Danville Register and Bee - Vote Mark Warner for US Senate on Nov. 4

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The Editorial Board

Sen. Mark Warner voted with President Barack Obama 97 percent of the time, according to a survey by CQ. It's true, but that statistic reveals a lot more about the forces shaping this year's Senate race than about Warner's six years in Washington.

PolitiFact reports that CQ found the president had positions on 419 of 1,473 Senate votes, and Warner voted with the president on 406 of those 419 votes -- 97 percent. However, more than half of those were to confirm presidential nominations.

Warner voted with the president on the Affordable Care Act, student loan debt relief, extending the Patriot Act and a farm bill. But Warner has also activity worked against the president's wishes by voting against an assault weapons ban, supporting offshore oil and gas drilling off the Virginia coast and the Keystone XL pipeline, according to PolitiFact.

In a political campaign, it makes a lot of sense to try to tie Warner, a Democrat, to an unpopular Democratic president. But in reality, Mark Warner has legislated like a moderate Democrat, just like we thought he would when we endorsed his candidacy six years ago.

Today, we endorse his re-election.

Some of Warner's most impressive work in Washington has been to reach out to Republicans to craft legislation and to take up the important work of entitlement reform, no small feats during a time of partisan rancor. That didn't please the party bosses, but it's exactly what we want in a legislator -- someone who can work with members of both political parties and tackle the tough issues.

"I want to be up there to vote on important things … but it's going to take a willingness to take on your own team," Warner said.

Warner admits that the Affordable Care Act is unpopular, and he wants to make changes -- including some that Republicans want, like giving health insurance companies the ability to sell policies across state lines.

He's also correct that Medicare was once as unpopular as the Affordable Care Act is today. Over time, Medicare was tweaked and people began to look beyond the rhetoric to see how it benefited them.

Warner still sounds like a businessman -- he talks about what he'll do if he gets "re-hired" -- and "I think I can add some real value to the country in trying to break the gridlock."

The gridlock won't be broken by partisan hacks pandering to their most likely voters, but by legislators who understand real-world problems and toil with all the members of Congress in search of for real-world solutions.

Mark Warner has proven time and again that that's exactly what he'll do.

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