Virginia’s most popular politician is a Democrat in a state Democrats desperately need to win this November to hold onto the White House and their Senate majority. But Sen. Mark Warner remains a crowd pleaser in the Old Dominion largely because of his pragmatic nature, his embrace of free markets and his willingness to work with Republicans, all characteristics that contrast starkly with the election-year partisanship being exhibited by President Obama and Senate Democrats who need to win in his home state.
“In a city like Washington that is mired in partisan gridlock, Mark continues to bring people together to solve our fiscal challenges and I look forward to joining him in that effort in the Senate,” said Tim Kaine, a Warner protege, former governor and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.
While Obama was bashing Republican Mitt Romney’s work at Bain Capital and Senate Democrats were accusing Republicans of waging a “war on women,” Warner last week was introducing the Startup Act 2.0, legislation intended to convince American-educated immigrants to remain in the United States rather than take their newfound skills back home to countries like China. Two of the first lawmakers to sign onto the bill were Republican Sens. Jerry Moran, of Kansas, and Marco Rubio, of Florida.
“There’s a lot of things I may disagree with them [on] but let’s work together and get something done,” Warner told The Washington Examiner. “If it’s made folks in my party mad sometimes, so be it.”
It was not unfamiliar turf for Warner. Last year he joined a bipartisan, though ultimately unsuccessful effort to draft a federal budget.
Yet, the things Virginians find appealing in Warner also occasionally chafe national Democrats.
Warner is a former venture capitalist who made his fortune in a burgeoning cellular phone industry and when Obama derided Romney and Bain Capital for putting profits ahead of jobs, Warner contradicted the president on national television, calling Bain a “very successful business” that “got a good return for their investors.” He added, “That is what they were supposed to do.”
Though Warner was quick to add that Romney’s business record is “a valid topic of debate,” Republicans seized on his comments to bash Obama.
Despite his differences with Obama and fellow Senate Democrats, Warner insists he will work hard to elect Kaine and Obama in a state considered pivotal to deciding who controls both the White House and Senate.
“I’ll be fighting for Tim Kaine and for the president,” Warner said. “I don’t agree with everything the president has done, but I think he’s got us going in the right direction.”
