Mark Warner

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Mark Warner
Governor Mark Warner during a Navy commissioning ceremony, October 2004.
69th Governor of Virginia
In office January 2002 – January 2006
Lieutenant(s)	Tim Kaine (2002-2006)
Preceded by	Jim Gilmore
Succeeded by	Tim Kaine
Born	December 15, 1954 Indianapolis, Indiana
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Lisa Collis
Profession	Businessman
Religion	Presbyterian

Mark Robert Warner (born December 15, 1954) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Virginia and a member of the Democratic Party. Warner is now the Honorary Chairman of the Forward Together PAC. He is the immediate former Governor of Virginia; in the final months of his gubernatorial term, Warner's poll ratings indicated that he was the most popular Virginia governor in a generation, with record approval ratings of 75%.^[1] In November 2005, Time magazine named Warner one of the five best governors in the United States.

Warner was considered one of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2008 because of his wide appeal to independents and moderate Republicans, and his high popularity in a relatively Republican state. He is considered by many to be a New Democrat, while some believe he is a Blue Dog Democrat. Some have compared Warner to Bill Clinton, another moderate Southern Democratic governor who had strong appeal to moderates and independents. On October 12, 2006, however, Warner ruled out a 2008 presidential bid in favor of spending time with his family.^[2]

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Governor of Virginia 3 Future political career 4 References 4.1 Numbered 4.2 General 5 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Warner was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is the son of Robert and Marge Warner, and the older brother of Lisa Warner. He grew up in Illinois, and later in Vernon, Connecticut where he graduated from Rockville High School. He attended The George Washington University and in 1977 became the first person in his family to graduate from college. Warner went on to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1980.

In the early 1980s, Warner served as a Senate staff member to Senator Christopher Dodd. He used his knowledge of federal telecommunications policies as a broker of cellular phone franchise licenses, making a large fortune. As managing director of Columbia Capital Corporation he helped found or was an early investor in a number of technology companies. He was one of the early investors in Nextel, co-founded Capital Cellular Corporation, and built up an estimated fortune of over $200 million. He married Lisa Collis in 1989, and has three daughters, Madison, Gillian, and Eliza. During her husband's tenure as Governor, Ms. Collis was the first Virginia First Lady to use her maiden name.

Warner involved himself in public efforts related to health care, telecommunications, information technology, and education. He managed Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder's successful 1989 gubernatorial campaign, served as state chairman of the state Democratic Party and ultimately made his own bid for public office, unsuccessfully running for the United States Senate in 1996 against Republican Senator John Warner (no relation) in a "Warner vs. Warner" election. John Warner was unpopular with many conservative Republicans (especially those from rural Virginia) for refusing to support Mike Farris, the 1993 state GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, and for opposing the 1994 Senate candidacy of controversial Republican Oliver North. Mark Warner seized on this discontent within the state Republican ranks (actually garnering some Republican protest votes) to perform impressively in the state's rural areas, making the contest much closer than many pundits expected.

[edit] Governor of Virginia

In 2001, Warner campaigned for Governor as a moderate Democrat after years of slowly building up a power base in rural Virginia. He defeated the Republican candidate, then-State Attorney General Mark Earley, by a margin of almost 100,000 votes. Warner again benefited from dissension in Republican ranks after a heated battle for the nomination between Earley, backed by religious conservatives, and then Lieutenant Governor John H. Hager, some of whose supporters later openly backed Warner. In the same election, Republican Jerry Kilgore was elected Attorney General, and Democrat Tim Kaine was elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Although Virginians rejected regional referenda led by Warner to raise the sales tax in 2002 for transportation, Warner worked with moderate Republican legislators and the business community to reform the tax code in 2004, lowering food and income taxes, and increasing the sales and cigarette taxes in 2004. The action saved the state's AAA bond rating, held at the time by only 5 other states, and allowed the single largest investment in K-12 education in Virginia history. Warner chaired the National Governors Association in 2004-2005 and led a national high school reform movement. He also chaired the Southern Governors' Association and was a member of the Democratic Governors Association.

Warner's popularity paid off for the Democrats when, in 2003 and again in 2005, the party made net gains in the Virginia House of Delegates and began to reduce the majorities built up by Republicans after they gained control in the 1990s.

In January 2005, after a two-year study^[3], the Government Performance Project, in conjunction with Governing magazine and the Pew Charitable Trust, graded each state in four management categories: money, people, infrastructure, and information. Virginia and Utah received the highest ratings average with both states receiving an A- rating overall, prompting Warner to dub Virginia "the best managed state in the nation."

