Warner talks unity
Here are the remarks made by Governor Warner at Wednesday’s Shad Planking.
Every year since 2001, the year’s political candidates are given a few minutes to speak, often giving light-hearted speeches with jokes about their competitors. This year, the candidates for the U.S. Senate were given a chance to speak about their campaigns to replace Senator John Warner. Governor Warner took the opportunity to note that he was the only Democrat at this year’s Shad Planking, and joked about the Republican’s nomination contest.
Not every candidate’s speech was as light-hearted. Jim Gilmore took the opportunity to attack Governor Warner in a speech filled with factual errors and exaggerations. Here’s how the Associated Press summarized the events:
Warner talks unity; Gilmore rips Warner
By BOB LEWIS | AP Political Writer[...]
Warner spoke first, so Gilmore’s comments went unrebutted, but Warner said before the afternoon speeches, “I’ll be glad to contrast my record of fiscal administration with Gilmore’s any day.”
Taking only gentle jabs at his Republican rivals, Warner chose to compare himself to the incumbent senator.
“My goal would be to go to the United States Senate and try to form a coalition of 10 to 12 senators – bipartisan – and create the radical centrists, because at the end of the day, that’s the only way we’re going to get the kind of transformative change that this country needs,” he said.
Without a primary opponent, Warner was free to reach out not only to Democrats but Republicans in the crowd. And there were Republicans present willing to at least consider Warner.
Among them was Jim Wilson, for decades a conspicuous volunteer for Republicans John Warner, George Allen and even Gilmore. He served in Gilmore’s administration. But on Tuesday, he walked the grounds of the Shad Planking handing out Warner yard signs.
“He’ll be more like John Warner than anybody else,” Wilson said.
UPDATE: Here is a sampling of the coverage of this year’s Shad Planking, courtesy of the DPVA: