Posted on 11/01/2001 2:39:57 PM PST by Perseverando
Why people call Mark Warner “Slick Mark” and “Bill Clinton with a bank account.”
Here are a few facts that you and most of our Virginia friends, neighbors, co-workers and family haven’t heard about Mark Warner (but really need to before November 6th).
He grew up in Connecticut, and, no, he is not just a “good ‘ol boy,” from Franklin County though he does like to rent their blue grass bands for his political campaign in order to give that appearance.
He’s also been known to partly sponsor a NASCAR truck racing team (one team for only 2 races earlier this season) to try to further enhance the good ‘ol boy image.
He graduated from George Washington University in 1977 and Harvard Law School in 1980. No he does not have an MBA, nor did he attend business school.
He has been a democrat activist since his college days, working in numerous paid capacities including chairman of the Virginia democrat party.
He has never held public office, though he has become a regular candidate in Virginia.
According to Mark Warner in 1996, the Republicans were all right wing extremists. In 2001, he has done everything but call his Republican opponent, Mark Earley (a true conservative), a liberal while insuring that he does not distance himself from his far left wing democrat running mates and their extremist positions on the issues.
On the 2nd Amendment - In a recent Sportsman for Warner campaign mailer “Warner and Sherry Crumley are shown relaxed and refreshed, in apparently brand new cammies while sitting on a rock as he according to the picture “Mark Warner takes a break from turkey hunting with Sherry Crumley, chairperson of Sportsmen for Warner,” However according to an October 30th statement by Warner spokes person: “At first, Warner’s press office was unsure if he owned a firearm, but spokesman Elithee later commented, "I don’t believe he does. He used too, but he doesn’t now."
(For more on what Warner thinks of the NRA, see the Warner speech quote below.)
He opposes school choice for Virginia families, but his children go to private schools. On May 25, 1994, Warner stated to an audience that he and they would find the views of the Christian Coalition, right to lifers, home schoolers and the NRA “threatening to them and what it means to be an American.”
Here is the full Warner quote:
"Next weekend, you're going to see a coalition that has just about completely taken over the Republican Party in this state, and if they have their way, will take over state government, made up of the Christian Coalition, made up of the right to lifers, but it's not just the right to lifers, it's made up of the NRA, but it's not just that, it's made up of the home schoolers, but not just that, it's made up of a whole coalition of people that have all sorts of different views that I think that most of us in this room would find threatening to them and what it means to be an American. But they all come together under a common cause to radically change the way we lead our lives."
(Mark Warner Speech, National Jewish Democratic Council Meeting, May 25, 1994)
We know he is worth $200,000,000, but what do we know about how he made it? What companies does he own and operate?
Are Warner’s employees union members, or for that matter how many employees does he really have?
Finally, what do the people who know how Mark Warner really made his millions say?
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Mark Warner’s Business Ethics
Making Money The Old Fashioned Way: Using Political Connections
Mark Warner’s Changing Comments On How He Made His Millions . . . .
Before Running For Office, Warner Said He Got Billions From Taxpayers: “As Warner –himself a winner [in the FCC lotteries]- says, ‘The government has basically given away tens of billions of dollars of an asset that is yours and mine and everybody’s in the country.’”
(“Winners And Losers In The Great Cellular Giveaway,” Fortune Magazine, November 5, 1990)
Now, As A Candidate For Governor, Warner Has Changed His Tune: “‘Nobody gave me anything,’ he said. ‘I’m proud of my business success . . .’”
(R.H. Melton, “Va. GOP Making Issue Of Warner’s Fortune,” The Washington Post, August 5, 2001)
Mark Warner’s Former Business Partner Says Warner Is A “Vulture.” Peter Zecola, a Warner partner in a cellular company, described his former partner’s business practices by saying, “At the same time, these people are called by some ‘vulture capitalists,’ rather than venture capitalists. They’re basically in it to make a buck. They’re always there to grab that last crumb off the table.”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Parlayed A Political Campaign And a Capitol Hill Job Into Millions:
Mark Warner’s Business Partner Says He Used Political Connections To Get Rich Quick. “Working as a fundraiser for the Democratic Party, Warner deftly brokered his contacts with wealthy businesspeople on one side and young Washington communications lawyers on the other to carve out a slice of the cellular industry for himself.”
