Debate over jobs numbers
The jobs situation seems to continue to be getting better, with Friday’s announcement that unemployment fell two-tenths of a percent in January, to 8.3 percent.
But it’s not getting better fast enough, says Fifth District Republican Congressman Robert Hurt.
“A drop in the national unemployment average is always good news. However, the jobless rate remains above 8 percent now for the 36th consecutive month and we begin 2012 just as we left off in 2011 – with far too many out of work both in the Fifth District and across the country. Despite this drop nationally, many areas in the Fifth District still face double-digit unemployment rates due to years of failed big government policies,” Hurt said in a statement. Read more
Kaine: ‘All of the above’ on energy
The black-white debate on energy production between Republicans and Democrats generally speaking comes down to the merits of oil production vs. clean energy.
It doesn’t have to be an either-or proposition, though.
“We need to use every domestic source that we have. But I think we ought to be preparing for a long-term shift toward energy sources that are lower carbon or no carbon,” said U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine, a self-described “all of the above” guy on energy production.
Kaine, a Democrat, supports efforts to explore and develop energy using the plentiful domestic natural-gas reserves available to us – and also supports offshore drilling off the U.S. coast. Read more
Kaine raised $1.65M in fourth quarter
The Tim Kaine U.S. Senate campaign announced today that it raised $1.65 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 and has $3.3 million cash on hand.
Since the campaign kicked-off on April 5, 2011, Kaine for Virginia has raised more than $5.2 million from over 12,000 supporters.
“I’m overwhelmed and sincerely grateful for the enthusiastic support we’ve received in the first nine months of this campaign,” Kaine said in a statement. Read more
Kaine: Focus foreign policy on economic strength
United States foreign policy could use an overhaul.
“With the close of the war in Iraq and the drawdown in Afghanistan, we need to be focused more on our international economic strength,” said U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine in an interview with AFP editor Chris Graham.
Graham had asked the former Virginia governor to think about the different thrusts of foreign policy over the past two-plus decades. Foreign policy in the 1990s was about free trade and consensus-building. The 2000s, defined by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., were about the war on terror and military might. Read more
Kaine: Deficits do matter
Tim Kaine didn’t run for governor in 2005 promising to cut the state budget to the bone, but that’s pretty much what he had to do as the state faced down the recession a year into his term.
The key lesson that he learned: You can’t do across-the-board cuts.
“Everything isn’t worth everything else,” said Kaine, a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for the United States Senate. “Some things you cut deeply, some things you maybe completely let go. But other things, you either cut a little, or even put more money into them, because you’ve got to always be investing as you go.”
Another lesson learned: cut for tomorrow, not for today. Read more
Kaine addresses economic issues
Tim Kaine has been taking some heat from political rival George Allen over his support for the economic-stimulus package that President Barack Obama championed as a cornerstone to an economic recovery.
Funny thing, to the Democrat Kaine – the stimulus package that the Republican Allen has criticized played a key role in the decision of Amazon to invest in a new Chesterfield County facility by providing funds for an interstate-interchange project that Amazon said was a critical factor in its location decision.
The Amazon news is positive momentum for Virginia, and there are more and more positive economic signs out there – a good Christmas retail season, for example – even as there are some weaknesses that still need to be overcome – notably, the ongoing economic crisis in Europe. Read more
Kaine aims to ‘fix Washington’
Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine was “surprised” when U.S. Sen. Jim Webb announced in Feburary 2011 that he would not seek re-election.
Kaine had hinted after finishing out his term as governor in 2010 that he might be done with electoral politics, even as he stepped at the time into the job of chairman of the Democratic National Committee at the behest of President Barack Obama.
It wasn’t hard to figure out why. At the time, Webb and Mark Warner, both Democrats, held the state’s seats in the United States Senate, and with Virginia governors prohibited by state law for running for re-election, the next chance he seemed to have would have been another run for governor in 2013, as unlikely as it would be to see that happen.
So when Webb decided to step aside from a run for re-election in 2012, Kaine had an opening, and it didn’t take him long to decide to step up to the challenge. Read more
Kaine rallies local Democrats in Staunton
Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine looked a little surprised when he saw the packed house at Mill Street Grill in Downtown Staunton.
“The fact that you’re here on Jan. 7 – this race isn’t until November. That you are here in this number on Jan. 7 really gives me energy and enthusiasm,” Kaine told the gathering of around 100 local Democrats.
Kaine has been locked in a tight battle with another former governor, George Allen, for the U.S. Senate seat left open by the pending retirement of Democrat Jim Webb. Tight races are not necessarily anything new for Kaine, a former lieutenant governor and Richmond mayor, who has won seven elections, but not won a contested race with more than 53 percent of the vote going in his favor. Read more
Poll: Kaine builds lead in Senate race
For the first time in the walkup to their anticipated 2012 U.S. Senate race, Democrat Tim Kaine has built a small lead over Republican George Allen.
