Richmond City Council President Bill Pantele was walking, talking and acting like a candidate for Mayor yesterday.

Pantele showed up at the Richmond launch of former Gov. Mark Warner’s bid for U.S. Senate at the Virginia Biotech Center off Leigh Street, shaking hands and smiling broadly. After shaking one supporter’s hand, he made a mock gesture to the man’s suit coat pocket. Looking for a wallet, perhaps?

One elected official yesterday said Pantele has indicated that he will make a run for the roses. When asked directly by the TD if he was in the race, Pantele’s smile got even wider. Then he winked.

He said he would make a decision soon, but backed off confirming whether he was in. “A lot can happen in 30 days,“ he said.

Also in the crowd was Del. Dwight Jones, who recently announced he would challenge for the top job.

Mayor Doug Wilder has yet to decide whether he will seek reelection. The deadline to file is June 10.

Tim Kaine heads to Indiana this weekend to campaign for Sen. Barack Obama. Kaine will participate in town hall events in Connersville, and Lawrenceburg, Indiana and make a stop in, of all places, RICHMOND, Indiana.

Still, you have to wonder why the Virginia governor was not dispatched to North Carolina—the battleground state just to the south of the Commonwealth. Reporters put the question to him this monring:
“I don’t know,“ Kaine said. “I say to the campaign, ‘You tell me where you want me to go.‘ I give them one day a month…and I go where they think I’m going to be helpful.“

Kaine did say a lot of the Obama staffers in Indiana are people he’s worked with before—and who worked for him during his campaign for governor. “They probably clambored for me to come there,“ he said.

Kaine said the script for the weekend is going to be pretty much the same as it’s been on other swings:

“We’ve got to make fundamental changes in this country, and that what people are saying is they’re unhappy with the direction of the economy. They’re unhappy with the direction of where we are in Iraq and our policy. And they attribute their unhappiness to some of the way politics is done is in D.C. ...

Kaine said the incendiary rhetoric of Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, did not come up when he campaigned for the senator in Pennsylvania, and shouldn’t this weekend, either.
 
“American voters are smart, they’re not stupid. They know what’s on their mind, and it is not what a pastor says… The issue is an issue of the economy and where where we stand in the world. That’s the issue that’s going to decide this primary, this nominating battle. And that’s what’s going to decide the election in November.“

A sign of trouble for Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton popped up today at Richmond International Raceway, Times-Dispatch business reporter Louis Llovio reports.

Bill Gingerich and John Lapp of Plain City, Ohio were walking around the campground of the track when the subject of presidential politics came up.

The men, both in their late 50s, describe themselves as independents who “don’t need politicians to tell us how to vote.“  In November they could be swing voters in Ohio, a key swing state.

“When Bush took office the first time gas was $1.29. By the time he took office the second time it was $1.49. I have no idea how he got elected a second time,“ Lapp said.

“It’s ‘cause the Democrats put up (Sen. John) Kerry,“ in 2004, Gingerich said.

“I really didn’t want to vote for a Republican this year. But I just can’t see voting for this guy [Obama]. Or either of them now,“ Gingerich said, referring to Clinton as well.

“I wanted to like him. I wanted to vote for him. But after the things I’ve seen, I don’t know if I can,“ Lapp said of Obama.

“They both look bad. I hate to say it, but I’m leaning toward (Sen. John) McCain,“ Gingerich said.

“If nobody can beat a Republican this year, we’re in bad shape,“ Lapp said.

Today most of the Republican Party of Virginia’s leaders united behind a ticket of Bob McDonnell for governor and Bill Bolling for lieutenant governor.

The eight GOP members of Congress, the 11 Republican district chairs, and General Assembly’s Republican leadership and the leadership of the State Central Committee signed a letter supporting the McDonnell-Bolling ticket.

The two men have been trying to present a united front in the 2009 race for the state’s three top offices.

There is little sign of unanimity, however, on who will be the party’s candidate for attorney general. State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli of Fairfax is the only announced candidate, but former Del. Paul Harris and former U.S. Attorney John Brownlee are considering a run.

The ticket emerged a few weeks ago when Bolling, who had been considering challenging McDonnell for governor, deferred to McDonnell. McDonnell is the attorney general, Bolling the lieutenant governor.

Republicans, who have had several nomination battles in recent years, hope a united ticket will better able the party to end eight years of Democratic control in the Executive Mansion.

Doing a call-in radio show is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get. Take today’s “Ask the Governor” hour on Northern Virginia’s WTOP (103.5 FM, 820 AM) with Virginia Commander In Chief Tim Kaine.

One caller complained about people driving with animals in their laps. Kaine humored the man and said the person should be ticketed for reckless driving. But the next caller put forward a different spin on a controversial proposal to solve the state’s yawning gap in transportation funding:

Increase the tax on gasoline—but only on weekends.

Kaine, noting that roughly 20 percent of the existing revenues generated by the state’s 16.5 % tax per gallon are paid by out-of-staters, called the proposal “a novel idea.“

“We’re doing a lot of listening,“ the governor told the caller, seeming at least a little bit interested in the idea. He noted that the regional transportation funding plans enacted last year—but struck down as unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court in February—included regional gas tax increases for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia. 

Kaine said he would be coming out with a plan “in 10 days or so”  to address the funding gap, estimated to be roughly $1 billion—including $450 million for annual highway maintenance.

He added that the plan needs to consist of more than one revenue generator to be successful.

“The way to solve our needs is not to do just one thing—you’ve got to spread the pain,“ he said.

Options at his disposal could include increases int he gas tax, sales tax and what the governor calls an “equalization” of the state’s sales tax on automobiles, currently 3 percent, to the state sales tax rate of 5 percent.

Kaine reiterated his call that the fix be a statewide fix—not a fix that only addresses the transportation trouble zones.

But trouble is never far around the corner. House Republicans have signaled that they will not support tax increases of any kind.  But maybe nobody’s thought of the “weekend” gas tax.

Stay tuned.