Ruling With Determined Fervor; Combative Streak That Propelled Gilmore Also Jeopardized Alliances From: The Washington Post | Date: January 6, 2002| Author: R.H. Melton | Copyright 2002 The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post.Copyright information

Gov. James S. Gilmore III leaves office this week after leading Republicans to historic gains with a tax cut now embedded in Virginia's political culture. But that legacy will be forever entwined with a final year of government gridlock and the triumph of a Democratic successor who ran against Gilmore's implacably confrontational style.

Gilmore's defining trait, say friends and foes alike, was the combative streak he nourished in the late 1980s, when he first won office as a county pro...