Mark Warner Launches TV Ad

As Republicans met in Richmond to pick a U.S. Senate nominee, former governor Mark R. Warner (D) announced his U.S. Senate campaign will launch a television commercial statewide starting Monday night.

The ad will feature his "bipartisan success in balancing Virginia's budget while responsibly addressing record revenue shortfalls that ultimately reached $6 billion,'' according to his campaign. It will feature former Senate President John H. Chichester, a Republican who was chairman of the the powerful Finance Committee.

"This initial positive ad spells-out governor Warner's track record in bringing all kinds of people together to find bipartisan, common-sense solutions, and that is the same approach he will take to the U.S. Senate," Warner campaign manager Mike Henry said.

Warner's 60-second ad also will include comments from Ben Davenport of Danville, a prominent Southside Virginia business leader who served as the 2006 chairman of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and Paula Gulak of Richmond, vice president of Sycom Technologies, Inc. and the former chairwoman of the Richmond Technology Council.

The ad refers to Virginia's designation as the "best managed state in the nation" by Governing magazine in 2005, and Time magazine's selection of Warner as one of "America's Five Best Governors" in 2005.