Mark R. Warner, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, is answering Jim Gilmore's first television salvo with a commercial depicting the Republican as a budget-buster.

Warner yesterday put up a 30-second advertisement that accuses Gilmore of attempting to "cover up the biggest shortfall in Virginia history."

The Gilmore spot, which started running this past weekend, spotlights the $1.4 billion tax increase that Warner won for police, public education and social services in 2004.

The dueling commercials -- on cable and over-the-air stations -- are pegged to the candidates' fiscal stewardship as governor. Gilmore served from 1998 to 2002 and was succeeded by Warner.

Even as the economy slowed in 2001, Gilmore pushed to expand his promised rollback of the locally imposed car tax -- a move resisted by moderate Senate Republicans as too costly.

The Warner commercial includes another appearance by former Senate Finance Committee Chairman John H. Chichester, R-Stafford.

Chichester battled with Gilmore over the car tax and sided with Warner in winning the tax increase that Warner said was necessary to repair a budget allegedly weakened by Gilmore's no-car-tax plan.

To balance the budget he inherited from Gilmore, Warner cut spending over several years by $6 billion. But even after the reductions, Warner said new taxes were necessary to cover the growing cost of basic state services.

The Warner commercial, like Gilmore's, is not running in the pricey Washington suburbs but is being carried in the state's other markets.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.