THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606080417
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Decision '96
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: 120 lines
As his graduation from a Connecticut high school approached in 1973, Mark Warner penned a short list of prospective colleges - all of them in Washington.
``It was a time of civil rights, the war and the youth movement,'' he said. ``The establishment needed changing.''
Enrolling at George Washington University, Warner snagged a part-time job opening mail in a senator's office. It was menial work. But it was a start. He would change the world, one envelope at a time.
``Pedaling my bike up Capitol Hill,'' he recalled, ``I thought I had the most exciting life in the world.''
The real excitement for Warner begins this afternoon when he steps onto a stage in Hampton Coliseum and accepts the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Warner, a 41-year-old cellular communications dealmeister who has amassed a personal fortune worth more than $100 million, will get the opportunity to sketch the outlines of his remarkable life. More important, he will take his first stab at firing Virginians' imagination with his vision of a world undergoing technological transformation.
``I want to make Virginia the convergence of the high-tech revolution,'' he said.
The thunder of his debut, however, may be stolen by an increasingly strident Republican primary brawl between incumbent Sen. John Warner (no relation to Mark Warner) and challenger Jim Miller. Voters will choose the GOP nominee in a primary election Tuesday. (All registered voters - regardless of the party they prefer - are eligible to vote in that primary.)
Mark Warner said he hoped his coronation would receive top billing in the Sunday newspapers, but he conceded the Democratic event has little to offer in the way of suspense, other than a ``raging controversy'' over what theme song to play when he, his wife and three young daughters enter the coliseum.
``I guess that's a good situation,'' he said Thursday, surveying the empty coliseum as technicians made final preparations.
On two giant screens, portions of a slide show flashed images of Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and other icons of the Democratic Party's core constituencies.
Democratic activists who show up Saturday will be disappointed if they are looking for a traditional Democrat in Mark Warner. His position papers praise Republican Gov. George F. Allen's effort to slash welfare rolls by cutting off benefits to women and their children after two years and to fight crime by locking away violent criminals for longer sentences. Former U.S. Rep. Leslie Byrne, who challenged Warner for the Senate nomination, once derided him as ``Republican lite.''
Warner said his pro-choice views and environmental concerns put him squarely within the Democratic mainstream. But he made no apologies for eschewing Democratic orthodoxy on some issues.
``I'm as frustrated by the ideological purists in my own party as the ideological purists in the other party,'' he said. ``I'm much less interested in where the idea came from, than if it's a good idea.''
Warner can't afford to be too harsh on Ronald Reagan, the GOP hero whose anti-regulatory zeal in the 1980s opened the way for Warner to make his instant fortune.
By 1982, Warner had grown restless. He was a Harvard law graduate who had raised money for the national Democratic Party, while many of his classmates had taken lucrative jobs on Wall Street. As his student loans came due, Warner scouted for opportunities to cash in on his political and legal connections.
He bet his $5,000 life savings on an energy conservation venture - and lost every penny.
Then he got a tip from then-U.S. Rep. Tom McMillen, D-Md., who told him about the Federal Communication Commission issuing licenses for a new form of mobile telephone service known as cellular radio.
Warner instantly grasped the potential of cellular phones. The brash 27-year-old paid a visit to David Chase, a wealthy Connecticut businessman who agreed to invest $1 million.
When the FCC auctioned the rights to geographical territories, competitors pooled resources to ensure that each got a piece of the action. The result was a fragmented market. Warner seized the opportunity to broker deals between companies looking to consolidate territories.
Warner and his partners branched into other segments of the cellular market, which exploded with growth in the last decade.
His business dealings never kept him away from politics long. He surfaced to manage Doug Wilder's successful bid for governor in 1989 and later served as state Democratic Party chairman.
Warner has much going for him: Youthful good looks, a handsome family and boatloads of money. But will his message of a high-tech future resonate with voters? And will his futuristic appeal be enough for Virginians - if John Warner is the GOP candidate - to part ways with a popular, 18-year incumbent?
``Tilting at windmills is not something I like to do,'' Mark Warner said. ``I have a great deal of confidence that I can grab Virginians' attention.''
Mark Warner tried out some of his lines Thursday while relaxing on the darkened coliseum floor. He searched for words to convey the urgency of giving school children access to computers.
``I'm trying to find the right analogy. I've been thinking about it like this: Sending a kid to school without a computer would be like having sent kids to school in our time without paper and pencil and expecting them to compete.''
He paused briefly, letting the words sink in. ``My greatest fear is that 10 years from now society is going to be further split between those who have the tools and those who don't.''
His last words were drowned out by the coliseum sound system, which roared to life with the Santana hit from the 1970s, ``Black Magic Woman.''
Warner leaned close, his hands working the air and his eyes filled with earnestness.
``It's no easy task,'' he shouted, still talking about computers. ``I've been trying to figure out how to put that in a soundbite.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Mark Warner wants ``to make Virginia the convergence of the
high-tech revolution.''
[Side Bar]
FOR SENATE
Mark R. Warner
Home: Alexandria
Born: Dec. 15, 1954, in Indianapolis, Ind.
Education: George Washington University, B.A. 1977; Harvard
University, L.LB, 1980.
Occupation: Investment banker specializing in wireless
communications
Public career: Commonwealth Transportation Board, 1990-94;
Chairman, Democratic Party of Virginia, 1993-95
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE U.S. SENATE RACE PROFILE BIOGRAPHY by CNB