(James B. Murray, Jr., “Wireless Nation,” 2001, p. 148)
The Press Says “Warner Used Political Connections To Set Himself In Business And Took Advantage Of The Biggest Government Giveaway In Modern Times.” “Warner’s road to riches is a maze of complex business deals, associates say, made possible by his limitless drive and willingness to take risks. But the bottom line is this: Warner used political connections to set himself up in business and took advantage of perhaps the biggest government giveaway in modern times, the billions of dollars worth of cellular telephone licenses handed out during the 1980s.”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Ran Liberal Democrat Chris Dodd’s Campaign, Worked For Dodd In The House, And Then Raised Money For The Democratic National Committee. A biography of Mark Warner’s political career notes that he was “ . . . campaign manager and aide to [then] Rep. Christopher J. Dodd, 1975-78. Deputy finance director of the Democratic National Committee, 1980-82.”
(Tyler Whitley, “Warner Vs. Warner,” The Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 6, 1996) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Used His Dodd-DNC Connections To Obtain Financing For His Cell Phone Ventures. “While raising cash in Georgia in 1980 [for the Democratic National Committee], he met Tom McMillen, then a professional basketball star who also was helping the party and later would represent Maryland in college. McMillen later told Warner about the cellular telephone market’s potential, saying it was a good way to get in early on a profitable new venture. ‘He was a fund-raiser, which was a great attribute to have when you’re trying to raise money for a business,’ McMillen said. ‘I even told him that: ‘You ought to use your fund-raising network to get started in this.’ That was exactly what he did.’ It was that networking that got Warner into David Chase’s office. Warner persuaded Edward J. Stockton, Connecticut’s state economic development commissioner, to arrange a meeting with Chase. Warner had met Stockton during a 1974 political campaign; Stockton knew Chase from his work with the state’s business leaders.”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Persisted In Getting A Meeting With His Money Man. “Warner’s idea that cellular telephones would be a lucrative investment ‘sounded pretty loony to me,’ Stockton recalled. But Warner kept calling and calling until Stockton finally agreed to introduce him to Chase, a Polish immigrant and Holocaust survivor who had become one of America’s richest men through real estate, television, radio and other ventures. ‘I like [Warner’s] zest, his ability to project a lot of excitement,’ said Chase, who would not say how much money he made by going into business with Warner. ‘True, he had no credentials . . . [But] he got me quite excited, so we decided to take a chance with him.’”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
One 20-Minute Meeting Starts Mark Warner On The Road To Millions. “And so, after just 20 minutes, Chase agreed to put up more than $1 million to launch the two on a dizzying financial adventure that made Warner, now 41, worth more than $100 million . . .” ”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner’s Business Partner Says Warner Made Millions “For A Few Hours Work.” “The young deal-maker watched in bemused amazement as his client’s one-twenty-second interest in the [cellular phone] license . . . rocketed in value from $200,000 to more than $1 million in a matter of weeks. Warner got a percentage of the profits, the better part of a year’s pay for a few hours work.”
