BY WESLEY P. HESTER

A new survey of Virginia voters from Democratic polling form Public Policy Polling shows U.S. Senate candidate Timothy M. Kaine leading Republican candidate George Allen by five percentage points.

To this point in the race, the two front-runners have been dead even in almost every public poll. The PPP poll, however, conducted just days after last week’s first debate between the two former governors, shows Kaine up 47 percent to 42 percent.

Part of the difference is Kaine’s four-point advantage with voters who identified themselves as independents.

There’s plenty of potential for change, though, as 18 percent of those surveyed had no opinion of Kaine and 23 percent had no opinion of Allen.

If tea party Republican candidate Jamie Radtke were to beat out Allen for the nomination, she trails Kaine 49 percent to 33 percent.

The poll surveyed 600 Virginia voters from Dec. 10 to Dec. 12 with a 4 percent margin of error.

BY WESLEY P. HESTER

Like many Democrats, U.S. Senate candidate Timothy M. Kaine celebrated the 45^th anniversary of Medicare’s implementation with some critical words about Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s plans for the popular entitlement program.

“There’s no doubt that the system is in need of reform,” said Kaine. “The critical question we face is how to reform Medicare. Do we, as Republicans have suggested, end Medicare as we know it by shifting costs from the federal government onto already over-burdened state budgets and seniors who can’t afford it? Or, do we look for smart ways to reduce costs in order to improve and preserve Medicare?”

Kaine said he prefers the latter, proposing reforming federal laws that prevent the Medicare program from negotiating for lower cost prescription drugs as a good starting point.

The former Democratic National Committee chairman also managed to sneak in some criticism of a certain opponent.

“We must preserve the fundamental tenet of the legislation: low cost access to health care.  That is why I oppose the Ryan Plan that many of my opponents, including George Allen, have praised,” Kaine said.

Allen has cautiously avoided either endorsing or condemning Ryan’s plan, which has become a controversial issue in Congress and among voters. 

BY WESLEY P. HESTER

Republicans are putting increased pressure on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and former governor Timothy M. Kaine to stand up for Virginia’s right-to-work laws. Again.

George Allen, a Republican candidate and fellow former governor, has been calling on Kaine to take a stand on an ongoing dispute between the National Labor Relations Board and Boeing. On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli joined him.

Boeing recently opened a new nonunion plant in right-to-work state South Carolina. The National Labor Relations Board has filed suit, claiming that Boeing is punishing its union workers in Washington, a union state, for going on strike, and that the move to South Carolina was illegal. Boeing claims that all the jobs being created are new and will have no impact on the existing line in Washington state.

Calling the lawsuit an attack on right-to-work laws in all states, Bolling and Cuccinelli — in a release sent from the Republican Party of Virginia — urged Kaine to voice support for Virginia’s labor laws, as he did in 2006.

“Every candidate for statewide office should publicly reject the NLRB’s anti-business policies and ensure employers and workers alike that they will do everything they can to support our state’s right-to-work law,” said Bolling.

“This NLRB assault is a jobs creation program… for China. Does Tim Kaine really support this sort of extra-legal, Virginia-job-destroying policy? I think Virginians deserve the right to know before Kaine is given power to affect the NLRB in the U.S. Senate,” said Cuccinelli.

“Governor Kaine supports the existing law that a company can open, locate or relocate wherever it wants,” responded Kaine campaign spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine, adding that he ”relied on that law to get many businesses to locate in Virginia during his time as Governor, earning Virginia the distinction of the ‘Best State for Business’ all four years of his term.”  

Hoffine added: “Of course, it has long been the law that a company cannot retaliate against employees for bargaining activity. The current NLRB case isn’t about the right to locate anywhere, it’s about the narrow question of whether Boeing is acting specifically to retaliate against its own employees. That factual question will be decided by the courts.”

In 2006, Kaine voiced “strong support” for Virginia’s right-to-work law, pledging to veto any attempt to overturn them.

Republicans point to Kaine’s opposition to Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to overhaul his state’s collective bargaining rules earlier this year as reason to question his previous support for right-to-work laws. As Democratic National Committee chairman, Kaine said during the Wisconsin impasse that Republicans had decided to ”wage a war against their own employees.”

PolitiFact Virginia in February found false a claim that Kaine was trying to stop right-to-work laws in Wisconisn.  

The push for Kaine to take a stand on the issue is similar to the one employed by Democrats in recent weeks, urging Allen to say whether he supports House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s plan.

So far, Allen has not directly answered the question, praising aspects of the plan but choosing not to say how he would vote as a member of Congress. 

BY WESLEY P. HESTER

Last week, with the end of his first quarter of fundraising drawing to a close, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Timothy M. Kaine set a goal of 2,000 online donors.

Now, Kaine’s campaign said they’ve met and exceeded that goal and set a new one: 2,500.

Kaine’s playing catch-up with Republican candidate George Allen, who brought in $1.5 million last quarter, before Kaine had entered the race.

With a deadline Friday, this week has been fundraising fever, with both candidates urgently calling for support.

In one such rallying call, Allen’s campaign manager Mike Thomas noted that three trackers for different groups have been following Allen around the state 16 months ahead of the election.

“Friends, we cannot afford to let these outside liberal groups come in and shape this senate race to their advantage,” the email read. “We need your help today to fight back against Chairman Kaine’s Washington allies.”

Kaine also pointed to challenges in asking for support.

“Just recently, a group organized by Karl Rove announced that they would start running TV ads in Virginia this summer,” Kaine wrote in a similar pitch. “And, the effect of a recent Supreme Court decision has been to allow corporations and individuals to put unlimited secret money behind political ads. We’ll see that here.”

BY WESLEY P. HESTER

Republican U.S. Senate candidate George Allen is using Democratic opponent Timothy M. Kaine’s fundraising to make a late-quarter push of his own.

In an email to supporters, Allen’s campaign manager, Mike Thomas, notes that ActBlue, a political action committee that serves as the largest source of funds for Democrats nationwide, has raised $562,047 for Kaine this quarter. 

“This group has strong ties to Daily Kos and Moveon.org and is working to raise millions for Democrats in Wisconsin who did the bidding of the [Service Employees International Union] labor bosses,” wrote Thomas. “We need to build a strong grassroots campaign that can withstand the full-on assault from SEIU Labor Bosses, Democrat organizers and liberal special interest groups.”

Kaine’s campaign spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine offered a pithy response.

“We’ll put our grassroots supporters up against his supporters like Citizens United and Koch brothers any day,” she said.

Allen has also made issue of the National Labor Relation Board’s lawsuit against Boeing, which recently opened a new non-union plant in right-to-work state South Carolina, again asking Kaine to take a stand on the issue in a Politico op-ed. 

The National Labor Relations Board has filed suit, claiming that Boeing is punishing its union workers in Washington for going on strike, and that the move to South Carolina was illegal. Allen called the NLRB’s complaint against Boeing “an assault on the economic freedom and competitiveness of all right-to-work states.”

So far, Kaine’s camp hasn’t taken the bait.

In 2006, Kaine voiced support for Virginia’s right-to-work law. Earlier this year, as Democratic National Committee chairman, Kaine criticized Republican governors and legislators across the country during the Wisconsin budget impasses for deciding to ”wage a war against their own employees.”