Decision Virginia

Former governor and current candidate for Virginia senate,  Tim Kaine is under the spotlight this week. Just how far has his position on adoption changed since he was a candidate for governor? PolitiFact takes on the challenge.

Our report can be seen below:

The question is.. does this half-flip present problems or opportunities for Kaine the candidate?  As one twitter follower pointed out to me “evolving” positions aren’t always a bad thing depending on your perspective. The problem for Kaine might be that he mayt not even be 100% sure about how he feels about this issue.

You can see the full PolitiFactVirginia report on this issue by clicking here.

(Richmond)-  Virginia officially has a new governor. Saturday afternoon,  Bob McDonnell became the first Republican Governor to take office since 2002 and the first to take the oath in Richmond in 8 years.

On a beautiful January day in the Commonwealth’s capital, McDonnell pledged to work to bring “opportunity to all”, a pledge that will be a challenge given the current economic conditions.

We had the Inauguration covered from every angle on NBC12-TV and NBC12.com

*To see our recap of the event click here.

*To see our in-depth look at the upcoming McDonnell Administration click here.

*To see our look back at Governor Tim Kaine‘s Administration click here.

*To read the full text of McDonnell’s address click here.

The McDonnell Administration wasted no time getting to work. The new Governor signed two executive orders moments after he took the oath. There are as follows:

Executive Order # 1- Establishing the Chief Job Creation Officer and the Governor’s Economic Development and Job Creation Commission

Executive Order # 2- Establishing the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring.

The full release with details on both orders can be found after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

It was a job he didn’t want. A job he said would force him to take his “eye off the ball” of his responsibilities as Virginia’s Governor. But as he gets ready to leave the Executive Branch of the Commonwealth’s Government and take on the role of Democratic National Committee Chairman full-time, Tim Kaine is attempting to make the case that having both jobs at the same time actually helped the people of Virginia.

I asked Kaine about his service as DNC chair during my lengthy exit interview with the Governor last month. Kaine made no apologies for taking the job, despite his own reservations prior to taking on the role. Describing himself as a “patriot”, The Governor told me that when the President asks you to serve, you answer the call. But he agreed only after he and Barack Obama came to an understanding.

“The President and I had a very candid conversation,” Kaine told me. “I said, I am the Governor of Virginia and that is my first responsibility.”

Kaine said that Mr. Obama instructed him to concentrate on being Governor and tend to DNC business when he had time, before taking up the mantle completely in 2010. He said that looking back, his view of serving those two masters was incorrect. “Results speak for themselves,” Kaine said as he pointed to Virginia’s record as a business friendly state and its continued recognition as one of the best-managed states in the Country.

But Kaine did not stop at defending his decision to take on the DNC role, he went a step further and tried to build the case that his close relationship with the President actually helped the people of Virginia. “The citizens have understood it,” he said. “I think the citizens understood pretty quickly, ‘wait is there any downside to the Governor having a close working relationship with the President?’ The answer is no.”

Kaine said he was able to leverage his relationship with the White House to encourage them to issue an executive order to begin work on cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and keep an aircraft carrier from being moved from Norfolk Bay.  According to the Governor that advantage to the Commonwealth, far outweighed the negative aspects of serving as the leader of the national Democratic party.

“It’s meant I haven’t had a personal life for the last year,” said Kaine. “But the citizens have gotten it and I have been able to work with the White House to do some positive things for Virginia.”

This Saturday during our special coverage of Bob McDonnell‘s Inauguration, I will have special in-depth look at Governor Kaine’s four years in office.  The story will include more never heard clips from my one-on-one interview with the Governor. Our coverage of the event begins at 11:30 and we will broadcast the entire Inauguration on NBC12-TV and NBC12.com.

You can see the entire extended clip on Kaine and the DNC from our interview,  below.

Yesterday we previewed Governor Tim Kaine’s final State of the Commonwealth and wondered if he would spend more time looking back, or forward. In a speech that lasted, just a little more than 20 minutes he spent the bulk of his address building the case for a positive legacy. But he did use some of his time to make direct and almost stern points about what direction the Commonwealth should continue on.

