Hours after Republican Ed Gillespie conceded in a nail-biting election nearly a year ago, Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., returned home to Alexandria to consider what had just happened. Warner, who had left office as Virginia’s 69th governor riding a wave of a 71 percent job approval, escaped defeat by a mere 17,727 votes, or less than 1 percentage point. “Warner has been very cautious. His near-defeat has chastened him, and he knows his long honeymoon with Virginia voters is over,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
