Kaine Tries to Steer Support for Traffic Budget

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) plunged into Northern Virginia traffic yesterday, hoping to dramatize the need for lawmakers to end their dispute over the state budget and agree on a new financing plan for roads and transit.

The idea: spend 15 hours in and out of a black Chevy Suburban, get stuck in traffic, do some television and radio interviews, get stuck in some more traffic and wrap it all up with a town hall meeting in Loudoun County.

"I want Northern Virginia to know that I get it," Kaine told reporters after his monthly "Ask the Governor" show on WTOP radio.

As luck would have it, the plan went a bit awry on the way from Richmond to Northern Virginia, as the self-proclaimed transportation governor cruised along Interstates 95 and 395 during rush hour at 75 mph.

"Where's all the traffic?" wondered Kaine's press secretary, Kevin Hall, from the back seat as the SUV sped easily through Prince William County at about 8:45 a.m. "I ordered up traffic."

But this was Northern Virginia, after all. So by 9:15, as the governor reached Arlington County, the brake lights appeared in front. For the next hour, Kaine fought his way by the Pentagon, through Rosslyn and into the District on his way to the radio station.

The delay gave Kaine a chance to catch up on phone calls to the families of soldiers he met during a recent trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. But even during those calls, Kaine stayed on message.

"I'm actually coming into Crystal City right now," Kaine told a surprised Hunt and Betsy Chapman of Arlington, whose son, Brian, he had met on his trip. "I'm spending the whole day here going around talking about traffic and congestion challenges."

Their question for the governor: How's traffic?

"We did pretty well until we got inside the Beltway," Kaine told them. "We came a little bit on the late side, so we did pretty well."

Back in Richmond, senators were holding a spur-of-the-moment public hearing on the state budget. It was, they said, their own effort to highlight the public services that could be hurt if the state doesn't adopt their version of the spending plan.

The delegates, having arrived to start a special session Monday, departed that afternoon, to return on an unspecified date. Formal negotiations between delegates and senators remained stalled Tuesday.