For a full recap you can read and watch my story from last night on NBC12.com.

A bit later tonight, I will have more how the Governor feels being DNC chair impacted his time as Governor.

Outgoing Governor Tim Kaine will deliver his last State of the Commonwealth address Wednesday at the Capitol in Richmond. Kaine has already done a series of lengthy exit interviews with reporters across Virginia and has worked to build the case that his administration should be viewed in a positive light. (I’ll have another snippet from my exit-interview with Kaine tomorrow.)

As the time wanes in his time in office, Kaine has received a few positive reviews from the editorial boards of Virginia newspapers including the Washington-Post that said if Kaine were able to run for re-election, who would have won without much of a problem.

Considering that Kaine has already gone to great lengths to build his post-gubernatorial image it will be interesting to see  if he chooses to use the platform of the State of the Commonwealth as a swan song to point out his accomplishments or as a clarion call to legislature to keep his budget plan in place. Kaine just proposed the most controversial and difficult budget of his entire time in office and has warned his successor Bob McDonnell and the legislature not to mess with it.

Kaine told me bluntly last month that “If they enact my budget, there is no doubt that we will be Triple A (in bond rating), best state for business, we’ll keep all those accolades,” said the Governor, before pointing out, “Obviously they will get to make their decision as to what they want to do.”

Tonight, look to see if the Governor talks up his accomplishments, or decides to wade into a fight that ultimately,  he will not be a part of.

We will have complete coverage of Governor’s address tonight:

*The entire speech will be streamed live on our main web site: nbc12.com.

*I will provide live “tweets” from the Capitol during the speech on my Twitter page.

*I will be at the State Capitol and with a live recap on NBC12 News at 11. In addition, I will co-anchor FOX Richmond’s News at 10 live from the Capitol Grounds.

*Tomorrow, we’ll post extended clips from the speech and reaction from the legislators that were there.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has just a few weeks left in his time at the Commonwealth’s Chief Executive. Recently, I sat down with the Governor for a lengthy look back at his four years in office. Kaine revealed quite a bit during our discussion, much of which I will share over the next few weeks, leading up to the inauguration of his successor Bob McDonnell.

Among the many things we discussed was the vetting process during the campaign for President, that propelled Kaine into the national spotlight. Kaine developed a very close relationship with a then, Senator Barack Obama and was one of his early backers.  Even though Kaine was not very well-known across the Country, that friendship was one of the main reasons that Obama considered Virginia’s Governor to be his running mate.

Kaine, who was very quiet about the vetting process at the time, told me today that he, Joe Biden and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh were Obama’s three finalists. The selection process  has been outlined extensively in campaign manager David Plouffe‘s book, “The Audacity to Win“. Kaine said that he was whisked away to several covert interviews including one with Obama himself. He said around that time, the candidate told him what his thought process was.

“The president told me at one point, he said you know, you are my heart pick and Biden is my head pick,” Kaine told me.  ” Sometimes I go with my heart, sometimes I go with my head.”

At the time, national pundits were very skeptical that Governor Kaine had the foreign policy credentials necessary to serve as Vice President. That concern was compounded by the fact that Senator Obama’s experience in foreign affairs was also not extensive.  Apparently, Kaine felt the same way.

“I remember the next day Georgia and Russia went to war,” said Kaine “and I thought okay, it’s going to be Biden!”

Looking back, Kaine said that Biden turned out to be the right choice. Not only because he and Obama ended up winning by such a large margin, but because the Vice President has been able to leverage his connections with members of Congress to push forward the President’s agenda when it comes to health care reform.

The extended clip from Kaine’s comments on the Vice Presidential search are below:

I’ll have more from my interview with the Governor in the coming days. To see my story from NBC12-TV on Kaine’s reflections of his time in office, click here.

Tomorrow,  Governor Tim Kaine is scheduled to release his budget plan and bits and pieces of what he may propose are leaking out. Tax increases and major cuts are on the table. Tonight, the AP’s Bob Lewis is reporting the first big bombshell, that Governor is set to propose that the state cut its contribution to employee  pension plans.

