Kaine: The PAC-man?

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As Tim Kaine’s 2012 Senate campaign apparatus grinds into gear, money is sure to play a big part, and the campaign is going to be taking it from lobbyists and political action committees – which, as the Post notes, would mark a bit of a departure from the former Virginia governor’s tenure as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

When then-Sen. Obama was still just a presidential candidate in 2007, he decreed that his campaign would not take such contributions, in part because “[o]ur leaders have thrown open the doors of Congress and the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.”
After he won the Democratic nomination in 2008, Obama extended that ban to include the DNC. Kaine inherited the rules when he became chairman of the committee in 2009, and he bragged about the DNC’s ability to keep the money coming in despite the restrictions.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out an email Monday blasting Kaine for “reversing himself” on the issue — though with potential opponent George Allen’s already-sizable war chest, one can see why the (other) former governor may not want to count on $25 checks from individual voters to get him across the finish line.

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