Mark Warner, Virginia’s highly popular Democratic U.S. Senator, is actively aiding his party’s likely nominee for the state’s second Senate seat.
Warner sent an email Wednesday to supporters of Tim Kaine to help boost Kaine’s campaign war chest ahead of the March 31 campaign finance filing deadline. Striking a similar tone as past blast mailers from Kaine’s campaign, Warner warned of secret, outside Republican spenders throwing large sums of cash into the race to assist Kaine’s likely challenger, George Allen, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Warner called Kaine, “a good friend” whose “bipartisan style and effectiveness as a leader will change Washington for the better.”
Warner and Kaine go back more than a decade. Kaine served as lieutenant governor when Warner was governor of Virginia, a fact Warner played up in his email.
“We made tough choices, cutting state spending while preserving safety net programs and making record investments in education,” Warner said. “We worked across the aisle with Republican legislators on a tax reform package that secured our triple-A bond rating and ultimately earned Virginia national recognition as the ‘Best State for Business,’ the best managed state, and the best state to raise a child.”
Warner is by far the state’s most popular Democrat, often pulling in favorability ratings in the 65 percent range. As the de facto party leader, however, he’s often less involved on the campaign trail for Obama, Kaine and other Democrats than Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who threw his weight behind Allen in the GOP primary and November general election.
