In Close Race, Kaine, Kilgore Focus on Identity Over the Issues

The plan was simple, and Kilgore's fundraising prowess -- a record $22 million and counting -- allowed him to implement it. More than half his television ads were attacks on Kaine, including two powerful death penalty spots featuring the relatives of murder victims.

Kilgore's media team -- led by veteran GOP consultant Scott Howell -- used a cartoon-like image of Kaine gobbling tax money. Another showed a man doing flips on a trampoline while an announcer declared Kaine a flip-flopper. Recently, Kilgore began running a gritty ad accusing Kaine of supporting benefits for illegal immigrants.

The effort was at least partly successful, operatives for both sides said. Polls suggest that Virginia voters believe Kaine would be more likely to raise taxes than Kilgore. In The Post poll, four out of 10 said Kaine is too liberal.

The result of Kilgore's relentless barrage, however, has been a strong perception among voters that the Republican has run a more vicious campaign. In The Post poll, 67 percent of those surveyed said Kilgore had been conducting a negative campaign, compared with 40 percent who thought that of Kaine.

The death penalty ads, in particular, appeared to turn off many voters. Sixty-five percent said they were unfair to Kaine.

In his response ads, Kaine said his opposition to capital punishment was based on his religion but promised to enforce the law, a message that 68 percent of voters believed, according to the poll.

"By attacking him on his religious convictions with respect to the death penalty, [Kilgore] has highlighted Tim as a man of faith," said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D).

Kaine Defines Himself

From the beginning, aides said, Kaine anticipated that his history as a civil rights lawyer who had defended several death row inmates and his public record as mayor of Richmond and lieutenant governor would become fodder for the Republican media machine.

His strategy: Define himself first, as a man of faith and as a centrist who would govern like Warner.

That began in February at a speech to Democratic activists in Richmond and then in Kaine's first ad, in which he says: "The Bible teaches us that we can accomplish great things when we work together. These are my values, and that's what I believe in."

Kaine's use of religion, some political observers say, helped him withstand Kilgore's barrage of negative ads. "It's the genuineness that has allowed him to weather all sorts of attacks," said John Milliken, former transportation secretary for former governor L. Douglas Wilder (D).

Like Kilgore, Kaine never seized on a single dominant issue. Out of the gate, he announced a plan to hold down homeowner taxes but then rarely mentioned it the rest of the year. His plan for preschool for all 4-year-olds never rose to the top. A slow-growth proposal came only in the last month.

If Kaine wins, said Robert D. Holsworth, director of the Center for Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University, it will be because he convinced voters that he was Warner II. "That will give Warner a huge boost on the national stage." If Kilgore wins, observers said, it will have been by convincing voters that Kaine was an awkward fit for Virginia.

Either way, veterans of Virginia campaigns said, it has not been a pretty contest to watch.

Jarding, Warner's 2001 campaign manager, said Kilgore defined Kaine and Kaine defined himself. But he said neither offered voters a complete package.

"I don't think Kilgore did a good job of telling Virginians why they should vote for him," Jarding said. "And I don't think Kaine did much to tell Virginia why Jerry Kilgore should not be governor."

Staff writers Timothy Dwyer, Steven Ginsberg and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.