Kilgore kicks off run for Virgnia governor

Former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore kicked off his effort Monday to win back the commonwealth's governorship for the Republicans.

The centerpiece of Kilgore's campaign is a pledge to cap rapidly rising home assessment through an amendment to the Virginia Constitution limiting such increases, the Washington Post said.

"Suffice it to say it's going to be a mechanism that is going to control the outrageous increases we have been seeing," Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh said. "The past six weeks, it's pretty much all he hears about from people."

Kilgore will also reportedly push for a statewide merit pay system to reward good teachers and for using the commonwealth's operating fund to pay for new transportation projects.

Virginia's secretary of public safety under Republican Gov. George Allen, Kilgore was elected attorney general in 2001. His likely opponent in the November general election is Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, although state Sen. H. Russell Potts of Winchester is campaigning for a place on the ballot as an "independent Republican."

Virginia's current governor, Democrat Mark Warner, is term-limited.

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