Late yesterday afternoon, Hillary Clinton named Virginia U.S. Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate. I have known Kaine for a long time and first met him when I was being "debriefed" if you will by the head of the Virginia Democrat Party in Richmond while I was in that city for a meeting of a state board that I served on (I had been a Republican appointee) after I had left the Republican Party. Kaine casually introduced himself to me as "Tim" in a very unassuming way and never mentioned that he was the Lt. Governor at the time. What much of the news coverage about Kaine's selection doesn't mention is that his wife, Ann Holton Kaine, is the daughter of the first Republican governor elected after Reconstruction (Linwood Holton). There is certainly a possibility that the Holton name could sway some old time Virginia Republicans to support the Clinton-Kaine Ticket. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:
Hillary Clinton has chosen Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (Va.) as her vice-presidential running mate, completing a Democratic ticket that prizes experience and traditional notions of public service in a political year dominated by Republican rival Donald Trump’s unorthodox, highly personal brand of leadership.
Kaine, 58, a former Virginia governor, Richmond mayor and Democratic National Committee chairman, was chosen after a search that included riskier and more unconventional candidates who offered greater appeal to the party’s liberal base.
He was a longtime favorite to become Clinton’s running mate, however, in part because of the political and personal attributes she considers well-suited to the governing partnership she seeks — and in part because of the calculation that the experience of a Clinton-Kaine ticket would outgun Trump’s outsider bombast.
Along with his image as a low-key workhorse, Kaine brings legislative experience in the Senate and executive experience as a popular if unremarkable governor. He comes from a battleground state, albeit one widely considered winnable for Clinton whether Kaine is on the ticket or not.
She also sought a running mate who would be able to work with Republicans to advance an ambitious legislative agenda that includes immigration reform and new gun-control measures, her campaign said.
Kaine’s affable, regular-guy presence may also help balance the perception of Clinton as remote, chilly and privileged. She is among the least-liked major party candidates in decades, according to public opinion polls, behind only Trump.
With Kaine, Clinton hopes to focus the election even more squarely on the question of preparation and ability. Kaine shares Clinton’s governing philosophy. They share a basic ideology that government can do good and that the United States should be both a moral actor and an engaged diplomatic and military presence overseas.
She is also counting on him to be a partisan attack dog somewhat in the model of Vice President Biden.
Kaine is Roman Catholic and took a break from Harvard Law School to serve as a missionary in Honduras in the early 1980s. He said he holds “traditional Catholic” views on abortion, but he maintains that he strongly supports abortion rights. He has taken a similar stand on the death penalty, saying he opposes it for personal and religious reasons — but promising as governor to uphold the law of Virginia, where capital punishment is legal.
Kaine’s emphasis on faith in his personal life appealed to Clinton, a Methodist, and was discussed during conversations the two held leading up to his selection, a Democrat with ties to both of them said.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) would name a replacement ahead of a special election in 2017. The winner would have to run again for a full six-year term the following year.
Clinton also praised the work of Kaine’s wife, Anne Holton, the state education secretary in Virginia.
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