(James B. Murray, Jr., “Wireless Nation,” 2001, p. 148) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Made His Millions By Pushing Paper:
He Merely Helped People Take Advantage Of a Government Program. “Warner organized investor groups and helped them apply for cellular licenses. If they got licenses, Warner typically was awarded a stake -usually 5 percent- in each venture that resulted. And by helping make of the groups immediately sell the licenses for millions of dollars, Warner quickly turned his interests into huge cash or stock commissions.”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Was A “Listing Agent” For Major Corporations. “Warner played the middleman for such investors as Chase and The Washington Post Co., putting together applications in exchange for a 5 percent ownership in the venture if the application was successful. . . . The market value of the licenses quickly soared, and Warner added to his fortune by helping broker deals that flipped shares of franchises from one owner to another. ‘In effect, I was their listing agent,’ Warner said.”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner “Made An Awful Lot” Of Cash Pushing Paper. Bernard Gray, who was one of Warner’s business partners, said Warner “ ‘. . . created an awful lot of wealth for a lot of people, including himself.’”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Got Rich At The Expense Of Taxpayers:
The Government Used A Lottery To Give Away Cell Phone Licenses. “Here’s how it worked: The federal government decided in the early 1980s to issue 1,468 licenses for cellular markets across the country. As with television and radio licenses decades before, investor groups weren’t charged for the licenses but were asked to submit applications showing that they had enough money to start up a cellular system and that they intended to operate the franchises in the public interest.”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
Some Companies Sold Their Winning Lottery Bids. “Lotteries were authorized by Congress to assist the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] in dealing with the ever increasing number of applications for frequencies with primarily commercial uses. Unfortunately, lotteries, particularly in the cellular telephone service, often produced outrageous multimillion dollar windfalls for speculators. Typically, a speculator would apply with the hope of winning the lottery but no real desire to provide the service. If the speculator won the lottery, he would, as soon a possible, sell the spectrum license for a hefty bonus to a third party with a genuine desire to provide the service.”
(Sen. Ted Stevens, Congressional Record, June 21, 1991) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Was One Of Those Who Sold His Winning Bid. “The policy effectively produced an auction anyway. To make sure they won at least a piece of the action, many players teamed up and entered as a group. In the contest for some franchises, every applicant was a member of the team, rendering the lottery moot. After a round of drawings –30 or more franchises were awarded at once- players took part in wild trading sessions to consolidate a controlling interest in the locales they coveted. ‘People would frantically trade pieces hack and forth, and if you didn’t have a chip, you could play with case,’ says Mark Warner, founder of Capital Cellular Corp. in Washington, D.C., a broker of cellular franchises. ‘It was a cross between Let’s Make A Deal and the baseball trade meetings –I’ll swap you a tenth of Orlando, Florida, for a twelfth of Oklahoma City if you throw in two more pieces of Dayton.’”
(“Winners And Losers In The Great Cellular Giveaway,” Fortune Magazine, November 5, 1990) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner’s Business Partner Said Warner Made Money At The Expense Of Taxpayers. “What followed was an object lesson for federal policy-makers. Warner held an auction, selling six markets for more than $20 million and garnering more than $800,000 in fees for himself . . . To many, the very idea of Warner’s auction was a travesty - not because Warner was breaking any laws or deceiving anyone, but because the U.S. government had given away the radio spectrum for free, and now the winners were promptly flipping it for a huge profit.”
(James B. Murray, Jr., “Wireless Nation,” 2001, pp. 150-51) (emphasis added)
Both Democrat And Republican Members Of Congress Denounced Warner’s Actions. Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass) said the lottery system was “abused by unqualified applicants whose sole objective was the trafficking of licenses” and said described the process by which Warner made his money as looking “ . . . more like ‘Let’s Make A Deal than a government-sanctioned procedure to allocate the radio spectrum.’” Former Representative Don Ritter (R-PA) said, “‘The speculator profits, the FCC plays Santa Claus and the taxpayer gets zip.’”
(“Dead Before Arrival,” Communications Daily, June 15, 1988; Eliza Newlin, “An FCC Lottery With Too Few Winners?,” The National Journal, October 26, 1991) (emphasis added)
Even Mark Warner Reluctantly Agreed With The Criticisms:
Mark Warner Said Government Gave Away Billions To Cell Phone Lottery Winners. “As Warner –himself a winner [in the FCC lotteries- says, ‘The government has basically given away tens of billions of dollars of an asset that is yours and mine and everybody’s in the country.’”
