Washingtonpost.com’s Chris Cillizza says that Mark Warner, a Democrat and the former governor of Virginia, is all but assured of capturing the Senate seat made vacant by the retirement of Sen. John Warner, a Republican who is not related to the former gov. According to Cillizza and others, Warner isn’t expected to get much of a challenge from former Gov. Jim Gilmore, his likely Republican opponent.

That means high school overhaul may be gaining a vocal new champion in the Senate. In 2005, then Gov. Warner made the issue a centerpiece of his tenure as chairman of the Washington-based National Governors Association. Read all about his agenda in that role here.