'Gail for Rail' Hopes to Run for U.S. Senate

Gail Parker, a retired Air Force Reservist and Defense Department budget analyst who has run for office several times in Virginia in recent years, has filed papers to run for U.S. Senate in November.

Parker is still collecting signatures from some areas of the state to appear on the ballot, along with Republican James S. Gilmore III and Democrat Mark R. Warner.

Parker, whose radio jingle in the 2006 Senate campaign (Let's vote for Gail! She's for light rail!) drew jabs from Stephen Colbert on his late-night Comedy Central show, garnered more than one percent of the vote in the razor tight race between Republican George Allen and Democrat James Webb.

Parker ran as an Independent Green candidate (not affiliated with the more liberal Green Party of the United States) in 2005 for the House District 44 seat held by Democratic Del. Kristen J. Amundson and in 2007 against Fairfax Board Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D).

She is a huge advocate of high-speed rail and her Website lists her slogan as "More Trains, Less Traffic!"