Kaine Tries to Steer Support for Traffic Budget

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 29, 2006

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.

But neither that news nor the crush of cars on Northern Virginia's roads dampened Kaine's seemingly limitless confidence.

"We can get there. I can see a deal on the table that can work," Kaine said as he offered a traffic update on drive-time radio, then repeated it again to other radio listeners and reporters.

"It's easier for me to see it than for 140 legislators to all get on the same page," he said. "I recognize that. But I think we're making real progress."

Kaine's Northern Virginia tour was part of a five-day, four-region campaign-style swing that started in Harrisonburg on Saturday night. Kaine held a town hall meeting in Danville Monday night and will spend today traveling through Chesapeake.

It's also part of a broader campaign to put pressure on House Republicans to be willing to raise taxes to pay for transportation improvements. His political action committee is paying for radio ads and automated telephone calls across the state criticizing the House Republican leadership.

"The House plan as it is doesn't really solve the needs of any region," Kaine said. "[It] takes money out of some regions to benefit others and takes money out of community college budgets, economic development funds, higher ed, K-12, public safety, the environment, for transportation."

Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr. (R-Fairfax) said that he didn't believe Kaine's one-day trip would affect GOP delegates who have taken a stance against tax increases. And he said it was dubious that such a public relations campaign at this point would affect budget negotiations.

"It just hardens their spine, and it's counterproductive," Callahan said. "This is going in the opposite direction of where we need to go."

Kaine's outing along Northern Virginia's roadways included a stop at the Virginia Department of Transportation's Smart Traffic Center, where he sat for television interviews in front of a wall of television monitors showing traffic on the region's major arteries.

Except the screens showed cars zipping along freely. "It's been an abnormally good day," VDOT spokesman Ryan Hall said.

Kaine also sat for an hour-long call-in show on NewsChannel 8, fielding questions about his road plan before heading off to a high school in Sterling for his 22nd town hall meeting on transportation since becoming governor.

Heading west at 5 p.m. on I-66, traffic finally got bad -- perfect preparation for his PowerPoint presentation to about 300 people at Dominion High School in Sterling.

At the meeting, Kaine asked the audience whether anyone was satisfied with the state's road construction efforts. Not a hand went up.

"Northern Virginia's transportation problems are important to all 7.5 million people who live in Virginia," Kaine told the crowd. "There's a cost to doing nothing. Existing projects will suffer under the steady-state, status-quo, do-nothing situation."

Staff writer Chris L. Jenkins contributed to this report.