Virginia Town Crier

Jerry Kilgore became an expert on Tim Kaine the hard way: He lost to him for governor.

Kilgore was the Republican nominee in 2005. His party was intent on proving that the election of a Democrat four years earlier was an aberration, inconsistent with the state’s long Republican trajectory. Kilgore’s defeat showed otherwise, underscoring Virginia’s increasing competitiveness as a multi-hued suburban dynamo and Kaine’s skill in harnessing it.

Fast forward 11 years: Kaine is the state’s junior U.S. senator - and, for the second time since 2008, a finalist for the vice presidential nomination. Should he be selected by Hillary Clinton, it’s likely that Kilgore’s phone will be ringing - a lot, with Republican operatives and political reporters looking for skinny on the guy who would be the first Virginian selected by a major party for the vice presidency since John Tyler in 1840.

Kilgore has a warning about Kaine, particularly for Republicans whose first instinct might be to tar-brush him as a smooth-talking standard-brand, big-government, tax-raising liberal - though there’s much in the Democrat’s record to support that appellation: “He’s a great debater. He’s a great speaker. That’s where they have to be careful. He comes across as less threatening, as a moderate.”

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~ Richmond Times-Dispatch