For Kaine, a Faith in Service

In 2001, he was elected lieutenant governor on a Democratic ticket headed by Mark R. Warner. That office rarely has a significant role in setting state policy. The lieutenant governor's job is to preside over the state Senate, which meets each winter in Richmond.

In 2004, he backed Warner's plan to raise some taxes while increasing spending on education and other services, which won approval from the Republican-controlled General Assembly after a tumultuous session. Warner aides said Kaine helped persuade senators to accept the final budget deal.

Kaine and Warner often appear together on the campaign trail, saying that a vote for Kaine is as close as Virginians can come to continuing with Warner, who is barred from seeking reelection.

Kaine can seem uncomfortable as the center of attention. When he takes the stage for a stump speech, he usually shushes the crowd to stop the applause right away in an almost self-conscious way.

"I am not a chest beater," he said. "I never have been. I think I am a classic Midwesterner. My upbringing was to do your job, do your best and don't talk about it a lot. We don't like football players who dance around in the end zone. We like the guys who score the touchdown and just hand the ball to the ref and then just go back to the sidelines. That was the way I was raised."

At campaign stops, Kaine may invoke his faith informally. In Bristol recently, a band played a song before Kaine was introduced to a crowd at a coffeehouse. "St. Augustine says he who sings prays twice," Kaine said, and people in the crowd nodded in agreement.

He carries three harmonicas in his briefcase. Recently, during a stop in Galax at the Rex Theater, he popped up on stage with the band No Speed Limit and played along with a version of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." A weekday crowd of more than 200 stood and clapped when he finished.

Kaine praised the band members, saying they were kind enough to play a song with a tempo slow enough for him to keep up.

He drives a pickup, is an expert on baseball trivia, likes to hit a bucket of golf balls to relax and doesn't have cable TV because he doesn't want his three children parked in front of the set (and, just as important, doesn't want himself parked there either, watching sports). His neighbors in Richmond have ESPN and allow him to visit for a big game, such as Virginia Tech-Maryland.

Each Sunday when he is not on the road, he goes to Mass at St. Elizabeth's. He said he joined the parish because the Masses there remind him of the long celebratory Masses he attended in Honduras.

When he made the trip back last year to celebrate his anniversary, he and his wife spent a couple of days with Father Patricio, whom he had not seen since law school.

"When he came down here with his wife last year," Patricio said, "he was the same kid as he was before. I don't think he changed at all. You know, going to Harvard Law School and going into politics, hell, that could change anyone. But he was still wanting to do things the right way."

A profile of Republican Jerry W. Kilgore was published yesterday. A profile of independent H. Russell Potts Jr. will appear.