Warner wines Fluvanna crowd with change talk

By Brian McNeill

Published: July 19, 2008

If elected to the U.S. Senate, former Gov. Mark R. Warner promises to cobble together a coalition of “radical centrists” who want to expand health care, boost research into alternative energy sources and invest in the nation’s roads, rail and Internet infrastructure.

“If we’re going to get the kind of changes this country needs, we’re going to have to work with both sides of the aisle,” Warner said at a backyard campaign rally Saturday in Fluvanna County.

Speaking before 125 adoring supporters at the Palmyra home of Fluvanna Board of Supervisors Chairman Marvin Moss, Warner laid out his vision for a less partisan and more effective Washington.

Warner, a Democrat, is facing former Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican, in the Nov. 4 contest. Warner and Gilmore are vying for the seat left open by U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Alexandria, who is retiring after nearly 30 years in office.

A few hours earlier, Warner and Gilmore were at the Homestead resort in Hot Springs for the first debate of the campaign season. Warner explained to the sweaty Fluvanna crowd that he was running late because of the debate.

“How’d it go?” someone shouted.

“Let’s put it like this: I’m smiling,” Warner said.

Warner spent little time criticizing his rival Saturday afternoon at the rally. He focused instead on the goals he hopes to achieve if elected.

America needs to “fundamentally change” its energy policy, he said. In 2006, $2 billion was spent to finance research into alternative energy sources, while $20 billion was spent per month on the Iraq conflict, he said. The nation buys upwards of $600 billion worth of oil from nations that are “almost uniformly anti-American” and motorists are paying $4 at the pump.

Warner said he wants the federal government to invest major sums in solar, wind and nuclear power, as well as biofuels. He added that he favors allowing the states to decide if they want to allow offshore drilling for oil or gas.

If elected, Warner said, he would also work to “restore a little bit of fiscal sanity.” The U.S. dollar, he pointed out, is losing value, and foreign countries are losing confidence in the American economy.

He spoke briefly about the Iraq war, saying that he supports withdrawing American forces as quickly as possible, so long as it does not leave Iraq as a haven for terrorists. He added that U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan should have access to “real, world-class” education and health care.

Gilmore has slammed Warner for raising taxes while governor and for not supporting a plan to drill immediately for oil and gas off America’s shores and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Gilmore also supports lower taxes, protection of Second Amendment rights and a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Moss, a Democrat who helped raise money for Warner’s first Senate campaign in 1996, praised Warner’s “power of persuasion” and willingness to work with moderate members of the GOP. Warner’s efforts during his gubernatorial term, he said, led to major new investment in education, public safety and other essential government services.

“Compromise is part of the legislative process,” Moss said. “That is what Mark Warner is all about.”