A Public Policy Polling survey of Virginia voters released Thursday has Kaine with a 47 percent-to-42 percent lead over Allen in the matchup of former governors. The race had been a tossup in three previous PPP polls in 2011. The Kaine surge is due to a switch in preferences of independent voters, who at one point this year had given Allen a nine-point edge, but now favor Kaine by four points.
Kaine has a significant lead among the 34 percent of Virginia voters who say they do not consider themselves Southerners – with 61 percent of those voters saying they plan to vote for Kaine, and 29 percent saying they will vote for Allen. Allen leads among the 66 percent of voters who say they do consider themselves Southerners – by a 47 percent-to-41 percent margin.
Both candidates are close to break-even in terms of favorability ratings with voters. Kaine is viewed positively by 40 percent of those surveyed and negatively by 41 percent. Allen gets a positive rating from 38 percent of voters and a negative rating from 39 percent.
More details on the poll: www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/12/kaine-leads-allen-by-5.html.
Kaine announces third-quarter fundraising
The Tim Kaine Senate campaign announced today that it received $1.3 million in donations during the third quarter.
In the six months since he declared his candidacy on April 5, 2011, over 8,500 unique donors have contributed to Tim Kaine’s Senate campaign. The campaign has raised approximately $3.55 million year-to-date and has approximately $2.55 million cash on hand.
Earlier this week, Kaine’s expected November 2012 Republican opponent, George Allen, announced that his campaign had raised more than $900,000 in the third quarter of 2010.
“As Governor Kaine takes his positive message on job creation, fiscal responsibility and economic growth through investments in our infrastructure and our workforce across the Commonwealth, Virginians are responding and showing their support. We are thrilled that so many people have joined our campaign and look forward to building on that grassroots momentum to elect great leaders in 2011 and send Tim Kaine to the U.S. Senate in 2012,” Kaine spokesperson Brandi Hoffine said in a statement.
Radtke blames Allen, Kaine, Obama for Wall Street protests
Tea Party Republican Senate candidate Jamie Radtke today blasted George Allen, Tim Kaine and Barack Obama for playing a part in fueling recent protests on Wall Street against free-market capitalism.
In a Tuesday morning interview on WLNI, Radtke told a Lynchburg audience: “Those protesters should be mad at career politicians, like George Allen and Tim Kaine and Barack Obama, who are working to benefit the special interests at the expense of working Americans.”
Radtke said, “An example of how it works is: George Allen takes millions in campaign contributions from Finance or Insurance or Real Estate interests, and then supports manipulating the markets to their advantage. That’s how George Allen’s been playing Wall Street politics.”
Radtke then cited the following actions by George Allen as evidence he manipulated the market:
Allen voted for the prescription drug entitlement known as “Medicare Part D”
Allen refused to help Senate attempts to reform Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac
Allen supported subsidies for various Wall Street interests like Ethanol and Sugar
“These left-wing radicals’ claims against Capitalism are fueled by career politicians like George Allen and Tim Kaine and Barack Obama, who are actually rejecting Capitalism and manipulating the markets for their friends.”
Radtke told WLNI the protesters on Wall Street are wrong to blame capitalism for the country’s economic woes. Instead, she said, “These protesters should be mad at liberal politicians like George Allen and Tim Kaine and Barack Obama for thinking they have the right to bleed working families in order to reward the fat cats that are bankrolling their campaigns.”
Chris Graham: Purple
Posted by afp on November 9, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Looking at the results from Tuesday’s state elections that way, then, you’d think, Well, going to be tough for a guy named Barack Obama and a guy named Tim Kaine to win in Virginia in 2012. You know, because they’re Democrats, and Democrats are the minority party in Virginia these days.
Funny thing there – this new normal is based on Republicans gaining exactly two seats in the State Senate. And since all 40 seats were up for re-election in the 2011 cycle, that means a gain from 18 seats to 20, with Democrats dropping two to go from 22 to 20.
So we have a 20-20 tie in the State Senate. And looking at vote totals from yesterday’s elections, well, more on that in a minute.
There were 25 contested races involving a Democratic candidate facing off with a Republican candidate among the 40 up for grabs in the 2011 cycle. In those 25 races, Democratic candidates received 471,450 votes, according to numbers I pulled from the State Board of Elections website and then plugged into a spreadsheet. And the Republican candidates in those races received … 470,093 votes.
Republicans have all the power right now. Democrats are obviously still very competitive.
2012 should be very interesting in Virginia.
Filed under Blogs · Tagged with 2012 election, 2012 election virginia, 2012 white house, barack obama, state senate virginia, tim kaine, virginia politics