| Tim Kaine | |
|---|---|
| Tim Kaine in 2008 | |
| 70th Governor of Virginia | |
| In office January 14, 2006 – January 16, 2010 |
|
| Lieutenant | William T. Bolling |
| Preceded by | Mark Warner |
| Succeeded by | Bob McDonnell |
| 51st Chairman of the Democratic National Committee |
|
| In office January 21, 2009 – April 5, 2011 |
|
| Preceded by | Howard Dean |
| Succeeded by | Debbie Wasserman Schultz |
| 38th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia | |
| In office January 14, 2002 – January 14, 2006 |
|
| Governor | Mark Warner |
| Preceded by | John H. Hager |
| Succeeded by | William T. Bolling |
| 76th Mayor of Richmond, Virginia | |
| In office 1998–2000 |
|
| Preceded by | Larry E. Chavis |
| Succeeded by | Rudolph McCollum Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Timothy Michael Kaine February 26, 1958 Saint Paul, Minnesota |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Holton |
| Children | Nat Kaine Woody Kaine Annella Kaine |
| Residence | Richmond, Virginia |
| Alma mater | University of Missouri (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Signature | |
Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine (born February 26, 1958) is a Virginia politician. Kaine served as the 70th Governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, and was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011. He was elected governor in 2005, after serving as the 38th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and Mayor of Richmond, Virginia.
Kaine was considered a possible choice to be Barack Obama's running mate in 2008, but was not ultimately chosen.[1]
On April 5, 2011, Kaine announced his candidacy for the United States Senate seat in Virginia being left open by the retiring Jim Webb in 2012 election after weeks of speculation.[2]
Contents |
Kaine was born at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Mary Kathleen (née Burns) and Albert A. Kaine, a welder and the owner of a small iron-working shop.[3][4][5] Kaine grew up in the Kansas City area and graduated from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kaine graduated from the University of Missouri with a B.A. in economics in 1979.[6] Kaine was a Coro Foundation fellow in Kansas City[7] in 1978. He attended Harvard Law School, taking a year-long break during law school to work with the Jesuit order as a Catholic missionary in Honduras.[8] Kaine is fluent in Spanish from his time in Honduras.[9] He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1983 with a Juris Doctor, and was admitted to the Virginia Bar. In 1984, Kaine married former Richmond Juvenile Court Judge Anne Holton. Holton is the daughter of former Virginia governor A. Linwood Holton, Jr. Kaine and Holton have three children, Nat, Woody, and Annella.
Kaine practiced law in Richmond for 17 years, specializing in representing people who had been denied housing opportunities because of their race or disability. He was recognized by local, state, and national organizations for his fair housing advocacy. He also taught legal ethics for six years at the University of Richmond Law School.[10] More than ten years into his legal career in 1994, he was elected to the city council of the independent city of Richmond from the portion of the city in which he resided under Richmond's system of nine wards.
He was elected mayor of Richmond by the city council (which until 2004 chose the mayor from among its membership, rather than the current system of popular vote) in 1998. He spent seven years on the city council, including two terms as mayor.
Under Kaine's leadership, Richmond saw the construction of the first new schools in a generation, tax cuts and a reduction in the city’s crime rate. Richmond’s success in reducing violent crime, including a 55 percent drop in the city's homicide rate during his tenure,[11] earned national recognition from Presidents Clinton and Bush and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Richmond's economic success during Kaine’s tenure earned the city its first-ever listing in Forbes Magazine’s annual ranking of the top 10 cities in America for doing business.[12]
As mayor, Kaine was gained national attention following the implementation of a gun law known as Project Exile, an initiative that moved trials for armed defendants in federal court, which has stiffer sentencing guidelines.[13][14]
During his tenure as Mayor, Kaine drew criticism for designating public funds for an anti-gun-violence rally.[15][16][17][18] After a constituent raised concerns about the funding at a Richmond City Council meeting Kaine raised the money privately, and reimbursed the city.[19]
In the Virginia general elections of November, 2001, Kaine ran for lieutenant governor and won with 925,974 votes (50.35%).[20] His opponents were Republican state Delegate Jay Katzen with 883,886 votes, (48.06%), and Libertarian Gary Reams with 28,783 votes (1.57%). Kaine was inaugurated on January 12, 2002. As lieutenant governor, he served as president of the Virginia Senate.
