The Virginia Senator
John Warner’s career in the US Senate
bookended the Republican Party’s short era of dominance in Virginia. He was
narrowly elected in 1978, in a state which favored conservative Democrats; and retired
from the US Senate in 2009. He was certainly part of the Defense establishment,
which once held economic and political power in Virginia; the submarine USS
John Warner (SSN-785) is named in his honor. He drew support from across the
political spectrum, running unopposed in 2002. Before his retirement, the
nascent Tea Party movement branded this popular moderate as a RINO (Republican
in Name Only). John Warner was indeed a RINO: “Reasonable, Intelligent, Nice
and Open-minded”.
Warner's death comes at an
inflection point as the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) attempts to rebuilt
from a lost decade of nominating Tea Party and Trumpist candidates, who failed
to win any statewide election since 2009. If proof is found in pudding, these
rural hardliners typically lost their November elections by 10 points or more;
while mainstream candidates in 2013 and 2014 fell just one point short of
victory. The RPV is optimistic for this year’s races, as the nominees are both diverse
and chosen by suburban voters, who have marched towards the Democrats in the
past decade. John Warner was richly eulogized by the nominees, showing that the late Senator is a model to be followed.
Exxon Going Green?
This one is personal to me, as
I dumped this laggard of a stock last year. Shareholders put Jeffrey Ubben of
Value Act Capital onto Exxon's Board of Directors, in hopes of bringing the
large corporation up to par in the future of energy. Ubben's unique thinking is
that an "oil company" can be part of a "Responsible
Investing" (ESG-focused) portfolio. For other petroleum companies,
the transition to green energy is nothing new. BP (British Petroleum) had long
styled itself as "beyond petroleum", embracing a green sunflower as its
logo.
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