As far as campaign finances are concerned (and it seems that in these elections a candidate's finances play a particularly crucial role in their success or failure,) Mark Warner is enjoying what appears to be a comfortable lead over his Republican rival, Jim Gilmore. Warner currently holds $5.1 million in the band. While Gilmore boasts a modest $117,000.

Warner won the race to become Virginia's governor in 2001 on a modern platform that sought to overcome what would fester into the intense partisan divides that have come to characterize our political conscience over the past few years.

Warner's success as a governor set the precedent for securing Virginia's electoral votes for the Democratic nominee in the Presidential Election. He ended his term as governor immensely popular, most notably for the record-setting investments in public education K-12, and (before announcing his bid for Senate) was a potential pick for Vice President.

The recent move of CGI and Northrop Grumman, Inc. to the rural town of Lebanon in 2005 has been a talking point for Warner to promote his concern for and action towards promoting job growth in the state of Virginia and a marked achievement in keeping jobs from being shipped overseas.

"Now, some folks look at towns like Lebanon and say: 'Tough luck. In the global economy, you've lost. But we believed that we shouldn't, and couldn't, give up on our small towns and expect the rest of the state to prosper," the Senator said at the DNC two weeks ago.

Virginia is becoming a prized battle ground in the Presidential Election and Mark Warner is pushing for as much publicity as he can in order to both promote his own campaign for Senate and also to potential pull the state over to Obama in November.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/09/09/ap5403689.html

As the "sure bet" in the Virginia Senate race, Mark Warner was highlighted in the Democratic National Convention as the 2008 Keynote Speaker.

Speaking about bi-partisanship, technology and a more sustainable future in many different ways, Warner made the most of his time on the national stage while also framing Barack Obama as the candidate of the future.

Watch Warner's Entire Speech Below

Warner: The Democratic Party is About Fairness

In an interview at the Democratic National Convention, Bill Maher asks Mark Warner what his children might have asked, “Daddy, hat’s the difference between us and Republicans? What are we in this party and not the other?”

I’d say that the Democratic Party at its best is about giving everybody a fair shot. It’s not about guaranteeing everyone success, but it’s about making sure that everybody gets a fair shot.” He points out that he has failed in business and politics, but that America has always given him a fair shot.

The Gilmore campaign has gone on record numerous times about Warner's energy platform, saying that Warner is not in favor of exploring American oil reserves, i.e. drilling offshore. In a July press release Gilmore's PR say that Warner is "on the record repeatedly opposing efforts" to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas [Gilmore campaign release, 7/15/08], which simply isn't so.

Governor Warner is in favor of present off-shore drilling to alleviate gas prices, but doesn't believe exploratory drilling is a satisfactory long-term alternative for the American people. When he revealed his energy plan to his constituents on June 18th, it did include plans for exploratory drilling along the Atlantic coast.

From the Daily Press 2008:

While open to drilling, Warner said there is no reason to think long-range plans for increased drilling offshore would bring prices down soon."There's no serious policymaker or economist who predicts that," Warner said. "I know it's political season, but some of this is basic math."

Any native Virginian can look back at the Gubenatorial service of the two candidates and make a decision about how our Senate team should be comprised. It still goes back to the recent race between George Allen and Jim Webb. One represented Virginia's past and the other Virginia's future. Neither Jim Webb nor Mark Warner represent a repudiation of the good things in our proud history, they simply seem more forward-looking, more modern if you will. Jim Gilmore was removed as RNC Chair for his ineffective performance in 2002 and is simply not a great leader. Mark Warner has the vision and experience in business and as a political leader that best represents the future of the Commonwealth. Perception isn't everything but it it is telling in this case.

In the future I'll break down the issues.

Democratic Senator Candidate Mark Warner is young, charismatic and actually has plans and how he would implement them into the Senate.

Out of all the issues Mr. Warner plans, his best argument is his education stance. He understands the economic threat from China and India (now it should be Russia added to that) so he wants to increase our goals of education. “Governor Warner believes that we need to invest in our education system, to best arm our children to be competitive in world’s economy and to thus create high-paying jobs here at home.”

However, as most politicians’ in-the-box thinking, Mr. Warner’s plans are to just increase funding for education without giving any fresh ideas on how to better our education. Should the states start to look after education more? Should all teachers get a raise? What kind of programs should be offered at schools? Should school have longer hours? 9-5 maybe as Senator Mike Gravel proposed?

Another way to improve Virginia’s economy comes from his pilot program unveiled as “Virginia Works” in 2004:

• A Motorsports Initiative was established to attract motorsports teams and businesses that support those teams to Southside Virginia.

• A Community Development Bank was created with $15 million in capital from existing state loan programs to help provide business capital in the distressed areas of the Commonwealth.

• Regional Workforce Consortium Grants directed $2 million to local partnerships that developed innovative programs to train the local workforce in the skills that employers needed now and in the next five years.

• Virginia Works provided funds for the creation of two artisan centers, one near Abingdon and one near Staunton, to showcase and market homegrown arts and crafts.

• New tourism initiatives promoted the unique heritage-based and natural resource attractions of rural Virginia, including the rails-to-trails program in Southside and the Crooked Road Heritage Music Trail in Southwest.

As Gilmore picked up the pace in his campaign by running television spots criticizing Warner of failing to deliver on his promise to not raise taxes as governor, Warner picked up endorsements from former Gilmore supporters such as the Fraternal Order of Police and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.

Warner dismissed the ad as "“tired, old partisan politics.”

The FOP backed Gilmore in 1993 when he was running for the state attorney general position but refused to support him again in 1997 for disagreements with his legal stance on issues they considered "hostile to police."

Warner is laying pretty thick on the Obama endorsement hoping to pull the state of Virginia for the Democratic Presidential candidate for the first time since 1964.

Warner on Jobs

Warner claims that as governor he helped create over 120,000 jobs. He also states that he transformed Virginia from the 11th lowest unemployment state to the 2nd lowest in the nation. These actions could gain traction in a year where the national unemployment rate has reached a 5-year high of 6.1%. One way that he proposes to stimulate the economy is by improving education. He believes that better educated student will lead to innovations. Warner states his (vague) plan here. This plan, however, would reap long-term benefits and does not address those why have lost work.

Warner Offers an Energy Policy with a Schedule

Warner emphasizes that the cure to America’s energy crisis will require short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term solutions. In the short-term, the former governor wants to “crackdown” on oil speculators and pressure OPEC nations to increase production. It is unclear, though, what regulations he would impose on speculators or what leverage America has over OPEC.

In the mid-term, Warner wants to give tax credits for hybrid and battery technology vehicles, invest in research and development for alternative energy and technology, and explore offshore for natural gas. The latter proposal conflicts with Gilmore’s accusation that Warner is not willing in principle to drill.

In the long term, the candidate would raise fuel efficiency standards for vehicles, expand domestic refining capacity, and implement a carbon cap-and-trade system.

"You've got to have a stronger center," he adds. "That means you've got to look at each issue and realize that if it's a good idea, you shouldn't care about where it originated."

A refreshing viewpoint from Mark Warner, when the country is otherwise radically divided. Clinton was a centrist, and no matter what you think of him now, he did get elected, and most importantly, he did get the economy back on track, leaving office with a surplus that is long gone, in payment for an unpopular, mind-bogglingly expensive war. Under Bush, the economy went down the tubes, literally, yet the rich got richer. In their latest debate, as evidence of his centrist policies, or what he calls the promotion of "radical centrists", he and opponent Jim Gilmore actually agreed on policies such as gun control, regulation of the financial sector, and they are close on drilling--Warner opposes it at ANWR, but believes it should be investigated as part of a parcel of solutions, including more environment-friendly options.

The Republican National Senatorial Committee has publicly given up on their man Gilmore, so let's go ahead and go with what just makes sense, Warner, who brings a broader spectrum of ideas to this race, and gives the democrats an edge in the quest for Virginia's hotly contested 13 electoral votes.

In polling released Sept 14, Warner leads his opponent by 23 points, a swing of a mere one point in Warner's favor. One in four Republicans cross over to vote for Warner making this race a pretty much foregone conclusion.

The Virginia Senate race is one of two which Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada characterized as polling to the advantage of the Democratic candidate by more than the margin of error according to polls for the National Republican Senatorial Committee which is led by the Nevada Senator. Additionally he characterizes two races as similarly showing the Republican leading outside the margin of error and six essentially even within the margin of error. The implication is clearly that in a year where Republicans are troubled by the burden of an unpopular outgoing administration, so many "pick 'em" races is "so far, so good" for the Republicans.

In re the only debate between Warner(D) and Gilmore(R): "In the end, this was a fairly useless debate. Neither candidate landed any hard punches. I'd give the edge to Warner, who was more detailed and forthcoming on the economic crisis and who seemed generally more confident and senatorial. Gilmore has an air of desperation about him these days, and he was way too defensive and brittle about his own record as governor."

