New Politics In The Old Dominion?

Political Players: Obama Supporter Gov. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Discusses Campaign '08

(CBS) 

CBSNews.com: And yet, Republicans have had this 40 year lock on Virginia's electoral votes. The last Democrat who carried the state, as you know, was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Why do you think Democrats have been unable to break through, even Democrats like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who did very well nationally?

Tim Kaine: Well, even in those years in the '60s and '70s we were electing a lot of Democratic governors, but frankly the state Democratic Party and the national Democratic Party were at odds. They were very different in their message and in their orientation.

I think what I see at the national level now is a national Democratic Party that takes fiscal responsibility seriously. That takes results-oriented, performance-driven government seriously. And I think as the national party embraces candidates who talk that language and actually act on it, I think Virginia's votes are very, very much in play.

I think that with Mark Warner running for Senate in Virginia next year, I think it is going to be a very positive year in terms of being able to make this thing competitive. And I think that there is a good chance we are going to get the electoral votes of Virginia into the blue column.

CBSNews.com: And do you rule out joining an Obama-led ticket as a candidate for vice president?

Tim Kaine: Yes. I signed up for a great gig, which I never expected to have, which is the opportunity to be Governor of Virginia. And that does not finish until January of 2010. And so in Virginia, as you know, it is the only state where you just get one term. You cannot run for reelection.

And those four years need to be just crammed full, wall to wall with efforts to move the state forward. And so I am not going to do anything that would shorten that four year wonderful opportunity I've been given.

CBSNews.com: The tragedy at Virginia Tech brought the issue of gun safety laws into the forefront. What kind of progress has Virginia made on that since then? And is it tough for Democrats to get around the NRA attacks that somehow your party wants to take people’s guns away?

Tim Kaine: Well, the Virginia Tech panel did look carefully at these issues with respect to firearms. We made one immediate change in closing a loophole in the Virginia law concerning entry of mental health adjudications into the national gun database. Virginia has been the leader nationally in putting that information in the database.

But under the narrow circumstance in this case, the data did not go into the database, and that had tragic consequences. I have fixed that by executive order.

The panel also raised the issue of the gun show loophole in Virginia. More broadly should background checks need to take place at gun shows or significant private sales. My belief on that, and I'm been on record on this for a long time is if we have a law that says somebody who is mentally ill or a felon should not get a gun, we should not let them get a gun at a gun show.

CBSNews.com: Finally, you ran a very interesting campaign in 2005, one that many people nationally watched. And one of the things you emphasized, of course, is your faith. Do you think that it is necessary for a national Democratic candidate to emphasize his or her own faith as that candidate runs nationally?

Tim Kaine: I would say it slightly differently. I think any candidate, and I think Democrats have been a little weaker at this than they should be, any candidate should emphasize front and center why they are doing this. You know, why are you running?

And it tends not to be just a dry recitation of policy positions. Most of us in this line of work have a significant motivator. For me, it was an experience that I had a young man in Honduras working with missionaries that really transformed the goals of how I wanted to use my life. And so for me, I can't answer the question of why I run without talking about my spiritual journey. That is not everybody's motivation. But I think, you know, you need to share what your motivation is.

Another great example of a candidacy to prove that point is Jim Webb’s race last year. You know, his motivation was not that he was a missionary as a young man. But he shared what his motivation was. He was a soldier who wanted to make sure that American leadership was up to the standards of the men and women in the armed services, including his son, Jimmy, who was overseas as a Marine in Iraq.

And that was his motivation. And he shared that story. And then that had a way of making people understand why he felt the way he did about some of the most important policy issues. So, again, whether it's a faith journey, whether it's a personal experience you had, I think what voters want to know is, are you just in this to put something on your resume, or to build the stepping stones of some other office?

Or are you in this because of a deep commitment that you have from your inside, from your soul? And, if so, we want to know what that commitment is.

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Tim Kaine has served as Virginia's Governor since January 2006. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Kaine took a year off from Harvard Law School to serve as a missionary and school principal in Honduras. He served as Richmond's mayor and as Governor Mark Warner's lieutenant governor. As governor he's focused on schools, health care, economic growth, and the environment. Kaine's wife, Anne Holton, is the daughter of former Republican Virginia Governor Linwood Holton, making her the only Virginian to have lived in the Governor's Mansion as both a child and an adult.

[getloud1]

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[superdem]

There''s a church on every corner here in America. I don''t want to hear anything about anyone''s religion. In the presidential debate the other night Tim Russert asked each candidate what their favorite Bible verse was. I was appalled at the question, and appalled at the answers. I kept hoping someone would say "My personal religious beliefs are none of your business - we have separation of Church and State in this country." But no - each one had some lame quote to trot out to the voters, to prove that they "believe" - make me puke.

[glossypan]

Tim Kaine - a great choice to replace John Warner in the US Senate.

[dante805]

Hey Kaine, why did you appoint aterrorist to a state commission on Immigration. So you could get the answer you want: open borders. This Governor prohibits the State Police from Asking and reporting illegals, what a coward this Governor is. Glad he can''t run for a 2nd term. He is horrible. And I''m in VA, I should know.