Mark Warner: General Assembly Session Is Going To Be "Tough"

This video is from Virginia State Senator Chap Petersen's (D-Fairfax City) "Business Leaders Breakfast" yesterday morning in Tysons Corner. A few good quotes:

First, Chap Petersen: "All my life I've had one goal, I just wanted to be [Mark Warner's] lawyer."

The rest of the quotes are from Mark Warner.

*"This next legislative session is gonna be an enormous challenge and we need people like Chap Petersen in Richmond to make sure that Northern Virginia's interests are taken care of, to make sure that Virginia's interests are taken care of, at this very challenging time."

*"If you think the last couple sessions have been tough, you ain't seen nothing yet, because all of the easy and even not-so-easy choices in terms of funding, in terms of priorities in Richmond, have already been made, and now we're down to the bone."

*"I was a strong supporter of our team this year, but since McDonnell's election, you know I think he's done things pretty well, the tone he's struck has been pretty good..."

*"But now, the rubber is going to hit the road, we're going to see the kind of internal conflict that's playing out not just here in Virginia but across the nation inside the Republican Party between the Bob McDonnell that was elected, in terms of somebody who campaigned as a moderate and a problem solver...and some more of the ideological wing of the Republican Party."

*"The role that the Senate plays...is going to be extraordinarily important. Let me also put a plug in for Dave Marsden...we do have a special election on Tuesday that's very, very important. Dave Marsden is the kind of right, moderate, I think forward thinking Virginia Democrat that we need to get elected on Tuesday."

*"Chap's role...who, let me assure you, is an independent voice. If there was an question, anybody who needs any validation of that, Lowell in the off-the-record content I'll tell you some of the words I used to describe Chap during my term as governor, 'independent voice' was one of the more polite lines."

*"[Chap] is somebody who is going to do what he thinks is right, what is best, and he's going to be extraordinarily important this year."