In 2005, Kaine ran for and won the office of governor of Virginia in the November general election, defeating Republican former Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore by a margin of 52%-to-46% percent.[21] Kaine said he would look to retain the tax and education policies of his predecessor, Mark Warner, and keep the budget balanced. He held a series of statewide "town hall" meetings focused on transportation.
An underdog for most of the race, Kaine led in some polls for the first time in October 2005, and held his lead into the final week before the election.[22] While the previous Democratic Governor, Mark Warner, was credited with doing especially well for a Democrat in rural areas of the commonwealth, Kaine's win featured surprising triumphs in traditionally Republican areas such as Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and the Northern Virginia exurbs of Prince William County and Loudoun County, as well as impressive showings in Democratic strongholds such as Richmond and Norfolk.[23]
Kaine closely associated himself with popular outgoing Democratic Governor Mark Warner during his campaign; he won his race with a slightly smaller portion of the vote than Warner did, but achieved a slightly wider margin on account of the third-party candidate's comparatively greater success in 2005. He promised homeowner tax relief, centrist fiscal leadership and universal pre-kindergarten. . A number of factors, from the poll numbers of President George W. Bush to public reaction to the death penalty ads run by Kilgore, have also been cited as key to his decisive win.[24][25] Kaine was inaugurated in Williamsburg on January 14, 2006. This makes Kaine the first governor since Thomas Jefferson (in 1779) to be inaugurated in Virginia's colonial capital. Virginia's capitol building in Richmond was under renovation at the time, with the process completed in mid-2007.
On January 31, 2006, he gave the Democratic response to President Bush's 2006 State of the Union address. In his response, he argued that the Republicans failed to support bipartisanship in Washington and condemned Bush's spending increases and tax cuts as "reckless".[26]
In March 2006, after the Virginia General Assembly failed to create a budget, Kaine called for a special session that continued until June. The debate was over transportation issues and how to fund current and new projects. Most of the debate came from a battle within the Republican controlled Senate and House of Delegates. In 2007, however, a transportation bill was passed and signed into law by Kaine.
In May 2006, Governor Kaine announced his plan to conserve 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) of Virginia real property from development before the end of his administration as Governor of Virginia.[27] The Commonwealth of Virginia's landowners favor land conservation although Virginia lags behind other states' per capita expenditures on land conservation.[28] As of 2007, according to government statistics, Maryland spends as much as $21 per capita on land conservation, while Virginia spends $1.45.[29] On the other hand, Virginia also has a higher proportion of its total land area under permanent protection than many other states, with about 13.69% of it currently protected.[30]
In June 2006, Kaine signed an executive order banning smoking in all government buildings and state-owned cars.[31] He also announced that Virginia will be the first state in the Union to digitize records from the Civil War Era Freedman's Bureau. This will open up research in African-American history after the Civil War.[32]
Kaine has signaled his support for vaccinating sixth-grade girls in Virginia with the HPV vaccine. In 2007, Virginia, along with 20 other states, was considering a law to expand such vaccinations. As such, in 2007, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law that mandated such vaccinations, while allowing parents to opt out of the requirement without citing a reason. After expressing "some qualms", Kaine signed the bill into law.[33]
When news of the Virginia Tech massacre broke, Kaine canceled a trade mission to Japan and India to attend to the situation. Kaine spoke at the convocation held in Blacksburg the day after the shooting in which he invoked the Biblical story of Job. Kaine said he would appoint a panel of independent law enforcement officials to examine what the university knew about the student responsible for the massacre, which killed 32 people. The commission, led by former Virginia State Police Superintendent Gerald Massengill and former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, began work on April 28, 2007, and issued their findings and recommendations on August 30, 2007. On April 30, 2007 Governor Kaine signed an executive order instructing state agencies to step up efforts to block gun sales to people involuntarily committed to inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment centers.[34] Appearing alongside Attorney General Bob McDonnell (R), Kaine said the order would help prevent people like the shooter from illegally obtaining firearms in the future.
