WAS WARNER THE REAL WINNER IN VA GOV RACE?
That is the question many are asking in the wake of last Tuesday’s victory by Democrat Tim Kaine in the VIRGINIA governor’s race. Several observers echoed the sentiment of George Mason University professor Mark J. Rozell, who chalked Kaine’s win up to the lasting appeal of the Old Dominion’s outgoing governor, Mark Warner (D), who is considering a run at the White House in 2008. Kaine, the state’s lieutenant governor under Warner, consistently took advantage of the governor’s popularity, often referring to the previous four years as the “Warner-Kaine administration” even though they were elected separately. “I think to a large extent [the story] is the Warner influence,” said Rozell. “He created the circumstances for a Democrat to win in a Republican-leaning state in the South.” A Democrat who opposes capital punishment, no less. Kaine becomes the first person since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1977 to win the governorship of a Southern state despite personally opposing ca
