The Roanoke Times | File May

Gov. Tim Kaine and wife, Anne Holton, tour an area slated for renovation at Family Service of Roanoke Valley. Kaine's influence on the upcoming governor's race is still uncertain.

Related

• Political and campaign coverage, including multimedia, resources, endorsements, maps and more

roanoke.com/politics

• State, local and national political coverage, Virginia General Assembly and gubernatorial politics

RICHMOND -- His first television ad of the general election campaign shows Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds walking shoulder to shoulder with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, a former governor and Virginia's most popular statewide official.

The 30-second spot, which hit the air Friday, claims that Deeds will preserve "the pro-business economic policies that Mark Warner put in place" during a four-year term that ended in 2006.

The Deeds ad also is notable for a conspicuous omission. It makes no mention of incumbent Gov. Tim Kaine, the Democrat Deeds hopes to follow into the executive mansion. That has continued questions about what effect Kaine will have on this year's race between Deeds and Republican Bob McDonnell.

Deeds campaign aides said they are not reluctant to associate the candidate with Kaine, who also serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Kaine already has cut radio ads for Deeds and made public appearances with him, including a rally with President Obama earlier this month. Kaine also will campaign with Deeds throughout Labor Day weekend.

Deeds said in an interview earlier this month that he expects Kaine to be an asset.

"Tim Kaine's my friend," said Deeds, a state senator from Bath County. "I've got a lot of respect for him. I've got a lot of respect for the job he's done as governor. We're still the best state for business in the country."

But Republicans point to the television ad as evidence that Kaine may be a mixed blessing for Deeds, who continues to trail McDonnell in public opinion polls.

"Deeds has made the obvious calculation to leapfrog Tim Kaine and go back in time to when Mark Warner was governor," said Virginia Republican party spokesman Tim Murtaugh. "There's the Tim Kaine effect."

Kaine, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, has his own prestige on the line this fall. Like Warner in 2005, Kaine would view the election of a Democratic successor as validation of the way he managed the state in difficult economic times. And as national party chairman, Kaine faces pressure to deliver his home state a year after Obama became the first Democrat in 44 years to win Virginia's presidential electoral votes. Virginia and New Jersey are the only states electing governors this year.

"I think I can safely say that no other individual in the United States who can be DNC chair would care as much about Creigh Deeds' race," Kaine said in an interview Friday.

Kaine said his status as DNC chairman means the national party is "maximizing what we can do for Creigh" with money and other resources. Deeds already has received $500,000 from the DNC and another $50,000 from Kaine's state political action committee, Moving Virginia Forward.

"And then, in addition, I have the ability as DNC chair and as a close confidante of the president to encourage the president to be helpful," Kaine said. "In fact, that was part of the terms and conditions of me agreeing to be DNC chair."

But Deeds' reliance on Kaine and Obama also provides ammunition for Republicans seeking to link Deeds with national Democratic initiatives on pollution control, labor relations and health care. Deeds has mostly ignored McDonnell's efforts to wage debates on those contentious issues.

"The Mark Warner model is dead," said McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin. "It used to be that Democrats in Virginia ran as Virginia Democrats, and that Virginia was more important to them than the Democrat. Now, with Kaine's new role, he is the number one cheerleader for the national Democratic agenda. Creigh Deeds is his most important race this year. You can't separate Creigh Deeds from the national Democratic agenda."

Kaine accepted the national party chairmanship in January at Obama's urging. He initially disavowed interest in the job, saying he wanted to focus fully on his final year as governor.

Kaine later said he would be a part-time chairman until his term as governor expires in January. But Republicans have argued that Kaine's partisan duties have distracted him from dealing with severe budget shortfalls and other pressing matters at home.

"I think we are of the clear position that the governor's attention has not been fully on Virginia where it belongs and I think the commonwealth has suffered because of it," Murtaugh said.

Kaine dismissed the criticism, saying, "I think I have worked my tail off."

Kaine last week told lawmakers that revenue collections will fall $1.5 billion short of projections in the two-year budget that expires June 30, 2010, forcing another round of spending cuts as the state copes with a national economic recession. Revenue collections declined by 9.2 percent in the fiscal year that ended in June and are projected to decrease by another 1.6 percent in the current year.

But Kaine said Virginia continues to receive accolades for its fiscal management, business climate and education outcomes. The state also has preserved its perfect bond rating, he noted.

"There's a reason that Virginia is holding onto the AAA [bond rating] and getting all these accolades," he said. "And a lot of the reason is because of my work, and the best thing about me is I'm good at picking really good people. And I've got a great team."

A Washington Post poll published last week had Kaine's approval rating at 55 percent, but fewer than half of the respondents said the state is headed in the right direction. Warner boasted approval ratings greater than 70 percent four years ago, when he campaigned vigorously for Kaine.

Kaine acknowledged that Deeds is running in a "challenging" political climate. But after winning elections for governor and the state's U.S. Senate seats in the past four years and gaining seats in Congress and the General Assembly, the party has a stronger foundation, Kaine said.

"When I was running, I remember if Mark Warner didn't show up at an event with me, I didn't have a Democrat standing on the stage with me," Kaine said.

Deeds also has history against him. The party occupying the White House has not won a Virginia governor's race since 1973, a trend that Kaine said is "not a coincidence."

"But we just broke a 44-year trend last year," Kaine said. "So just because there's a trend, that says we've got to be smarter and we've got to be better. It doesn't mean we can't beat the trend."