Mark Warner , junior senator from Virginia, was frustrated as he left the Banking Committee hearing room.

One of a handful of senators to show up to hear confirmation testimony from Herbert Allison Jr., President Obama’s nominee to run the Treasury Department’s financial industry bailout program, Warner used all three rounds of his allotted questions that day to probe for the nominee’s thoughts on the management of private warrants and the transparency of the government’s investments.

As administration nominees tend to do, Allison bobbed and weaved, promising attention to the senator’s concerns — and answering little.

“It’s part of the education process,” Warner said as he took the elevator down to the basement of the Dirksen building following that June 4 give-and-take. “He didn’t answer any question. He didn’t answer [Montana Democrat Jon] Tester, he didn’t answer mine, he didn’t answer [Tennessee Republican Bob] Corker’s. A bit frustrating.”

The transition from popular, powerful governor to junior senator in a caucus of 59 Democrats has been, at times, a trying one for the energetic, 54-year-old Warner.

As a former technology venture capitalist turned chief executive of a state, Warner brokered a major balanced-budget deal in 2004 and helped spur job creation in economically struggling southern Virginia, winning him praise for his management of the state. With support from Northern Virginia liberals and rural conservatives alike, he left office after one term – Virginia law does not allow governors to hold consecutive terms in office – with huge approval ratings.

Warner’s profile was so high that he weighed a presidential bid in 2008, but decided against it back when Hillary Clinton was still viewed as the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination. But by building the Democratic party in Virginia with his brand of southern moderation, he effectively laid the groundwork for other Democrats to follow him — Tim Kaine , his successor as governor, Jim Webb , elected to the Senate in 2006, and then Barack Obama ’s historic victory in Virginia last November. That was the first time a Democrat had won the Old Dominion’s 13 presidential electoral votes since 1964.

Now a junior legislator, Warner is digging in to the grunt work of the Senate Banking Committee, where he has been staying below the radar, drawing on his successful experience in the private sector and working behind the scenes to try and help shape the panel’s approach to an overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory structure — and in doing so, carve out a niche for himself in the Senate.

In recent months, Warner has been meeting with executives, experts and academics in the financial services sector, both in Washington and on Wall Street, soliciting input, organizing white papers and developing ideas to present to his committee’s leaders. And in recent days, he’s laid some of these ideas out in speeches and legislation on the Senate floor, taking an ever-so-slightly higher profile as the Obama administration touts its plan for re-regulation.

“It’s challenging,” Warner says about his transition from being a governor, charged with knocking legislative heads, to a legislator himself. “As governor you had a smaller palate, you could paint on any part of it. Now you’ve got the biggest palette in the world and you have to learn to pick your spots.”

Warner was viewed as a lock as soon as he decided to run for retiring Republican John Warner’s Senate seat in 2008. He cruised to victory over another former Virginia governor, James S. Gilmore III, with 65 percent of the vote.

But getting used to life in the U.S. Senate is not easy for any freshman senator. Challenges include learning how to balance constituent work with fundraising, making relationships that will pay off down the road and dealing with the reality that they sit a few seats from the end of the committee dais, “next to the kids table,” as Warner says with a smile.

For former governors, the transition can be particularly taxing. No longer a chief executive charged with driving policy debates and taking quick, decisive action, they are now one of 100 legislators in a chamber steeped in the tradition of seniority. According to an unofficial list compiled by the Senate Historian’s Office, 257 former governors of states or territories have served in the Senate in U.S. history. Currently there are 12 former governors in the Senate.

Republican George V. Voinovich who came to the Senate in 1999, directly after serving seven years as governor of Ohio, says the adjustment is huge.

“What you’re doing is you’re going from [being] the orchestra leader to a member of the orchestra,” says Voinovich, who cut a far lower profile as senator for the last 10 years than he did as governor. “It doesn’t make any difference how much experience you’ve had  . . .  it’s like starting out in a new school, and you work your way up.”

Voinovich adds that senators primarily focus on a specific set of issues related to their committee work — a frustration to former government executives used to dealing with a diverse array of overlapping issues. “This place is known for its silos,” he said. “For those of us who were governors or mayors, we  . . .  can see all the silos and how they work together.”

