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Does Virginia have an around-the clock Governor?
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Questions are being increasingly asked about Timothy M. Kaine’s balancing act as Governor of Virginia and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. A headline in Thursday’s Washington Post said “Va. Governor uses 1 ½ days of workweek for DNC Job – Kaine adopts schedule despite early pledge”
Kaine said he has been spending a day and a half of each workweek handling fundraising and policy matters for the Democratic National Committee, a departure from his pledge to conduct most of his national party work by phone and fax and restrict it largely to evenings and weekends while he is governor of Virginia.
The Republicans have put out an internet advertisement on the matter, and there are several websites asking people to spot the Governor whilst he is out of state; in airports, fundraisers, hotels etc.
When Barack Obama asked the Governor to chair the DNC Kaine knocked back the offer, which some pundits saw was a payoff for not choosing him as his running mate. Then Kaine changed his mind and took the position. Stating that he would put Virginia matters of State first, he would only work on DNC matters primarily on weekends and after hours thereby not conflicting with his gubernatorial duties.
This has not turned out to be the case as a recent rundown of the Governor’s travel schedule outside of Virginia shows; May 2 North Carolina, May 8 Fort Lauderdale, May 20 Dallas, May 30 Miami, June 11 Chicago, June 19 Kansas City to name a few.
As he prepared to fly to Minnesota yesterday (Friday) on Democratic Party business, he said "I'm an around-the-clock governor," and stated that with his Blackberry, cell phone and email, he is contact with his office and constituents.
Kaine told one journalist that if anyone wanted to know his whereabouts they only need ask. So of course, he was taken up on that offer. Problem for Kaine is when a FOIA request was submitted for his DNC schedule the Governor denied it.
Pat Mullins, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, said that the RPV thought about taking this to Court and fighting it. He and the Party eventually decided against it despite much urging of Party members to go after the Governor.
Mr Mullins released a statement saying that, as a concerned Virginian, he was ultimately concerned about the State’s finances: "To continue our pursuit of the documents in question would leave us with the only option of taking the issue to litigation. That course of action would occupy state resources in the use of the public court system and the governor’s counsel in defending their refusal. In this time of economic difficulty and massive budget shortfalls in Virginia, I cannot in good conscience approve such a proceeding."
Virginian Governors are, of course, limited to one consecutive term in Office. If this was the not the case would Kaine have taken the DNC job with an eye to another term? It doesn’t matter as polls show Bob McDonnell is likely to be sworn in next January.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch in an editorial this week summed it up that maybe Gov. Kaine is capable of juggling both jobs but that many Virginians expect their chief executive to be in his office, or in the state, or at least to be tending to Virginia’s interests during so-called business hours.
It should be noted that former Republican Governor Jim Gilmore juggled both jobs during his last term in office, but this did not worked out well for him in the long term either.
The Republican Party were probably right to drop their court case given the history of Gilmore and the RNC not to mention Mark Sanford, Republican Governor of South Carolina flying down to Argentina with nary a word to his family and staff, let alone the state he was elected to run.
One senior Republican campaign strategist said off the record regarding the unfortunate timing “How did these chuckleheads end up running my party?”
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