announced he would form an exploratory committee to "fill the conservative void" in the race. After working for a decade as an attorney at the firm Benedetti Gilmore Warthen and Dalton he was elected Commonwealth's Attorney of his native Henrico County in 1987 and 1991 and then was first elected to statewide office in 1993 as Virginia's Attorney General.

Gilmore was nominated as the Republican candidate for Virginia's United States Senate seat being vacated by John Warner. James Stuart "Jim" Gilmore III (born October 6 1949) is an American politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia former 68th Governor of Virginia and a member of the Republican Party. Army as a counterintelligence agent.