In July 2007, Kaine supported an above-ground solution to the debate on building the Silver Line of the Washington Metro through Tysons Corner. Some people disagreed and preferred a tunnel.[35]
During the 2008 General Assembly session, Governor Kaine backed $22 million expansion to increase the accessibility of Pre-K education for at-risk four-year-olds.[36]
Kaine appointed Dr. Esam Omeish to the Virginia Commission on Immigration, which was examining whether Virginia should do more to restrict illegal immigration. In September 2007, Omeish resigned as a commission member—as requested by Kaine—three hours after remarks Omeish made were brought to Kaine's attention on a radio call-in show on WRVA radio in Richmond, specifically his criticisms of the Israel lobby and call for Bush's impeachment due to the Iraq War.[37]"I have been made aware of certain statements he has made which concern me," Kaine said while accepting Omeish's resignation. Kaine added that background checks would be more thorough in the future.[38]
Kaine earned opposition from environmentalists for supporting a coal-fired power plant in Wise County[39] that will emit an estimated 5.4 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.[40] In a radio interview, Kaine said "We are not going to eliminate coal, a native source that we have, as one of the sources that will power our country."
Despite his personal opposition to capital punishment, often cited during the 2005 campaign by both sides, he oversaw eleven executions as Governor, including the execution of John Allen Muhammad, the Beltway Sniper, on November 10, 2009. He has vetoed eight death penalty expansion bills although some of the vetoes were overturned,[41][42] and opposed the electric chair as an option.[43] On June 9, 2008, Kaine commuted the death sentence of Percy Levar Walton to life in prison without parole.[44]
Tim Kaine maintains a faith-based opposition to abortion[45] but he opposes overturning Roe v. Wade, instead encouraging policymakers to focus on reducing the number of abortions by fighting teen pregnancy through abstinence-focused education, ensuring women's access to health care and contraception, and promoting adoption.[46] He supports some legal restrictions on abortion, such as requiring parental consent and banning partial-birth abortions in cases where the woman's life is not at risk.[47]
Kaine supports some smart growth-style policies to manage sprawl and transportation issues; he refers to these plans as "balanced growth."[48]
Kaine endorsed Senator Barack Obama early in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries. Kaine's support of Senator Obama's presidential bid began in February 2007. Kaine's endorsement was claimed to be the first from a state-wide elected official outside of Illinois.[49] As a relatively popular governor of a southern state, there was media speculation that Kaine was a potential nominee for Vice President.[50] Obama had supported Kaine in his campaign for governor and said about him: "Tim Kaine has a message of fiscal responsibility and generosity of spirit. That kind of message can sell anywhere."[51] On July 28, 2008, Politico.com reported that Kaine was "very, very high" on Obama's shortlist for vice president,[52] a list which also included then Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware.[53] Obama ultimately tapped Biden to become the vice-presidential nominee.[54]
In January 2009, Kaine became the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He took the position at the request of President Obama, and during his tenure has overseen a significant expansion of the party's grassroots focus through Organizing for America.
Kaine announced on April 5, 2011 that he is running for United States Senate in 2012. He filmed two announcement videos, one in English and the other in Spanish.[55][56]
| Virginia Gubernatorial Election 2005 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Democratic | Tim Kaine | 1,025,942 | 51.7 | ||
| Republican | Jerry Kilgore | 912,327 | 46.0 | ||
| Virginia Lieutenant Governor Election 2001 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Democratic | Tim Kaine | 925,974 | 50.4 | ||
| Republican | Jay K. Katzen | 883,886 | 48.0 | ||
| Libertarian | Gary Reams | 28,783 | 1.6 | ||
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Larry E. Chavis |
Mayor of Richmond 1998–2002 |
Succeeded by Rudolph McCollum Jr. |
| Preceded by John H. Hager |
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia 2002–2006 |
Succeeded by William T. Bolling |
| Preceded by Mark Warner |
Governor of Virginia 2006–2010 |
Succeeded by Bob McDonnell |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Lewis F. Payne, Jr. |
Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia 2001 |
Succeeded by Leslie Larkin Byrne |
| Preceded by Mark Warner |
Democratic nominee for Governor of Virginia 2005 |
Succeeded by Creigh Deeds |
| Preceded by Howard Dean |
Chairman of the Democratic National Committee 2009–2011 |
Succeeded by Donna Brazile Acting |
|
|||||||
|
|||||||