ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604110019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Ray L. Garland
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
VIRGINIA is known for holding on to her United States senators. In this century, only 12 men have held the office. Two years ago, the incumbent junior senator, Charles S. Robb, was returned after a battle royal. Now, the state's senior senator, John W. Warner, faces a test of strength in the GOP's June 14 primary.
While Warner must still be favored to win renomination over challenger James Miller, he is now certain to face his most serious Democratic opponent since first being elected in 1978.
Democrats will shortly elect delegates from every city and county to attend their convention June 7-8 in Hampton. They will choose between former state party chairman Mark R. Warner and Leslie Byrne, who was elected four times to the House of Delegates from Fairfax County and to a single term in Congress. She was defeated for re-election in 1994 by Republican Tom Davis.
State Democrats elect their convention delegates in a somewhat brutal fashion, but one that has seemed to serve them well. All mass meetings are bunched together on two days only, April 13 and 15. These will operate mainly on a winner-take-all basis, and the prevailing candidate should be known almost immediately.
The process compounds the advantage of the candidate who can deploy the greatest resources in many places at once. It clearly resides with Mark Warner, who months ago released the names of almost 3,000 Democratic activists who were supporting him. His list contained 120 of 134 city and county chairmen, 150 elected local officials and 55 of 72 Democratic members of the General Assembly. In a preliminary tally of pledged delegates already filed, Warner has taken a commanding lead. For all practical purposes, he has won.
The argument for Byrne was that both in Richmond and Washington she demonstrated loyalty to liberalism as presently defined. In the Senate, hers would be a reliable vote. While there isn't much reason to doubt Warner's loyalty to the same orthodoxy, he is seeking to define himself as a "new" Democrat. Like the "modern" Republicanism of the Eisenhower era, such protective coloration is probably designed to make it easier to carry a party's negative baggage in the general election.
As befits a highly successful entrepreneur of the information age, Warner emphasizes technology as the proper antidote for low-paying jobs and low-performing schools. Beyond that is the dream of a new age of cooperation between business and government. As he said last year, "The old bureaucratic, one-size-fits-all approach no longer works ... we must forge a new partnership tackling old problems in new ways." This is now standard political boilerplate, and not very original into the bargain. In the 17th century, it was called mercantilism. In the 20th, national socialism, and Italy is still trying to figure out how to dismantle it.
Of course, Warner sees it more in terms of government tapping the expertise of business to perform such specific tasks as introducing technology into public education or getting people off welfare. But he isn't interested in letting private enterprise run the schools. In selling the Virginia Health Foundation to Gov. Douglas Wilder, however, he demonstrated in practice the kind of thing he has in mind. The foundation got $2 million from the state, matched it with private donations, and assists nonprofit organizations reaching the uninsured.
As one who doesn't leave even the smallest detail to chance, Warner kindly asked to stop by Cifax for a face-to-face talk. Being unimpressed was out of the question. For one thing, he arrived at the appointed hour almost to the minute - a rare feat for a busy statewide candidate. It didn't take long to gain the sense of a man of considerable force and ability who wastes little time in idle speculation. At only 41, in fact, he seems to have wasted very little time at all.
Coming of age in Connecticut, he got active in the Democratic Party, serving that state's governor and U.S. senators in minor capacities. After graduation from Harvard Law in 1980, he went to work at the Democratic National Committee on fund raising. Two years later, the Federal Communications Commission was conducting a lottery to award licenses to operate cellular phone service.
The result was a multitude of investors owning fractional shares of their cellular market. Warner took the lead in creating a market for them, collecting a commission on each trade. This led to the creation of his own company, Capital Cellular, which led to Columbia Capital. When it comes to private holdings, estimates of wealth must be taken with a grain of salt. But Virginia Business magazine, which keeps track of such matters, estimated his net worth in 1994 in the range of $100 million.
The image of Warner as a self-made, big-money boy is no disadvantage in 1996. For one thing, it implies he can match or exceed the campaign spending of his Republican opponent, be he John Warner or Jim Miller. There is, after all, no limit on what a candidate can spend on his own campaign. But perhaps more important is the reassurance a millionaire businessman on the Democratic ticket provides swing voters. They can more easily persuade themselves that somebody that rich can't be but so liberal.
From my long and pleasant chat with Mark Warner, I formed two conclusions. First, Republicans would make a grave mistake to regard him as other than a formidable opponent. Second, he is far more the conventional Democrat than his new-age rhetoric implies.
The power and scope of government will expand unless strenuously resisted. It's hard to see Warner in the role of sincere resister. After all, his entire career has been spent in close proximity to the honey pot of government and in dealing with those who want access to the many favors it can bestow. But if he makes it to the Senate, I think he will give a good account of himself. While winning the Democratic nomination wasn't a severe test, he has passed it handsomely.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times columnist.
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB