RICHMOND—Virginians last night chose Democrat Tim Kaine as the 70th governor of Virginia, closing a bitter and hard-fought campaign.
Kaine, a former Richmond mayor and current lieutenant governor, took 51.6 percent of the vote to edge out Republican Jerry Kilgore, a former attorney general who got 46.1 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns with 98 percent of the precincts reporting.
Cheers erupted in the Richmond Marriott Ballroom, where Democrats had gathered, when it was announced just after 9 p.m. that the Associated Press had called the race for Kaine. Kilgore publicly conceded the race about an hour later.
Independent candidate Russ Potts, a Republican state senator from Winchester, garnered just 2 percent of votes, and Kaine’s victory defies earlier speculation that Potts would take votes from Kaine.
Kaine, accompanied by his family, Gov. Mark Warner and former governor Doug Wilder, both of whom campaigned for him in recent weeks, took to the stage before a roaring crowd at 11 p.m., in time for television stations to carry his victory speech live.
“We’ve done it!,” Kaine said. “Tonight we’ve proved the naysayers wrong. We’ve proved that Virginians want governors who put partisanship aside and govern from a sensible middle…. There has not been a more humble and exciting night in my life.”
Kaine said voters want a governor to put partisanship aside and value fiscal responsibility over ideological bickering.
“Virginians want a government that has a positive vision about moving this Commonwealth forward,” he said.
In his concession speech, Kilgore congratulated Kaine, and thanked him for his public service.
“He and I disagree on policy, but we do agree on Virginia,” Kilgore said. “I wish him well. I wish him good luck as he serves as the next governor of Virginia. … we share the same love of Virginia.”
Kilgore comforted his supporters, telling them they’d given it their all.
“There is no reason tonight to hold your heads in defeat. There is every reason to look up in pride,” he said. “I fought the good fight, I finished the course, I’ve kept the faith. Thank you, Virginia.”
Potts, conceding the race early in calls to reporters, said he has no regrets.
“I stand tall and proud tonight. I know I did the right thing,” Potts said. “‘I’m at tremendous peace about this. I made so many wonderful friends and I feel in my heart I was a very passionate, sincere voice. We ran a campaign we can be proud of and we don’t have to apologize to anybody.”
Potts, who defied the Republican leadership by running against their candidate, said he would work “to try to move the Republican Party in the middle where it belongs, and get off this obsession with god, guns gays and abortion and the death penalty.”
Potts said his campaign brought issues like transportation to the forefront, and that in the coming General Assembly session he will continue to push for a legislative solution to the issue.
Angry over misleading campaign flyers from the Kilgore campaign, Potts also said he will push during the 2006 legislative session for reform to election laws.
As early vote totals were displayed on large-screen TVs in both the Marriott ballroom and the Richmond Convention Center ballroom where Republicans assembled, supporters alternately cheered or booed, depending on who was up in the constantly changing totals.
But Kaine garnered a lead early and kept it.
Voter turnout was low, as was expected in a bitter and tight race in which negative attacks from both sides seemed to turn off voters.
While Kilgore based his campaign on a return to the anti-tax, conservative approach of previous Republican governors, Kaine ran as a moderate who would continue the business and investment-oriented approach of Warner.
University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said Kaine has Warner to thank for his victory; the governor has high approval numbers and campaigned hard for Kaine, going out on the road with him and appearing in several commercials.
“Tim Kaine may have won, but two other people were almost on the ballot with him — Mark Warner and George W. Bush,” Sabato said. “Mark Warner was as popular as Geroge W. Bush was unpopular, and that was a perfect combination for Kaine and a toxic combination for Kilgore…. It’s not like people were paying a lot of attention to this one. They got general impressions and the impressions were formed as much by Mark Warner and George W. Bush as anyone. Mark Warner has said privately that Tim Kaine would be 10 points behind without him, and he’s right.”
If the election is to be viewed as such a reflection on Warner, that bodes well for the governor, who is mulling a possible run for president in 2008.
Warner introduced Kaine last night, calling the vote a repudiation of negative campaigning and praising his protégé for running “a great race."
“Tonight is a great night because Virginians chose to keep our Commonwealth moving forward,” Warner said.
Warner also commented on the fact that Democrats picked up several House seats in those elections.
“This is three elections in a row,” he said. “For the first time in 30 years, we’re picking up seats, coming back.”
Kaine spent the evening watching election returns from a hotel suite in the Marriott, accompanied by his family, including father-in-law and former governor Linwood Holton.
While a television showed election results across the room, Kaine sat at a dining table in his shirt sleeves, being shown how to refresh the state Board of Elections results webpage by his young son.
Virginia Tech political analyst Robert Denton also credited Kaine’s victory to Warner’s popularity, but also said Kilgore went too negative, too early.
“They were not comparative, they were personal, in trying to define Tim Kaine,” Denton said. “Over such a long period of time, that negativity did have an influence, especially over conservatives.”
In the absence of defining issues, Denton said, the race came down to personality.
“Because no issue drove it, it did come down to absolutely the individual candidates — likeability, trust, competence,” he said. “In the ads we saw Kaine more than we ever saw Kilgore. People got comfortable with him. I do think Kilgore’s campaign portrayed him as more mean-spirited.”
Kaine will have a press conference this morning to announce his transition team and a “transportation town hall” tour he’ll be launching.
Staff writer Natasha Altamirano contributed to this story
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