Jon Bowerbank "Cut from the same cloth" as Mark Warner?

Jon Bowerbank's new ad, "Leadership," emphasizes Bowerbank's impressive business background, and prominently features a quote by New Dominion Magazine:

"Bowerbank is cut from the same cloth as the architect of the Dem revival, Mark Warner, with a background in business..."

I think this is a potentially strong message for Bowerbank, but it could have elements of risk as well. Comparing oneself to the super-popular Mark Warner might prove helpful to Bowerbank, but only if people believe he really IS like Mark Warner.

Along those lines, I'll be curious to hear specific examples of how Bowerbank is "in the true tradition of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine" ("business success, government experience, Virginia values"). Finally, can someone please tell me what "Virginia values" means, exactly? As Marc Fisher wrote in an October 2007 column ( "The Long, Corrosive Impact of 'Virginia Values'"):

Already in the 1820s, the seeds of today's anti-tax, anti-government attitudes were taking root. Virginia, confident birthplace of American liberty, had morphed into a conservative, nostalgic society clinging to its agricultural past, ruled by an aristocratic elite and deeply suspicious of the Yankees' investment in industry and city life.

Flash forward to last month in Richmond, where House Speaker William Howell, a Republican from Stafford County, told a group of business leaders at a $250-a-head reception that the people who've been moving to the state of late -- such as, say, immigrants -- might not be clued in on the "shared values we have in Virginia."

In this season of zesty competition to see which politician can propose the most onerous measures to take against illegal immigrants, what might those shared values be? When The Washington Post's Tim Craig called Howell to inquire, the speaker gallantly hung up on the reporter. Later, Howell's spokesman said his boss was talking about "Virginia values" -- the slogan Mr. Macaca, former senator George Allen, used in his campaigns -- such as "lower taxes, less burdensome regulations and a positive business environment."

Or is the ultimate Virginia value simply a matter of the political elite preserving its power?

Now, just to be crystal clear, I don't believe for one minute that Jon Bowerbank in the least bit agrees with Bill Howell's or George Allen's "Virginia Values" formulation. In fact, from my extensive conversations with Jon, I believe he is 180-degrees opposed to the Howell/Allen "Virginia Values" conception. Instead, I believe that Jon strongly shares my desire to see "Virginia Values" defined by a pragmatic progressivism that draws from the best of Virginia's past but ultimately looks to the future, embraces our Commonwealth's diversity, and addresses head-on the 21st-century challenges we face.

In that context, what I'd really love to hear is Jon Bowerbank -- who says on his website that he is a "progressive pragmatist" -- help us redefine a concept of "Virginia Values" that moves us diametrically away from the Bill Howell/George Allen perversion of the phrase and towards one that all Virginians - black, white, Latino; gay, straight; urban, rural; etc. - can embrace enthusiastically as we move to build a "more perfect" Commonwealth.