01/12/2006

By BOB LEWIS  / Associated Press

Addressing legislators for his final time Wednesday night, Gov. Mark R. Warner recalled four years spent reversing the state's fiscal woes and burnishing his credentials as a centrist Democrat that he now emphasizes in assessing a 2008 presidential run.

In a valedictory more reflective than prospective, Warner asked only that key provisions of the $72 billion budget he proffered last month not be junked by a Republican General Assembly after he leaves office on Saturday.

"My time in this building is now numbered in hours, not days, but there is work yet undone," Warner, who leaves office with record high job-approval ratings, said in his final State of the Commonwealth address.

Throughout his speech, Warner spoke in the second person, speaking of himself and legislators as a partnership and repeatedly evoking "shared priorities" and of "the place I call the sensible center."

Warner is exploring his potential as a more moderate Democratic alternative to Sen. Hillary Clinton and has often used the same themes in speeches he has delivered to Democratic groups nationally, including New Hampshire and Iowa, home to early nominating contests.

In the climactic battle of his term, Warner outflanked a conservative House with a broad-based public campaign to generate more money for public schools, public safety and protecting health care. Under public pressure, 17 House Republicans bolted from their party's anti-tax leadership and allowed a $1.4 billion tax increase to pass.

Republicans predicted Warner and the Republicans who sided with him would pay for the vote, but Warner's approval ratings soared past 70 percent — sufficient for the Democrats to gain two House seats since November and boost fellow Democrat Timothy M. Kaine to an easy victory as his successor.

"For the first time in history, we've fully replenished our Rainy Day Fund to its constitutional maximum of more than $1 billion," he said, referring to a reserve balance that was nearly depleted as the state struggled with budget shortfalls totaling $6 billion the first two years of his term.

"Time and again, as I have traveled this commonwealth, Virginians have told me three things. That results matter. That they're proud of the direction we're going. And a third thing: they appreciate it when we work out our differences and work together to get things done," he said.

"So there is a surprise in all this for me," Warner said. "I'm surprised at how much Virginians talk to me about something that can't be measured. I think they believe that together, we did change the tone in Richmond."

Warner also couched many of the state's accomplishments during his watch in national terms: a new emergency and police communications system that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regards as a model; Virginia's ranking as the nation's best-managed state by Governing magazine; the nation's most stringent water quality standards in its mandatory Chesapeake Bay cleanup.