Last August, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., announced that he will retire, sparking a contest this election season between Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Jim Gilmore. The upcoming election of one of these former commonwealth governors will end John Warner’s 30-year Senate career.
Cordel Faulk, director of communications at the University’s Center for Politics, said Warner’s moderate stance has defined his career.
“He’s long been very, very popular,” Faulk said. “He’s got such a wide following because his voting record is so moderate. It’s made him almost unbeatable.”
Nevertheless, Warner’s career has faced its share of criticism. Several of his own Republican party members opposed his campaign for re-election in the 1996 Senate race, and his voting decisions at times clashed with the majority of his party’s votes. A Republican who has a history of supporting gun control laws, Warner voted in favor of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and a more recent amendment proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Cal., that sought a 10-year extension of the Assault Weapons Ban. In both cases, he voted largely against his party.
Warner’s willingness to oppose his party was most recently evident in his vocal support of the Wall Street bailout. Media outlets reported Warner expressed his disappointment with Gilmore’s opposition to the bailout package and might decline to endorse him. Warner, the reports stated, might even consider supporting Democratic challenger Mark Warner, who is not related to the senator, even though that would mean crossing party lines.
Warner’s colleague Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., meanwhile, honored Warner’s work in late September with a statement to the Senate.
“He has always put the interests of the people of Virginia and the people in this country ahead of political party,” Webb said. “This is an individual who has served this body with great wisdom and a deeply ingrained sense of fairness — someone who has the temperament and the moral courage of a great leader.”
Webb praised Warner for being the first Virginia senator to support an African-American and a woman’s candidacy for federal judge positions and for his work as a “positive force” for the military.
“He’s been very good for Virginia’s national security installations and he’s been fantastic for the nation on national security,” Faulk said. “He has done a lot to keep his country safe.”
Warner, who earned his law degree at the University, announced his retirement on Grounds in August 2007. At the time, he quoted Thomas Jefferson, stating his retirement would give others “the right to advance.”
Webb told Senate colleagues that although Warner will be leaving office next January, his legacy in the commonwealth will live on.
“This institution will miss John Warner, his kindness, his humility, his wisdom and his dedicated service, and I know we in Virginia will continue to benefit from his advice and his counsel for many years to come,” Webb said.
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