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On Wednesday, he made clear he will also target his opponent’s Senate record. When asked by RealClearPolitics whether he is attempting to pin Allen to George W. Bush in this way, Kaine said, “The only George I mentioned was George Allen. . . . His Senate record is the most relevant data about what he is likely to do if he gets there.”

Kaine pressed Allen on why he voted to increase congressional members’ salaries and to increase the debt ceiling while in the Senate but opposed increasing the government’s borrowing limit this past summer. Allen said that now, members of Congress don’t deserve a raise.

“Congress is dilatory,” he said. “They’re worse than ever. . . . There ought to be a paycheck penalty if they don’t get appropriations done on time.”

On the debt ceiling issue, Allen cited the downgrade of U.S. debt and said “action needed to be taken, cuts needed to be made, not abdicating responsibility to yet another Washington commission.” He said he also disagreed with the defense cuts proposed.

It’s unusual to have a Senate debate this early in a campaign, especially given that neither Kaine nor Allen has yet won his respective party’s nomination. But the expected race between these two political heavyweights will be perhaps the most watched and most expensive in the nation next year. The state will also figure prominently in the presidential election as Obama looks to turn the traditionally red state blue, as he did in 2008.

Given what’s a stake in Virginia, Kaine and Allen won’t be the only figures at the center of this campaign. Last year, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that allows political action committees to spend unlimited amounts of money from undisclosed donors. And outside or third party groups have already made their way into the Old Dominion.

Crossroads GPS aired an ad in the state claiming that $39 million in stimulus money was spent on political office upgrades (Politifact rated this claim as “mostly false”). Allen said he has “always been an advocate of disclosure and freedom,” but hopes “that the expressions [from outside groups] -- whether they are for or against Tim or for or against me -- are based on factual data and evidence.”

In turn, Kaine joked that former Bush adviser Karl Rove, who leads Crossroads, is a “very good friend" of Allen's. And he called the high court's Citizens United ruling an “absolute disaster," noting, “If George and I could reach an agreement to get every other group except us out of this race, I would sign it in a minute.”

The candidates debated for 90 minutes, and at the forum’s conclusion the moderator joked that “we are now 11 months away from the election.”