Decision Virginia

Republican Party of Virginia Chair Pat Mullins teamed up with Del. Chris Saxman on Friday to announce their plan to submit a Freedom of Information Act request of Governor Tim Kaine’s travel since he began as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The announcement was accompanied by a web video produced by the RPV that ridicules Kaine’s non-government related travel and encourages Virginians to call his office and complain.

The attack follows a persistent strategy by the Republicans to muddy up the relatively popular sitting Governor to neutralize his impact in the fall elections. Mullins has already rapped Kaine’s DNC work, calling him a “part-time” governor and Republican candidate for Governor,  Bob McDonnell told me that Kaine is not a “Virginia Democrat” anymore and he is “tied to the extremely liberal and big government policies of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.”

There is no doubt that Kaine’s role as DNC chairman, a hyper-partisan role, leaves him vulnerable to these type of attacks. And it is not just the Governor’s political enemies who are questioning his work. The Washington-Post wrote about the Governor’s recent trip to Kansas City and how the local paper described Kaine as the “former Governor of Virginia”.

I just spoke to a representative from Governor Kaine’s office on this matter. Lynda Tran said that the Governor’s travel schedule and his security protection is “no different than any other previous governor of Virginia.” She also said that his security detail, which Mullins specifically mentions in the FOIA request, is “with the Governor 24 hours a day, whether he is sleeping in the mansion or hiking in the mountains with his children.”  Tran went on to say that the  protection is something the “people of Virginia have deemed necessary for their governor.”

The Governor’s office has not received the FIOA request, but they when they do, they plan to hande it appropriately. Meanwhile, they are trying to downplay the position the RPV attempts to put the governor in, with their satirical web video.

“They [RPV] are taking small clips of Friday and Saturday night events,” said Tran. “Even governors are allowed to have a little fun.”

You can see the request and the video after the jump..

———————