Virginia Dems see president as best chance to coax Kaine into Senate bid

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Democrats believe Tim Kaine is their best hope for holding on to their state’s Senate seat, and they see President Obama as the one person who can deliver their dream candidate.

Obama’s close friendship with Kaine, the former governor-turned-Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman, is the talk of Virginia as the party waits for Kaine to make a decision.

{mosads}”I don’t think there’s any doubt that it makes it harder for him to say no,” one Virginia Democrat said of Kaine’s relationship with Obama. “The real question is, How much should Obama pressure him, personally? … For our sake, I hope it’s a lot.”

Kaine and Obama have discussed the race, but the specifics of their conversations remain between the two friends.

Former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who lost the Democratic primary for Virginia governor two years ago, says he understands the presidential pressure.

“I don’t think anyone’s gonna push Tim Kaine. He’ll make his own decision about what he’s gonna do,” McAuliffe said. “But having worked for Democratic presidents, I think the president of the United States is a great influence on you at times like these.”

McAuliffe said he has no idea whether the president has made a personal appeal for Kaine to run, but suggested that should Kaine ultimately opt for a bid, that would offer the clearest indication yet.

“I had President Clinton many times come to me and say, ‘Terry, you need to do this,’ and I would say, ‘Mr. President, I don’t really want to do it,’ ” said McAuliffe. “At the end of the day, though, the president asks you to do something … trust me, I know the power of the presidency.”

The relationship between Obama and Kaine dates back to 2005, when the newly elected Illinois senator went into Virginia to stump for Kaine in his race for governor. Hailing from similar backgrounds, the two hit it off quickly — both are Harvard Law grads, and they found an unusual family connection in that their mothers shared the same small hometown in Kansas.

Once Obama embarked on his 2008 presidential run, Kaine was the first governor outside of Obama’s home state to endorse him in the primary, doing so at a time when most Democrats were placing their bets on then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Kaine ended up on Obama’s vice presidential shortlist, but was passed over for Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.).

In fact, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wrote in his book, The Audacity to Win, that when the campaign met with Kaine about the VP job, the then-governor acknowledged he was likely at the bottom of the list, giving his reasons as the fact he and Obama had too much in common: age, level of experience and lack of foreign policy skills.

Plouffe portrayed Kaine as a team player, quoting Kaine as saying: “I won’t have an ounce of hard feelings or disappointment if I don’t get picked. I signed on to this team in the beginning — all I want is for Barack to be elected president.”
 
Obama later tapped Kaine as DNC chairman, a role that, similar to Senate candidate, was one Kaine wasn’t all that high on at the time, according to Democrats.

Now, it’s no secret that a Senate race isn’t Kaine’s first choice. It’s a view he aired publicly before Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) opted not to run for a second term, and Kaine’s shown little enthusiasm for the upper chamber since.

Over the weekend, Kaine told a gathering of Democratic activists that he’s “reflecting” on a possible Senate bid and will make a decision soon, emphasizing that his current job is one “I absolutely love.”

Kaine said he met with Obama last week to talk about the race and joked that he reminded the president of his importance as head of the national party going into the 2012 election. Kaine said he told Obama: “You just don’t have a lot of white Southern governors out stumping for you nonstop in English and Spanish. That’s not your power demographic.”

As for the rest of the discussion with Obama, the DNC chairman has revealed little about the exchange to close advisers and associates, but the sense is Obama isn’t employing a heavy hand to get Kaine in the race.

“My sense is the discussion had the tone of a conversation among two friends, as opposed to some sort of tough recruiting pitch,” said one strategist close to Kaine. “As much as the White House would love to see him run for the Senate, I think the president’s just as happy having him stay where he is.”

For the White House, efforts to court Kaine take on a bit of a different feel from the president’s Senate recruitment efforts last cycle, which were more often bust than boom.

Obama and the White House encouraged Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to make a bid for his old Senate seat, and the president worked to recruit North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper into the race against Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). Neither jumped in, and Democrats lost both contests.

In Colorado, Obama-backed Sen. Michael Bennet managed to stave off a primary challenge, but a White House foray into Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary resulted in a public-relations disaster.

The Virginia Democratic Party’s annual fundraising event on Saturday took on the feel of an early Kaine campaign rally. Speaker after speaker at the party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner urged Kaine to run, from Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), as Kaine sat smiling from his front-row seat.
 
In the absence of a Kaine candidacy, former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) is the most logical choice for Democrats, but Connolly Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott could also be in the mix. On the Republican side, former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) is running for his old seat but is expected to face a tough primary.