Indeed, Warner clearly misses the wide latitude that being governor afforded him. He was in his element hours after that June 4 hearing as he met with local officials and lobbyists from Halifax, a town in southern Virginia, in his sparsely decorated office in the Russell Office Building.

With his suit jacket off and his arms behind his head, Warner rattles off names, restaurants and economic development projects in towns throughout the region. His interest is particularly piqued whenever a mention of expanding broadband Internet access, new battery technology or rural development projects — some of his personal priorities during his tenure in Richmond — comes up.

When one official, seeking a congressional earmark, mentions an economic project in southern Virginia funded by the state government, Warner reminds him with a smile, “Who do you think put up the dough for that?”

In an interview, Warner says that as a senator, he wants to continue to help drive economic development projects in his state.

“I loved that part of the governor’s job,” he says, adding that he’s talked to Clinton — now secretary of State — and her staff about how they went about doing the same thing for New York during her first term.

“I’m still learning,” Warner said, noting that his aides are “always trying to ratchet me back a little bit.”

Warner’s work has thus far been largely behind the scenes. Warner is a member of the Budget panel and the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and he’s introduced bills focused on long-term care and other issues. But for the time being, his heaviest focus is on the Banking Committee, the center for action and oversight on the Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout program and recent laws to overhaul the rules governing credit card companies.

It’s also the panel that will consider Obama’s proposal to overhaul government regulation of the financial services industry — an issue seemingly tailored to Warner’s strengths. Before venturing into politics in the mid-1990s, Warner co-founded the company that became cell phone giant Nextel and became wealthy as a venture capitalist.

 

He also benefits from a personal relationship with Banking Chairman Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., for whom Warner began working back in the 1980s as a staffer.

 

“He’s invaluable as a member. He can speak with a degree of confidence about the subject matter far beyond that which you would assume given his [place in] the pecking order,” Dodd says, comparing Warner in that regard to New Jersey governor and former Goldman Sachs chief executive officer Jon Corzine , who quickly became a go-to person on financial issues during less than one term in the Senate from 2001 to 2006.

 

Warner says he quickly realized that even with his business acumen, getting his head around the question of changing a regulatory framework that “took close to 75 years to develop,” was another matter. “I’ve been trying to educate myself as much as possible,” he said, adding that as a senator, “you can get everybody to at least return your call once.”

 

Warner says he visited with at least 50 financial experts before writing a proposal to create a new government economic board rather than expanding the power of the Federal Reserve, as the Obama administration’s plan proposes. Under Warner’s approach, the council would look like the National Transportation Safety Board, and include the Treasury secretary, the Fed chairman and heads of other major financial regulators.

Warner took to the floor to talk about the merits of a council of regulators the very day Obama unveiled his own proposal. And in April, he introduced legislation (S 910) that would amend the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to require the Treasury to provide continuous updates on how bailout money is being used through an electronic database.

On the Banking Committee, Warner has allied with Sen. Bob Corker , a first-term conservative Republican from Tennessee, to educate members of the broader Senate — particularly younger members — on financial regulation issues, in part by bringing in speakers like former Office of Management and Budget director Alice Rivlin, currently at the Brookings Institution.

“We may not agree on every issue, but there is a lot of thoughtful discussion,” Corker said. “I really enjoy working with him.”

Generally regarded as a pro-business vote, Warner has walked a fine line on some issues, like the recent law to curb a number of credit card practices that the White House and consumer advocates have denounced as abusive. McLean, Va., is home to credit card giant Capital One Financial Corp., and Warner acknowledges that his support for the credit card bill, in committee and eventually on the Senate floor, put him in a difficult position.

Warner said his dilemma was “how do you get reform without  . . .  shutting down the important services that credit card companies provide?”

Instead of offering amendments on the floor to tinker with the bill, he says, he approached it in way that has become his modus operandi. “I would rather try to work with the Banking Committee staff to try to make my case there, he said.

Warner was viewed for a time as a potential vice presidential candidate for Obama, and was chosen to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where he espoused Virginia’s economic successes.

John Chichester, a former Virginia state senator and Republican who speaks often with the former governor, says Warner is being careful not to get too far out in front of issues as he adjusts to Senate life.

“Finding his way along is what he’s about right now,” Chichester said.