Mark R. Warner
Mark Warner speaking in Philadelphia, May 2006
69th Governor of Virginia
In office January 12, 2002 – January 14, 2006
Lieutenant(s)	Tim Kaine
Preceded by	Jim Gilmore
Succeeded by	Tim Kaine
Born	December 15 1954 (1954--) (age 52) Indianapolis, Indiana
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Lisa Collis
Alma mater	George Washington University
Profession	Businessman
Religion	Presbyterian
Signature

Mark Robert Warner (born December 15, 1954) is an American businessman and politician from the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia and a member of the Democratic Party. Warner is the immediate former governor of Virginia and the honorary chairman of the Forward Together PAC. He is a candidate for the United States Senate in 2008^[1]

In 2006, he was widely expected to pursue the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections; however, he announced in October 2006 that he would not run, citing a desire not to disrupt his family life. Prior to announcing his candidacy for the Senate, he had been considered to be a potential vice presidential pick due to his image as a centrist and popularity in Virginia, an emerging battleground state with 13 electoral votes.

He currently serves on the boards of National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the CNA Corporation. In 2007, he served on the national security taskforce and co-chair the transportation taskforce of the Bipartisan Policy Council.

Early life and career

Warner was born in Indianapolis, Indiana; he is the son of Robert and Marge Warner, and is 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 Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT). He later used his knowledge of federal telecommunications policies as a broker of cellular phone franchise licenses, making a significant 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 net worth of more than $200 million.^{[citation needed]} 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 Douglas Wilder's successful 1989 gubernatorial campaign, served as chairman of the state Democratic Party and ultimately made his own bid for public office, unsuccessfully running for the U.S. Senate in 1996 against incumbent Republican John Warner (no relation) in a "Warner vs. Warner" election. John Warner was unpopular with many conservative Republicans for refusing to support Mike Farris, the 1993 state GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, and for opposing the 1994 Senate candidacy of Oliver North. Mark Warner seized on this discontent within the state Republican ranks (actually garnering Republican protest votes) to perform strongly in the state's rural areas, making the contest much closer than many pundits expected.

Governor of Virginia

Then-Gov. Mark Warner as the state commander-in-chief

In 2001, Warner campaigned for governor as a moderate Democrat after years of slowly building up a power base in rural Virginia, particularly Southwest Virginia. He defeated the Republican candidate, then-State Attorney General Mark Earley with 52.16% of the vote, a margin of 96,943 votes. Warner benefited from dissension in Republican ranks after a heated battle for the nomination between Earley, backed by religious conservatives, and then-Lt. Gov. 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.

After he was elected, in 2002, Warner drew upon a $1 billion "rainy day fund" left by his predecessor, James S. Gilmore, III.^{[citation needed]} In 2002, Warner campaigned in favor of two regional sales tax increases (Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads) to fund transportation. Virginians rejected both regional referendums to raise the sales tax in 2002. In 2004, Warner worked with Democratic and liberal Republican legislators and the business community to reform the tax code, lowering food and some income taxes, and increasing the sales and cigarette taxes. Warner's tax package effected a net tax increase of approximately $1.5 billion annually. Warner credited the additional revenues with saving the state's AAA bond rating, held at the time by only 5 other states, and allowing the single largest investment in K-12 education in Virginia history. Warner also entered into an agreement with Democrats and liberal Republicans in the Virginia Senate to cap state car tax reimbursements to local governments, which had the effect of increasing car taxes in many localities.

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 may have helped Democrats gain seats in the Virginia House of Delegates in 2003 and again in 2005, reducing the majorities built up by Republicans in the 1990s.

In January 2005, a two-year study^[2] 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 his 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.^[3]

2008 Virginia Senate election

Main article: Virginia United States Senate election, 2008

While on October 12, 2006, Warner ruled out a 2008 presidential bid,^[4] Warner declared on September 13, 2007 that he would run for Senate in 2008, following an announcement nearly two weeks prior by current Senator John Warner that he would not seek re-election. No other Democrats have filed for the race.

Electoral History

References

Sources

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

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Mark Warner

• Mark Warner for Senate campaign site
• Forward Together PAC
• Follow the Money - Mark R Warner 2001 campaign contributions
• New York Times - Times Topics: Mark R. Warner collected news and commentary
• On the Issues - Mark Warner issue positions and quotes
• About.com - Mark Warner profile
• Busy funnyman: Why Mark Warner loves orange cones Lisa Provence, The Hook, June 5, 2003

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