By William C. Flook Examiner Staff Writer
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, preparing to step full-time into the role of Democratic National Committee chief, is about to trade one set of troubles for another.
He leaves the executive mansion amid a protracted budget crisis, following a November election that stopped nearly a decade of Democratic advances in the commonwealth. But as DNC chair, a job he’s held part-time since January, Kaine will be tasked with fending off GOP challenges to vulnerable House seats — including those in Virginia — a job that may rival that of governing a large, prosperous state.
Eschewing the never-say-die style of one of his recent predecessors — former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe — Kaine is cautious in his assessment of a midterm election in which the president’s party traditionally loses seats in Congress.
“We’re very mindful the traditional first presidential midterms are tough, in fact the president and I talked about that when he asked me to do this job,” Kaine said in a recent interview with The Examiner. “And we acknowledge it would be a very challenging time. Our goal is to beat all the historic trends.”
A victory on health care legislation — which was passed Thursday in the Senate — will be “key” to Democrats’ success in 2010, as will “a continued uptick in the economy,” Kaine said.
“We’re not where we want to be yet. We’ve got a long way to go,” he said.
Kaine had presided over an overwhelming string of Democratic victories in Virginia since he took office in 2006 that saw his party win both U.S. Senate seats, a majority of the House delegation and the Virginia Senate.
The winning streak made the most recent GOP sweep all the more jarring. In November, Republicans took all three statewide offices and strengthened their control of the House of Delegates.
Those results have emboldened a Republican Party that is now eying those three freshman Democrats who were swept to victory in 2008, especially Tom Perriello in the 5th District. All three of those districts swung decisively for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell last month.
“These seats are very, very important to us, to Virginia, to the president’s agenda,” Kaine said. “I think they will be very tough and competitive. We’ve known that since day one.”
