Mark Warner’s campaign mantra on bipartisanship and toning down the rancor has got a firm backer in Virginia’s junior Senator Jim Webb (D-VA). From a letter sent to supporters Thursday, Webb clearly wants the former Virginia governor and Old Town resident working alongside him in the Senate next year.
 
On Thursday, Webb made it official, sending a fundraising plea to his supporters asking for their help in electing Warner to the Senate this November.

Last year, Webb said, Republicans engaged in 63 filibusters in order to keep the new Democratic Congress from “enacting the kind of changes that America expects from its elected representatives.” To put that into perspective, he said, “in the entire history of our country the record for filibusters in a two-year congress was 61, and the Republicans broke that record in one year.”

On one of these votes, Webb said he fought for an amendment to require that active-duty troops be allowed to have as much time at home between overseas deployments as they have had to spend in Iraq or Afghanistan.  “It would have ensured that our troops are rested, properly trained and have time to reconnect with their families before being sent back overseas,” Webb said. “We won a majority of 56 votes in the Senate — but we couldn’t overcome the Republican filibuster.”

With Mark Warner at his side next year, Webb said he was confident that we would be able to enact the “kind of changes that America expects from its elected representatives.”

Webb added that Republican leaders will “fight hard and pour every last dollar into Virginia in order to hold this seat.” 

“They know that every Democrat we elect is one step closer to breaking the stranglehold they have held on policy for the last eight years.  In the coming months, the polls will tighten, negative attacks will fly, and Mark will need resources to cut through the noise to talk to Virginians about his vision for our Commonwealth.”

On the Republican side, Warner is challenged by another former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore.