Kaine Carries Vow to Fix Traffic Into His 2nd Year

Still, 2007 is an election year, and the enormous pressure on lawmakers to deliver some hope that traffic will get better may help Kaine make good on his promise to solve what he has called the "most urgent" problem facing the Commonwealth.

If Kaine wants to accomplish his other goals -- health-care reform in Year 2, education reform in Year 3 and environmental reform in Year 4 -- he will need to find a way to work with Republicans who say he is more interested in partisan gain than policy achievement.

"It will take every ounce of his gubernatorial persistence to advance a meaningful agenda in the balance of his term," said Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City). But, he added, Kaine is "perennially optimistic. He doesn't focus on the negative aspects."

Warner campaigned in 2005 alongside Kaine, who declared himself part of the "Warner-Kaine administration" and promised to work with both parties if elected.

A year into his term, Kaine says he has accomplished that goal.

"I've had a very good relationship with a lot of Republicans," he said, noting that three of his Cabinet choices were from the GOP. "I've had Republicans carry bills for me in the legislature. They know I'm not a guy who's all about the party-line solution."

But many Republicans and, privately, even some Democrats say Kaine has developed a brash, partisan style that has ratcheted up tensions with the conservative wing of the state GOP and has made negotiations over transportation and other issues more difficult than necessary.

Unlike Warner, who slowly wooed Republican moderates and was cautious about saying anything that could offend, Kaine has a shoot-from-the-hip style and is less worried about showing his partisan ambitions.

Kaine started his term by nominating the state's leading labor official to his Cabinet, prompting the House of Delegates to reject a gubernatorial Cabinet appointment for the first time. He launched a pressure campaign against GOP delegates in their own districts early in the year. He grabbed national headlines -- and irked local Republicans -- by giving the Democratic response to the president's State of the Union address in January.

One Democrat recalled recently that Kaine sent out a fundraising appeal on behalf of a Democratic congressional candidate during the middle of the September special session on transportation. It quickly found its way into the e-mail inboxes of the Republican delegates as they sat in the House chamber.

"He's doing more politicking than he needs to do," said the delegate, who did not want to be named for fear of offending Kaine.

Kaine's adversaries are more blunt.

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said Kaine's actions during the first year are responsible for much of the tensions that have hampered negotiations on transportation and other issues. He said the nomination of AFL-CIO state director Daniel G. LeBlanc to be secretary of the Commonwealth, which failed, was a crucial mistake by the governor.

"It sent a signal to us immediately," Griffith said. "Conversations behind the scenes were, 'Oh, gosh, this guy really is a liberal.' That was the first signal."

Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) said Kaine has "chosen to take a pretty combative approach with the General Assembly. I'm not sure that doing combat with the legislature is going to be that productive."

And Ed Gillespie, the newly elected chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, pointed to Kaine's public statements about his desire to defeat enough Republicans in the November 2007 election to take back the Senate and House.

"He's clearly taken a different approach than his predecessor. He has a much more partisan bent and is intent on campaigning against Republicans in the legislature rather than working with them," Gillespie said.

Kaine is unbowed about his desire to help the Democratic Party regain control of the legislature. He describes that as a natural, and common, part of the job. And he notes that previous Republican governors, such as James S. Gilmore III and George Allen, campaigned with gusto for their GOP colleagues.

"I don't apologize for trying to promote what I think is right," Kaine said. "The notion that you have to apologize for being a part of a two-party system, I don't believe you do. It's one of the things that makes our system great."

Kaine has forged a good working relationship with Republican leaders in the Senate, who have been at war with their House GOP counterparts for years. But even the moderate Senators have noticed Kaine's sharper edge.

"Yes, he clearly has sparked a partisan tone," Norment said, "but I've had that partisan tone presented in a much more confrontational way by prior Republican governors."

Kaine's Democratic colleagues are grateful for his enthusiastic help. In the Senate, they can take control if they defeat just four Republicans, including Devolites Davis. In the House, they need more than double that number. But they say Kaine could be crucial to closing the gap.

House Democratic caucus Chairman Brian J. Moran (D-Alexandria) said he trusts Kaine to find a way to broker a deal on transportation before he leaves office.

"He's very approachable and intelligent. He's a very likable individual, and I think that provides him an asset," Moran said this week. "He has promised to lead the fight, and he has led the fight. It's now up to the House Republican leadership to join hands in an effort to compromise."