Here is the full story:

AP-VA–Kaine-Budget,0118

By BOB LEWIS
AP Political Writer
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The austere budget Gov. Tim Kaine plans to submit will, among other things, scale back the share state government contributes to state employee retirement plans.

A state official familiar with some portions of what Kaine will present said that for the first time in nearly 30 years, the state will no longer cover the full 5 percent employees’ contribution to their pension plans.

The official was not authorized to pre-empt the governor’s address to legislative budget committees on Friday. Since the early 1980s, the state has paid its employees 5 percent retirement contribution. Kaine will propose decreasing that to 4 percent starting next July 1, then to 3 percent on July 1,
2011.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

By: Ryan Nobles – bio | email

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will make a tour of a series of Restaurants on the day one of his signature legislative accomplishments goes into effect. On December 1st, Kaine will make appearances at a number of different restaurants across Virginia in honor of the first day that  Commonwealth’s ban on smoking in bars and eateries will be enforced. One of his stops will be here in Richmond. The Governor will appear at the Home Team Grill on Main Street in the Fan at 4pm.

Kaine fought years of institutional loyalty to the tobacco industry to push through the ban, that had an overwhelming amount of public support. Despite spending the better part of 4 years fighting to get the measured pass, Kaine will leave the bulk of the enforcement of the new law in the hands of his successor, Bob McDonnell, who publically voiced opposition to the plan. Kaine told me back in February when the bill finally passed, that he wasn’t worried about the new law being enforced.

The brand new atmosphere at Virginia Bars and Restaurants begins on December 1st.

It wasn’t a surprise, but Tuesday, Gov. Tim Kaine announced his plan to address the Commonwealth’s growing budget gap. He announced $1.35 billion in cuts today. Those cuts will have a human impact. Close to 600 workers will be laid off and every state employee will be required to take 8 hours in unpaid furlough time.

NBC12 has been covering the story all day today. Andy Jenks will have a live report during our 5pm and 6pm newscasts.

You can see Governor Kaine’s entire press conference on the issue,  uncut, by clicking here.

During First at Four, I interviewed Ronald Jordan, the President of the Virginia Governmental Employees Association. He gave me a very frank assessment of the state’s situation. You can see that entire interview by clicking here.

Perhaps the most interesting quote from Mr. Jordan:

“The days of the cushy, permanent state job left about 15 years ago.”

Tonight we will look at the impact the cuts will have on higher education. The rollbacks could hit local institutions to the tune of 15%.

I’ll have more updates as they come available.

He put the Obama administration’s critics on notice, raised a bunch of cash for his party’s nominee for Governor of Virginia and only made one, minor but noticeable gaffe. All in a day’s work for the Vice President of the United States of America.

Joe Biden, the charismatic and experienced lawmaker charmed a crowd of close to 100 invited guests today at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Henrico. It was clear from the start of his speech that not only was the V.P. here to defend his team’s stimulus plan, but also to specifically target one of it’s chief critics, local congressman Eric Cantor.

During his nearly 40 minute address, Mr. Biden talked at length about specific examples of what he sees as progress that has resulted from the stimulus plan. From the protection of some 7,000 public sector jobs to the potential for local small business owner John Fernandez (pictured above with Biden) to add 25 jobs by the end of the year, Biden attempted to make the case that the expensive investment was worth it.

At one point Biden asked Central Virginians and the stimulus plans critics to step back and “look around” at the progress. Perhaps a tough sell to a community like Richmond that has seen the loss of a number of locally based companies. (Something we explored tonight on NBC12 news at 11.) But that wasn’t enough. Biden specifically went after Cantor by hinting that the Congressman was a hypocrite, for fighting against the stimulus, while at the same time begging for money to develop high speed rail from Richmond to Washington, D.C. (For his part Cantor called the Recovery Act a flop).

((Video from that section of Biden’s speech, plus more on the VP’s trip can be found after the jump)) Read the rest of this entry »