(“Winners And Losers In The Great Cellular Giveaway,” Fortune Magazine, November 5, 1990) (emphasis added)
After The Government Issued New Rules To Stop Abuses, Mark Warner And His Companies Did Not Abide By The Regulations:
Due To The Abuses, The Federal Communications Commission Changed Its Lottery Rules. “Rules now prohibit the kind of licensing-flipping that helped make Warner wealthy, requiring those awarded new licenses to operate a wireless service for a least a year before selling the license”
(Peter Baker, “Before Politics, A Run For His Money,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1996) (emphasis added)
But Mark Warner Violated Those Rules. “At [a] time when FCC administrative proceedings has been convened to determine whether cellular marketer Peter Lewis violated [the] Commission’s party-in-interest rules, Lewis has been promised about $1.5 million in consulting fees by brokers who may be willing to spend as much as $24 million trying to buy out his clients who have won cellular lotteries, according to information filed with [the] FCC. Lewis and his firm Lewis Telecom (LTEL) already have been paid more than $760,000 of that total, and he also could be in line to receive almost $1 million more if [the] buyout deals go through, according to documents filed with the Commission. Documents in the case involving Lewis-supplied applications in 7 markets state that [a] group of cellular brokers has agreed to cover [the] costs for his applicant, including [the] money they owe to Lewis that could total as much as $1,486,000, as well as payments to cover applicants’ legal fees. [The] Broker involved is Schelle, Warner, Murray & Thomas, Inc. (SWMT), working through affiliate Keene Cellular Group. Principals in [the] enterprise are Wayne Schelle, Mark Warner, James Murray, [and] Gary Thomas. Documents show that Tenn.-based broker Robert Blow also is [a] participant. Several Lewis challengers asked that Keene be included as [a] party in [the] proceeding, [a] motion being considered by FCC Administrative Law Judge Joseph Chachkin.”
(“‘Most Notorious’ Case,” Communications Daily, October 6, 1988) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner Also Violated Federal Rules About Off-The-Record Talks With Agency Officials:
A Mark Warner Company Misled Federal Officials. “On July 14, Schelle and his attorney met with FCC Chief of Staff Peter Pitsch to talk in ‘hypothetical’ terms about [a] strategy for dealing with contested cases. Pitsch leader read follow-up letters from Schelle, [and] realized that they could only be dealing with 2 cases that Lewis opponents characterized as ‘the most notorious, most controversial cellular filing schemes: the Lewis proceeding and the Crossville case.’ Pitsch later notified [the] FCC Managing Dir. Of what he interpreted as inappropriate contact with FCC staff on [a] prohibited matter, and [the] FCC on Aug. 15 issued [a] public notice describing the meeting.”
(“‘Most Notorious’ Case,” Communications Daily, October 6, 1988) (emphasis added)
Mark Warner’s Business Partner Says Warner “Tried To Intimidate” A Businessman Into Selling A Cell Market To A Warner Pal:
Mark Warner Flew A Winning Bidder From Washington To Chicago. “Another market [John] McCaw lost to Crowley was Waco - an event that Crowley calls a ‘major embarrassment’ for McCaw, which had a large presence in Texas cellular markets. Not long after Crowley bought it, he received a phone call from Mark Warner, asking if Crowley would meet John McCaw for lunch to talk about selling the license. ‘We’re not interested in selling it,’ Crowley told him, but reluctantly agreed to at least meet for lunch. Warner came by Crowley’s Washington, D.C., office and the two headed off in a cab. ‘Where the hell are we going,’ asked Crowley as the cab left the city on westbound Interstate 66. ‘To the airport,’ answered Warner. ‘Why? Where are we having lunch?’ persisted Crowley. ‘Chicago,’ Warner responded glibly. Craig McCaw’s private jet was at Dulles International Airport, ready to take the pair to Chicago. On landing, they headed for the restaurant in the Ritz Hotel on Michigan Avenue, where they found John McCaw seated at the corner table. After a few minutes of one-sided conversation, Crowley says, McCaw tried to intimidate him into selling the Waco license.”
(James B. Murray, Jr., “Wireless Nation,” 2001, pp. 173-74) (emphasis added)
AND he OPPOSES homeschooling! That is why he has all the teachers and their union behind him!
PS: Remember to attach a disclaimer so people know you're not with the Earley campaign. Good Luck!!!
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