
Kaine announces additional staff hires
Sen.-elect Tim Kaine announced additional members of his Senate staff on Monday, including two Capitol Hill veterans to lead his Washington-based communications team.

Sen.-elect Tim Kaine announced additional members of his Senate staff on Monday, including two Capitol Hill veterans to lead his Washington-based communications team.

It’s a month past Election Day 2012, and Barack Obama is still more than a month away from beginning his second term. Keep that in mind as you consider the latest from Public Policy Polling, which is a very, very, very early look ahead to the 2016 presidential race.

Two-term Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is set to announce that he will not seek the 2013 Republican Party gubernatorial nomination. Time to examine the impacts of that anticipated move on the Virginia political scene.

Multiple reports late Tuesday night have Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling preparing to announce on Wednesday that he will drop out of the 2013 Virginia governor’s race.

Northern Virginia attorney and political activist Mike Signer announced in an email Thursday that he will not seek the Democratic Party nomination to run for attorney general in 2013.

The conventional wisdom has had Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli as the favorite heading into the 2013 Republican gubernatorial-nomination season for some time now.

More than a year of buildup to what had seemed to be an inevitable Barack Obama re-election was washed away in 90 minutes in Denver on Oct. 3. If not for that one night of lethargy from the president, we’d never have come across the term “Ro-mentum,” likely not had to endure 90 minutes of guffaws from Joe Biden a few nights later – and few would have cared that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie decided to focus on his job instead of presidential politiics at the worst of Hurricane Sandy.

It would seem at first glance that the Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan event scheduled for Thursday at Augusta Expoland in Fishersville would be so much overkill given the recent voting history in Greater Augusta. Barack Obama, en route to winning Virginia in the 2008 presidential election, was roundly trounced in Greater Augusta (Augusta County and the cities of Staunton and Waynesboro) by Republican nominee John McCain. McCain won the region with 62 percent of the vote, with Obama trailing far behind with 37 percent.

Barack Obama and Tim Kaine are looking good in Virginia in 2012. And then you look ahead to 2013, and it looks again like Republicans have the inside track to a statewide sweep.

U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and George Allen spent time on Tuesday talking with voters on issues related to defense and veterans issues.