From Mark Warner

My Fellow Virginians,

As the 2008 campaign season gets underway, I believe that one of our challenges is to shake-off the old way of thinking – the business-as-usual approach we see too often in Washington.

People are tired of the partisan spin. They are tired of the political doublespeak. Virginians deserve results.

That is what we delivered when I had the honor of being elected Virginia Governor in the Fall of 2001.

Our Commonwealth faced a host of critical challenges.

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center had disrupted Virginia’s economy and heightened the need for better security at home.

We also inherited the worst budget crisis in the Commonwealth’s history: a time when the rising costs of health care, the reckless fiscal decisions of the past and a national economic downturn created budget shortfalls that eventually totaled more than $6 billion.

Many public programs – ranging from health insurance for low-income children to highway maintenance and construction – were failing due to poor management. A growing number of Virginians were out of work.

Perhaps most disturbing of all, our people had a growing lack of confidence in state government and their elected leaders. The 2001 General Assembly adjourned without agreement on a state budget for the first time in its history.

Virginians wanted straight talk from their leaders, and a government that worked once again.

Between 2002 and 2006, we confronted these challenges head on in Virginia:

  • In 2004, Governing magazine looked at what we were doing, compared it to what was going on in the other 49 states, and named Virginia the best-managed state in the country.
  • In 2006 and 2007, Forbes.com declared Virginia the best state for business success because of our low taxes, our quality schools, and our great workforce.
  • And in 2007, Education Week looked at smart educational reforms we initiated and determined that a child born in Virginia today has the best prospects for a lifetime of success than a child born in any other state.

I am pleased to provide this report on our efforts to work together to make our Commonwealth a place of unparalleled hope and opportunity. This is the same common-sense, bipartisan, results-oriented focus I pledge to take to Washington.

Mark R. Warner