Kaine and Kilgore both sought to succeed Warner as Governor of Virginia. (The Virginia Constitution forbids any Governor from serving consecutive terms, so Warner could not have run for a second term in 2005.) On November 8, 2005, Kaine, the former Mayor of Richmond, won with 52% of the vote. Kilgore, who had resigned as Attorney General in February 2005 to campaign full-time, and who had previously served as Virginia Secretary of Public Safety, received 46% of the vote. Russ Potts, a Republican state senator, also ran for Governor as an independent, receiving 2% of the vote. Warner had supported and campaigned for Kaine, and many national pundits considered Kaine's victory to be further evidence of Warner's political clout in Virginia, as well as a signal of his viability as a presidential candidate.

On November 29, 2005, as was his prerogative as governor, Warner commuted the death sentence of Robin Lovitt to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Lovitt was convicted of murdering Clayton Dicks at an Arlington pool hall in 1999. After his trial in 2001, a court clerk illegally destroyed evidence that was used against Lovitt during his trial, but that could theoretically have exonerated him upon further DNA testing. Lovitt's death sentence would have been the 1,000th carried out in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment as permissible under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution in 1976. In a statement, Warner said, "The actions of an agent of the commonwealth, in a manner contrary to the express direction of the law, comes at the expense of a defendant facing society's most severe and final sanction." Warner denied clemency in 11 other death penalty cases that came before him as governor.

Warner also arranged for DNA tests of evidence left from the case of Roger Keith Coleman, who was put to death by the state in 1992. Coleman was convicted in the 1981 rape and stabbing death of Coleman's own 19-year-old sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy. Coleman drew national attention, even making the cover of TIME, by repeatedly claiming innocence and protesting the unfairness of the death penalty. However, DNA results announced on January 12, 2006, seemed to confirm Coleman's guilt.^[4]

[edit] Future political career

Warner's home-state popularity is high, polling in the final year of his term with an 80% approval rating from Washington Post, and 76% from Mason-Dixon Political Media Research, published in newspapers statewide. According to Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker, that gives Warner the highest approval rating for an outgoing governor in the firm's two-decade history.

On August 29, 2005, Warner announced that he would not challenge George Allen for his Senate seat in 2006, even though a poll commissioned by The Roanoke Times and other papers across Virginia had shown that voters would have preferred Warner in an election against Allen.^[5]

Warner was considered to be a potential Presidential candidate in 2008 until he publicly took himself out of the running in October 2006.^[6] After John Kerry's 2004 presidential election defeat, Warner was regarded by supporters as a figure around whom the party could rally for the 2008 election. His business experience, Southern base, fundraising connections within high-tech and venture capital circles, and record of working with black leaders add up to what some see as an attractive political résumé.

Since Warner is not running for President in 2008, some Virginia Democrats consider him a strong candidate for Governor in 2009, something he has hinted at himself. While Governor he worked on an initiative co-sponsored with his predecessor George Allen to end term limits on the office of Governor. He could, however, legally run again after the four year hiatus. Although Warner's Lieutenant Governor, Tim Kaine, was elected Governor in 2005, that election resulted in the election of a Republican Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, leaving no obvious Democratic candidate for 2009.^[7] Warner could also run in a potential rematch for Senate in 2008, for the seat currently held by Republican John Warner who will be 81 in 2008 and may retire. Some close associates further speculate he might seek a career in diplomacy. [1]

[edit] References

[edit] Numbered

[edit] General

• Barnes, Lindsay (Oct. 9, 2006). "Mark him absent". The Hook weekly.

[edit] External links

• Forward Together PAC
• About.com's Inside Profile of Mark Warner,'08 Democratic Presidential Hopeful & Former Virginia Governor
• Profile in Charlottesville's The Hook

Preceded by: Jim Gilmore

Governor of Virginia 2002-2006

Succeeded by: Tim Kaine

Governors of Virginia

Henry • Jefferson • Fleming • Nelson • Harrison • Henry • E Randolph • B Randolph • H Lee • Brooke • Wood • Monroe • Page • Cabell • Tyler Sr • G Smith • Monroe • G Smith • P Randolph • Barbour • Nicholas • Preston • T Randolph • Pleasants • J Tyler • Giles • J Floyd • Tazewell • Robertson • Campbell • Gilmer • Patton • Rutherford • Gregory • McDowell • W "EB" Smith • JB Floyd • Johnson • Wise • Letcher • W "EB" Smith • Pierpont • Wells • Walker • Kemper • Holliday • Cameron • F Lee • McKinney • Ferrall • JH Tyler • Montague • Swanson • Mann • Stuart • Davis • Trinkle • Byrd • Pollard • Peery • Price • Darden • Tuck • Battle • Stanley • Almond • A Harrison • Godwin • Holton • Godwin • Dalton • Robb • Baliles • Wilder • Allen • Gilmore • Warner • Kaine

Persondata
NAME	Warner, Mark Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Virginia politician
DATE OF BIRTH	December 15, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH	Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH