Associated Press

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore (right) greets supporters before a news conference to kick off his U.S. Senate campaign Tuesday in Richmond.

RICHMOND -- Former Gov. Jim Gilmore kicked off the general election phase of his U.S. Senate campaign Tuesday, embracing the cause of "working families" and firing salvos at his Democratic rival, former Gov. Mark Warner.

Gilmore, the Republican nominee, held news conferences in Richmond, Norfolk and Manassas to begin framing the issues that he considers central to his contest with Warner. He vowed to resist tax increases and support expanded oil drilling in the United States, citing the struggles families face with a sagging economy and skyrocketing gasoline prices.

Gilmore called his campaign "a crusade for working families."

"They are concerned, they want leadership and we're going to give it to them," Gilmore said in a news conference at the state Capitol.

Gilmore aligned himself with Republican presidential candidate John McCain and tried to tether Warner to the positions of Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential hopeful.

He also attacked Warner for raising taxes as governor, saying the Democrat "broke his word to the people of Virginia."

"Mark Warner's just like a hungry piranha," Gilmore said in a news conference at the state Capitol. "There's just no end to his appetite for other people's tax money."

Fellow Republicans Attorney General Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and state GOP chairman Jeff Frederick joined Gilmore on Tuesday's tour. Gilmore said he will get to all parts of the state in the coming weeks.

The two former governors are competing for the seat occupied by Republican John Warner, who is retiring after three decades in the Senate. Mark Warner and John Warner are not related.

The rhetorical crossfire between the campaigns has escalated since Gilmore won the GOP nomination May 31 and it continued Tuesday.

"Electing Mr. Gilmore will mean more of the negative, name-calling politics of the past, and Gilmore's positions will lead to bigger deficits, higher oil company profits, and will offer no real relief for working families," Mark Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said in response to Gilmore's remarks.

Warner holds a significant funding advantage over Gilmore and has been courting moderate Republicans and business leaders while campaigning as a political centrist.

Warner succeeded Gilmore in 2002 and inherited budget shortfalls that prompted him to cut spending. Warner pushed a tax increase through the Republican-run General Assembly in 2004, saying it was necessary to shore up long-term funding for essential services. Two Republicans who led the General Assembly's budget committees during Warner's term endorsed the Democrat on Monday.

Gilmore has accused Warner of exaggerating the severity of the state's budget problems to win support for a tax increase that was worth $1.4 billion over two years. Gilmore said Warner broke a 2001 campaign pledge on taxes and failed to complete the phaseout of the personal property tax on vehicles, a program Gilmore launched in 1998.

"I am a person who does what he says he is going to do," Gilmore said. "I have been a straight talker."

Gilmore said he wants to preserve federal tax cuts enacted on President Bush's watch, while Warner favors the expiration of tax cuts that benefit high-income earners.

The two candidates also have clashing views on energy policy.

Gilmore supports drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to increase domestic oil supply, saying such a step could help control gas prices.

Warner opposes drilling in the Alaskan wilderness and said the country must increase emphasis on alternative energy sources to reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

Gilmore said struggling families can't wait for long-term solutions.

"They're having trouble now putting $300 a month into their gas tanks to get to and from work," said Gilmore, who has tried to depict Warner as being out of touch with the concerns of working-class Virginians.

Warner said Monday that Gilmore "walked away" from working families in Southside Virginia in 2000, when Gilmore vetoed legislation to provide supplemental unemployment benefits for jobless textile workers in the region.

"One of the best ways you can predict what someone's going to do going forward is show me what you've done when you had the opportunity," Warner told reporters in a conference call.

Gilmore said his administration provided "significant work force training" to help displaced textile workers.

He also noted that his administration helped create a commission to handle half of the proceeds Virginia received from a 1998 multistate settlement with tobacco companies. The commission has used the money to help farmers and fund economic development projects in tobacco-dependent communities.