HOT SPRINGS -- Republican Jim Gilmore and Democrat Mark Warner clashed over energy policy and their respective records as governor Saturday in the first debate of their U.S. Senate race, with the issue of trust serving as a recurring theme.

Gilmore lags well behind Warner in campaign funds and trails in public opinion polls, but he brought plenty of fight to a debate staged by the Virginia Bar Association as part of its summer meeting at The Homestead resort.

Gilmore attacked Warner for raising taxes as governor and accused the Democrat of being difficult to pin down on the issue of offshore oil drilling.

Warner also went on the offensive, branding Gilmore as a combative partisan who drove Virginia "into the fiscal ditch" as governor in a quest to phase out the personal property tax on vehicles.

The former governors are competing for the Senate seat held by Republican John Warner, who will retire after three decades in office. John Warner and Mark Warner are not related.

Energy emerged as the dominant policy issue in Saturday's debate. But Gilmore said the election will turn on the issue of trust, and chided Warner for breaking a 2001 campaign promise not to raise taxes.

"The question is who do you trust --a person who sticks with it and delivers on the car tax cut and does what he says he's going to do, or a person who casually brushes aside those kind of fundamental commitments to the people of Virginia and raises your taxes anyway?" Gilmore said.

Warner steered a tax increase through the Republican-run General Assembly in 2004 after spending much of the first half of his term wrestling with budget shortfalls. Gilmore accused Warner of ignoring evidence of a rebounding economy to push a tax increase worth $1.4 billion over two years.

Warner said the tax package was necessary to shore up Virginia's finances for the long term and preserve the state's perfect bond rating.

"It was about putting Virginia back on the path of fiscal stability," said Warner, who has been endorsed by the two Republicans who led the legislature's budget committees in 2004.

Warner also criticized Gilmore's handling of state finances, calling it a key point of comparison between the candidates. Warner argued that Gilmore understated the cost of his signature car tax relief initiative while running for governor in 1997, then relied on "budget gimmicks" to continue the program when the economy slowed at the end of this term.

Warner said the two candidates have "very different records, very different styles" that offer clear contrasts for voters.

"At the end of our terms, which governor left Virginia a better place?" Warner asked.

The candidates' attacks intensified when they had a chance to question each other. Warner began one exchange with Gilmore with a litany of criticisms that stopped only when moderator David Broder interrupted to nudge Warner toward a question.

Throughout the debate, each candidate accused the other of misrepresenting his positions, especially on energy policy. Gilmore seized on the issue of rising gas prices and called for an aggressive effort to increase domestic oil production through drilling off U.S. coastlines and in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"Oil markets are sensitive," Gilmore said. "They will come down if the United States has a decisive energy policy."

Warner said he opposes drilling in the Alaskan wilderness but supports lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling. Warner stopped short of endorsing offshore oil production when he first outlined his energy proposals last month. Gilmore repeatedly criticized him Saturday for being murky on the issue and asked him directly to clarify his position.

Warner said he supports lifting the offshore drilling moratorium and letting coastal states decide whether to allow the activity. But Warner insisted that increased domestic drilling is not a "silver bullet" solution to rising gas prices and derided Gilmore's "drill here, drill now" mantra as a gimmick.

Warner called for a multifaceted policy that would include expanding the use of alternative energy sources and boosting incentives for purchasing hybrid vehicles.

Warner likened his position on offshore drilling to that of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who favors lifting the offshore moratorium but opposes drilling in Alaska. Warner made several references to McCain in the debate but barely mentioned Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The candidates traded views on several other issues during the debate, including U.S. Supreme Court appointments and the handling of Virginia issues.

Gilmore said he would support the confirmation of justices who shared the philosophies of Republican appointees John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, and would not "legislate from the bench and make up things." Gilmore criticized the four justices who recently supported upholding the District of Columbia's handgun ban.

Warner said the process for appointing federal judges needs to be improved, but insisted he would not base his confirmation votes on "litmus-test issues."

The two candidates also traded jabs over their handling of state economic issues. Warner criticized Gilmore for his 2000 veto of a relief package that would have boosted unemployment benefits for workers in high unemployment areas, including 3,000 workers displaced by the closing of Tultex Corp.'s Martinsville plant.

Gilmore said he vetoed the bill because it would "favor the people only in Southside and not people in other parts of the state."