TMCnet News
For Senator-elect Mark Warner, it's all about energyALEXANDRIA, Nov 06, 2008 (The Virginian-Pilot - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- U.S. Sen.-elect Mark Warner, whose personal high energy is legendary among his friends and staffers, said he will make the nation's energy needs and problems the first focus of his Senate term. After months of bad economic news, "the country needs a win," Warner said Wednesday. New programs to push energy-saving advances, including cars that average up to 100 mpg, may be one way to provide it, he suggested. Meeting with reporters just 16 hours after the polls closed on Tuesday's historic election, Warner said he's not ready to discuss specific proposals for energy legislation. He brushed aside questions about which Senate committee assignments he'll seek. But he said he's convinced "people want to see things get done" in Congress and by the new administration and that "energy could be the issue that challenges America's imagination and innovation." Warner said he's particularly interested in exploring ways the government can spur research and development of alternative energy and energy-efficient cars. In the infancy of the wireless and information technology industries, when he became a millionaire, "We got to kind of a tipping point, where private capital flooded in" only after the federal government jump-started development of the Internet and other communications advances, he said. Warner said he expects to work closely with the state's other senator, fellow Democrat Jim Webb, "on projects that are going to be helpful to Virginia." Warner's victory Tuesday came 12 years after he first tried for the same Senate seat but lost to veteran Republican John Warner, the man he'll succeed in January. The two men waged a spirited but mostly respectful campaign and after the election became friends. "I've gotten a lot of advice and counsel from him over the last few months," Mark Warner said Tuesday. John Warner declined to endorse a candidate in this year's campaign, a gesture widely seen as a snub to fellow Republican Jim Gilmore. Mark Warner carried all 11 of the state's congressional Districts in Tuesday's voting and all but four of the state's 134 cities and counties. The nearly 2.2 million votes he received is the highest total for any candidate in Virginia history. Warner returned to his campaign headquarters shortly before noon Wednesday to thank several dozen staffers. "It was a pretty darn good day yesterday, I'd say." Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, [email protected] To see more of the The Virginian-Pilot, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pilotonline.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |