Wagner taps Kaine team
Olympia Meola
August 20, 2008 4:47 PM
Jeff E. Schapiro has this skinny:
Jody Wagner, until Aug. 8, was Gov. Tim Kaine’s finance secretary. Now she’s running for lieutenant govenor—with the help of Kaine’s political team.
Wagner, facing Jon Bowerbank for the Democratic nomination, is announcing her campaign staff—and it reads like the phone directory of the ‘05 Kaine-for-governor operation.
Wagner has hired Mo Elleithee as senior adviser. He was Kaine’s communication director, and most recently worked for Hillary Clinton as her presidential campaign spokesman.
Pollster Pete Brodnitz, another Kaine hand, is on board. The Bowerbank organization thought Brodnitz would work for the Russell County businessman—even announced that he’d be hired. But Brodnitz apparently had been leaning to Wagner.
David Eichenbaum, Kaine’s advertising consultant, will serve in the same role for Wagner. So will internet adviser John Rohrbach.
Alan Moore will handle Wagner’s direct mail. He’s been with the state Democratic Party and handled its efforts for Kaine in the race three years ago against Republican Jerry Kilgore and independent Russ Potts.
Obama in Chester?
Olympia Meola
August 19, 2008 12:44 PM
A stop at John Tyler Community College’s Chester campus could be added to Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign tour through Virginia this week.
Sources tell us that the site is under consideration for a Thursday morning event that would be closed to the public.
Obama is holding events in Martinsville and Lynchburg tomorrow with former Gov. Mark Warner and Sen. Jim Webb, respectively.
Also, if you wanted to catch the Lynchburg event and didn’t get your tickets already, you’re out of luck. They sold out.
Obama in Martinsville and Lynchburg on Wednesday
Olympia Meola
August 18, 2008 3:51 PM
Sen. Barack Obama has added a Lynchburg appearance with Sen. Jim Webb to his pass through Virginia this Wednesday.
Webb and Obama will hold a town hall meeting with voters, which will focus on improving the economy and Obama’s plans for a tax cut for middle-class families and $4,000 in college tuition tax credits, according to the campaign. The event is free and open to the public.
Earlier Wednesday, Obama and former Gov. Mark R. Warner will visit Martinsville. There, they will meet with workers and families who have been affected by what the Obama campaign calls the “failed trade policies of the Bush administration, policies [Arizona Sen.] John McCain promises to continue.”
Of the 134 counties and cities in the state, Martinsville has the highest unemployment rate, measured in June at 11.4 percent.
Obama is expected to make additional stops in Virginia this week, but the campaign has not confirmed other visits.
Kaine’s pre-convention sked
Andrew Cain
August 14, 2008 5:19 PM
On Aug. 28, two weeks from tonight, Barack Obama accepts the Democrats’ presidential nomination in Denver. Meantime, wags are still trying to read the tea leaves about his vice presidential pick.
Gov. Tim Kaine’s public schedule for next week, just released, doesn’t list any face time with the Ilinois senator. Of course, Kaine surely would make an exception if the Illinois senator came calling.
Here’s Kaine’s schedule for now:
On Monday morning, Aug. 18, he appears before the General Assembly’s money committees to present the news about just how badly the state’s revenues are missing projections. That afternoon Kaine is to be in the Old House Chamber to deliver remarks at the unveiling of a “portrait bust” of Meriwether Lewis on the explorer’s 234th birthday.
On Wednesday, Aug. 20, Kaine and his Cabinet will be out and about, getting a briefing at Fort Monroe, touring an education center in Hampton, visiting a community for the elderly in Newport News, touring a science center at the College of William and Mary and attending a reception at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County.
On Thursday, Aug. 21, Kaine is to deliver remarks in Mechanicsville at the launch of the Washington Regional Alcohol Program’s Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign. It raises awareness about drunken driving.
Presumably sometime that weekend Kaine will fly to Denver to attend the Democratic convention, which begins Monday, Aug. 25.
Kaine stumps for Obama
Olympia Meola
August 14, 2008 8:15 AM
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will host a town hall meeting in Henrico County on Sunday to talk about Sen. Barack Obama’s plans for energy independence, tax relief and job creation, as well as “his commitment to fundamentally change the politics of Washington to make it work for Virginia families again,” according to the Obama campaign.
The event is open to the public and starts at 6:30 p.m. at Henrico High School, 302 Azalea Avenue.
It’s one of several town hall meetings that Kaine, a national co-chair of the Obama campaign, is scheduled to hold around Virginia on Saturday and Sunday. The other town hall stops are Winchester, Leesburg, Manassas and Warrenton.
Kaine will attend a canvass kick-off rally in Richmond at 5 p.m. on Sunday at the Campaign for Change office at 1208 West Marshall Ave.
Hybrids, Rice & White Castle
Jim Nolan
August 13, 2008 1:31 PM
SPINNING YOUR WHEELS
Crafting an energy and climate change policy for the South might be as difficult as it sounds. Take Virginia, where an attempt to go hybrid in the executive protection unit backfired on Gov. Tim Kaine.
Kaine said the state had to abandon its use of hybrid vehicles for the executive protection unit.
“The vehicles a year ago were, but it wasn’t easy to buy the fuel,” Kaine told the RT-D after outlining his vision of an energy strategy at the Southern Governors’ Association conference at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.
The distribution of the fuel is very… you just don’t find it in a lot of places.”
VIPs
The governors weren’t the only security draw at The Greenbrier. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was reportedly catching a little R&R at the plush resort. The RT-D didn’t spot Rice, though she was on the resort’s VIP list. Given the recent developments between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia, though, it couldn’t have been very relaxing. Perhaps she was conducting diplomacy from the famous bunker complex housed beneath the resort?
DUDE, WHERE’S MY VOTE
Barack Obama’s campaign is going all out to secure the White Castle vote. How else to explain Tuesday’s appearance—in Richmond and Northern Virginia—of actor Kal Penn. Penn has a regular role on the Fox medical drama “House,” but may be best known for his role in the cult stoner comedy, “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.” Too bad there don’t appear to be any White Castles in Virginia. How about “Harold and Kumar Go To Arby’s”?
Oil lobby says most Virginians back drilling
Andrew Cain
August 12, 2008 6:34 PM
Olympia Meola reports that the oil lobby says a majority of Virginians are on their side when it comes to increased exploration.
A new survey shows 70 percent of the likely voters polled either somewhat or strongly support increased access to domestic oil and natural gas resources. Twenty percent of those polled said they oppose it while 6 percent said they did not know.
The telephone poll was conducted between July 10 and July 21 by Harris Interactive. It surveyed 501 registered Virginia voters who are likely to vote in the presidential election, and was commissioned by API, the national trade association representing the oil and natural gas industry.
Those poll results put Virginians generally in line with the sentiment nationally, according to other polls not affiliated with special interest groups.
For example, a Zogby International telephone survey of 1,113 likely voters in June showed that 74 percent support off-shore drilling for oil in U.S. coastal waters.
An anniversary
Olympia Meola
August 11, 2008 10:13 AM
It’s macaca’s two-year anniversary.
On Aug. 11 of 2006, former Gov. George Allen was stumping in Southwest Virginia when he referred to his Democratic opponent’s campaign volunteer of Asian Indian descent as “macaca.”
Some Virginia Democrats are using the anniversary to promote their schedule, with pro-Sen. Barack Obama actor Kal Penn attending a house party in Arlington with Asian Americans.
An Obama supporter who is hosting the party made the connection—the Obama campaign has not.
Today, Penn will meet with volunteers and participate in phone banks at Campaign for Change offices in Northern Virginia, as well as host an Asian Americans For Obama and South Asians For Obama event this evening.
Tomorrow, Penn is slated to visit the Fredericksburg office and canvass in Richmond with the Young Democrats.
Penn appears in the FOX medical drama “House,” and he has had a recurring role in “24.” Penn’s breakout role came in “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.” Penn previously visited Virginia to headline a Students for Barack Obama college tour.
Tupac: “I need a black president”
Olympia Meola
August 07, 2008 1:20 PM
People were there to see Michelle Obama, wife of likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.
But catching some Bruce Hornsby action at last night’s fundraiser at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk was an added delight—to some.
One boy grew so tired of waiting to hear Obama speak and was so bored with Hornsby’s piano playing, his mother had to wait on the opera house front steps for his dad to come and get him.
If he hung in there, it may have been worth the wait.
Hornsby, the Williamsburg-based pianist who has dabbled in liberal causes, played three songs to kick off the evening, wrapping up with his famous tune, “The way it is.”
As he played the lead in to the song, Hornsby drew a roar from the crowd when he said, “I’d imagine that there was a time when someone told Barack Obama that’s just the way it is, some thing would never change. And Barack Obama didn’t believe them.”
Then Hornsby, who collaborated on songs with rapper Tupac Shakur, quoted the deceased songwriter, saying: “As Tupac would say ‘I need a black president.’ “
And then there were 28
Olympia Meola
July 31, 2008 2:45 PM
Jeff E. Schapiro notes:
The Barack Obama campaign is opening four more offices in Virginia, bringing the total to 28.
The Democratic presidential candidate will now have operations in Arlington, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Staunton.
John McCain, the Republican nominee in-waiting, has five offices in the state.
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