This statement reflects the general ho-hum around the senate race in Virginia. Warner is waaaay ahead (20 points), he's evinces a dynamic personality, and his record does reflect his tendency and ability to go across party lines. The keynote speech at the DNC, and speculation about the VP slot only heightened his luster. Gilmore is referred to as "desperate", a sure buzz-kill for any candidate's hopes, and in this case, the hopes of his own party, who have left the building early. He seems intent on a limited two-prong approach that reflects that desperation: 1) Calling Warner a liar and, 2) attempting to somehow slime Warner's image by bringing up his association with Obama. As Dr. Phil would say, "How's that working for you?"

Marc Fisher, the reporter, seems utterly bored by his own story. The telling and most interesting part of this column are the comments. The people of Virginia can't stand Gilmore, and love Warner. It's just that simple. We do, too.

And one more thing, just to clear up some confusion over on youtube.com. If you search under "Mark Warner", there appears several videos by someone calling themselves "warner08", similar to and as bizarre as the one below. If you view as many as you can stomach, you finally get that these are actually pro-Gilmore supporters. Huh?

What are you trying to say? Who does this help? And How? I don't want to go all ad hominem on anybody, but Hon, this just adds to the already pathetic nature of Gilmore's campaign.

Everybody's got a video camera these days. To coin a familiar former slogan: It's not the camera, Stupid. (It's the message?)

This particular post is neither an endorsement or a statement against Mark Warner (D) but rather a summary (more or less) of an editorial posted this morning on the Washington Post website.

The author points out that, in the recent congressional decision to "usurp the District's ability to write its own gun laws", Warner's former "willingness to work across borders for regional needs" is now rendered obsolete as his support of the Supreme Court rule (which revoked the city's ban on handgun possession) showed "no compunction in turning his back on the needs of a neighboring jurisdiction and its right to self-government."

In sum, the piece points out Warner's (as well as Congress as a whole) willingness to bend to the demands and interests of the powerful lobbies (such as the National Rifle Association) rather than legislate on behalf of "the home rule rights of the D.C. residents."

And, while the article focuses primarily on Mark Warner, it also notes that he made the legislative flip along with James Gilmore III (R) to offer an insight (however biased) into the powerful forces at play in the legislative decisions on Capital Hill.

Mark Warner (D) has targeted bipartisan cooperation as the cornerstone of his Senate campaign against Jim Gilmore (R).

According to his press secretary, Emily Kryder, Warner is seeking the seat "because now, more than ever, Washington needs leaders who can work across the aisle to get things done for the American people.”

His plan, as Kryder details, is to "build a coalition of “Radical Centrists” in the Senate comprised of members of both parties who are committed to putting aside partisan gridlock in order to get things done for the American people. [He] is interested in working on a comprehensive energy policy, establishing a national competitiveness strategy so all Americans can compete and win in the global economy, and he wants to put the federal government’s fiscal house back in order just as he did as governor of Virginia."

The centrist message Warner is proclaiming and the publicity he enjoyed during the Democratic National Convention have earned the Democratic hopeful a notable lead over Gilmore in the polls and many of the state political analysts are leaning towards a Warner victory in November.

Mark Warner stopped off at the Dixie Bones barbecue restaurant in Woodbridge this past Wednesday to promote his populist message to the Virginia voters along Prince William Parkway.

"You have not campaigned until you have stood on the Prince William Parkway holding a sign up to see if people give you a thumbs up or the middle finger," the candidate said.

Warner was accompanied by Gary Connolly, the Democratic chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Connolly noted the importance of transportation in the economic and infrastructural stability and development of the state of Virginia.

"Transportation, transportation, transportation. Whether it is expanding capacity on roadways or extending Metro rail on [Interstate] 66 or down to Potomac Mills, we need to look at these options.”

Warner echoed the chairman's statements claiming that the money being spent on oil from foreign countries needs to be redirected towards domestic ingenuity and development. Surprisingly enough, Warner went so far as to criticize Obama for not addressing our national infrastructure more (if at all) in his presidential platform and went on to propose a mass rail transit system for Virginia.

However, the Democratic candidate's concerns about transportation and infrastructure seemed to fall on deaf ears as the escalating economic crisis has risen to the top of the political tier and all but consumes voters' concerns.

Warner concluded, "I’m not happy [about the bailout bill] but I have to have faith that something or something is right, and if they’re not, the politicians should all resign."

According to the polls released this Monday (October 6th), Democrat Mark Warner is sitting atop a sizable 26 percentage point lead over Republican Jim Gilmore in the race for Sen. John Warner's (R) seat in the U.S. Senate.

The poll was conducted by the Richmond Times-Dispatch Poll and showed Warner with a 57 percent showing to Gilmore's 31 percent.

The poll interviewed 625 voters and has a error margin of around 4 percent.