Kilgore vs. Kaine

This year’s General Assembly session will set the stage for the 2005 statewide elections in Virginia. In next year’s gubernatorial race, Virginians will almost certainly be asked to choose between Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and Democrat Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine. At this point, neither faces significant opposition for their respective parties’ nominations.

Much of the job of being governor consists of setting a legislative agenda and convincing legislators to carry it out. Without success in this area, governors are just marking time and managing the state executive bureaucracy. It is appropriate, therefore, to compare the 2004 legislative agendae of Kilgore and Kaine, to get an early reading on what sort of governor each man might make.

Kilgore announced a sweeping and ambitious legislative agenda at the start of the 2004 General Assembly session. Continuing an emphasis on what he hopes to make his signature issue, Kilgore proposed legislation to create a Domestic Violence Victim’s fund. Kilgore and chief patron Delegate Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, successfully got this legislation passed. Thanks in part to Kilgore, Virginia now has a version of “Conner’s Law,” which makes it a felony to kill an unborn child, except in cases of legal abortion.

Kilgore also succeeded in getting the General Assembly to establish a statewide “Do Not Call” list, which makes telemarketers subject to both federal and state penalties. In addition, the lawmakers adopted Kilgore’s proposal to prohibit price-gouging in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

At the attorney general’s prodding, General Assembly members made life easier for those attending public colleges and universities in Virginia. The State Council on Higher Education must make the process of transferring credits easier and more predictable. Kilgore’s education legislation was also on the cutting edge of new technology, requiring state universities to say to what extent they will make distance learning available to students.

Kilgore also went after street gangs, proposing legislation to allow law enforcement officials to designate gangs as organizations that exist solely for criminal intent. The new law will permit prosecution of gang members separate from the prosecution that they face for specific crimes. Kilgore’ anti-crime initiatives also included legislation to increase penalties for drunk driving, and to require public housing authorities to control access by non-residents who enter for unlawful purposes.

The attorney general did suffer two significant defeats this session, and they were both defeats that he shared with all Virginians. The first was the record tax increase, which Kilgore fought mightily, and the second came on HB 116, which would have tightened regulations of abortion clinics. Still, Kilgore arguably did better than Gov. Mark Warner himself. Warner’s main goals for the session, it should be remembered, were to raise income tax rates and extend the sales tax to services. Neither proposal received much serious consideration.

Now consider the 2004 legislative record of Kaine. Kaine’s legislative agenda barely covers one page when printed out from his own Web site. Kaine’s very short list of initiatives seems all the more inadequate given the fact that the post of lieutenant governor in Virginia is a part-time job, while being attorney general is a full-time job with myriad duties other than dealing with the legislature. Moreover, the lieutenant governor is actually part of the legislative branch, yet Kaine had a shorter legislative agenda than most legislators.

If Kaine considers this leadership, he has a lot to learn. Nor is there much evidence of leadership in the outcome of Kaine’s legislative agenda. Of the 12 bills he recommended, only five were passed. Of these, four dealt with non-substantive matters, such as recommending a study of the feasibility of a new state university in Southside. I doubt that there was much soul-searching among the legislators over this piece of legislation.

The General Assembly rejected three other Kaine bills in favor of other, similar pieces of legislation, and defeated four bills outright. The only substantive piece of Kaine-sponsored legislation to pass the General Assembly was an act to make the mayor of Richmond a separate elected position (SB 124). Put differently, the only real accomplishment of former Richmond mayor Tim Kaine had to do with his past, not with Virginia’s future.

The Roanoke Times recently ran an article under the headline, “Heavyweights go toe-to-toe over taxes.” Tim Kaine’s title may make him seem like a heavyweight, but he does not belong in the same ring as an actual leader like Jerry Kilgore.