Share

Email Print Comments Share

RICHMOND, Va. -- With a little under a year to go until Virginia voters decide who will be their next U.S. senator, former Govs. Tim Kaine and George Allen faced off in a debate here Wednesday and made clear the race will be a hard fought one between two very different candidates.

In the first few minutes of the debate hosted by the Associated Press at the state Capitol, Allen (a former senator and governor) essentially painted Kaine (a former governor who served most recently as chairman of the Democratic National Committee) as a President Obama proxy while Kaine labeled his opponent a Washington politician who supported George W. Bush’s policies that led, Kaine said, to the recession.

Allen referred to Kaine as “Chairman” and Kaine termed Allen’s Senate bid as a “re-election campaign.” Indeed, the Republican’s 2006 re-election campaign -- during which he famously referred to an Indian-American Democratic volunteer as “macaca" -- was brought up by the moderator, who asked Kaine to comment on Allen’s use of what is widely perceived to be an ethnic slur. (Allen has apologized several times for using the word.)

“There was no mistake about what those words meant,” said Kaine. “The implication was that this young student was less of an American than George or you and me. For whatever reason he said it, it is part of the divisive politics we’ve got to put behind us.”

The Kaine campaign told reporters in a conference call ahead of the debate that anything in a candidate’s record is “fair game” in this race.

In an interview with RealClearPolitics last week, Virginia Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell said Allen, whom he has endorsed, can recover from the “macaca” comment not only because voters are focused on jobs, but also because they are forgiving.

“Americans by nature are a very resilient and forgiving people, if you admit a mistake and don’t make excuses for it,” he said. “We’re a nation of second chances.”

Kaine’s own history is a focal point of his opponent’s campaign strategy. Allen asked Kaine why, in his final year as governor, he took on the “most political, partisan job in America” -- DNC chairman.

Kaine defended his choice as a call to serve “the president, who has helped capture [Osama] Bin Laden and wipe out the al-Qaeda leadership.” He countered that in his last year as governor, Virginia was named by CNBC as the best state for business, even in the midst of a recession. When pressed by Allen on why he supported policies, such as the stimulus bill, put forth “by the likes of President Obama,” Kaine pushed back with, “Wiping out al-Qaeda? Stopping the Iraq war? Saving the auto industry? That’s not being consistent with Virginia’s interest?”

Kaine, who was among the first governors to endorse Obama in the last campaign cycle, hasn’t tried to distance himself from the president. During the debate, he said he would not vote to repeal the president’s health care law as a senator and called the measure “a big step forward.” Moreover, he has focused his campaign around local issues.

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.”