Here are Tim Kaine's top 20 successes as governor. I'll have his top (bottom?) 20 failures next.1. Kaine's first executive order was on Equal Opportunity. The order "specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, political affiliation, or against otherwise qualified persons with disabilities." In issuing this order, Kaine continued Mark Warner's own executive order, issued in December 2005, protecting gay and lesbian state employees.
2. Kaine gave the response to President Bush's State of the Union address on January 31, 2006.
3. Kaine issued an executive order "ban[ning] smoking in offices occupied by executive branch agencies and institutions, including institutions of higher education."
4. In 2006, Kaine opposed the heinous "Marshall-Newman" anti-gay-marriage amendment.
5. Also in 2006, Kaine campaigned for Jim Webb and helped him defeat George Allen.
6. In February 2007, Kaine became the first governor (other than Illinois) to endorse Barack Obama for President. Kaine campaigned heavily for Obama and played a role in helping to elect him. Later, Obama selected Kaine as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
7. Kaine's response to the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007 was superb. Kaine flew back from a trade mission to Japan and India, comforted the Virginia Tech community and the Commonwealth, spoke at an emotional convocation the day after the shooting, and set up a commission - led by former Virginia State Police Superintendent Gerald Massengill and former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge - to examine what happened and to make recommendations.
8. On April 30, 2007, Kaine signed an executive order instructing state agencies to step up efforts to block gun sales to people involuntarily committed to mental health treatment centers.
9. In May 2007, Tim Kaine escorted the Queen of England to Richmond, Jamestown and Williamsburg, as Virginia commemorated the 400th anniversary of Jamestown
10. On August 16, 2007, Kaine "announced details of his Start Strong pre-kindergarten proposal at the Governor’s Summit on Early Childhood Education, unveiling a voluntary program that gradually will expand access to high-quality preschool for more of Virginia’s four-year-olds."
11. In Executive Order 48 (2007), Kaine "set a goal for executive branch agencies and institutions to reduce the annual cost of non-renewable energy purchases by at least 20 percent of fiscal year 2006 expenditures by fiscal year 2010."
12. In 2007, Kaine helps Virginia Democrats win back the State Senate and pick up 4 seats in the House of Delegates.
13. In December 2008, Kaine launched Renew Virginia, "a year-long series of legislative and administrative actions promoting renewable energy, creating green jobs, and encouraging preservation of the environment."
14. Kaine also "won passage of several bills advancing his initiative during the 2009 session of the General Assembly, including rewarding electric utilities for productively investing in energy efficiency, setting a goal of raising the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 15 percent by 2025, and encouraging development of biofuels from non-food crops."
15. Kaine has "continued to work toward his goal of forever protecting 400,000 acres of open space from development, a goal he will reach during his term."
16. On March 9, 2009, Kaine "formally signed into law legislation that will ban smoking in nearly all public restaurants in Virginia."
17. On June 23, 2009, Kaine "announced a groundbreaking initiative to survey air pollution from facilities throughout the Commonwealth that were initially grandfathered by the 1970 federal Clean Air Act. In the first program of its kind in the nation, Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will determine whether older facilities previously not subject to direct reviews currently comply with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)."
18. During his governorship, Kaine issued executive orders on a wide range of areas, from encouraging telework and affordable broadband services, to creating a commission on sexual violence, to "Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Health Care", to "Ensuring Access to Prescription Drugs for Medicare Beneficiaries", to "Community Integration for Virginians with Disabilities" and many others.
19. During Kaine's governorship, Virginia received many "best" awards under his governorship (e.g., "Best Managed State," "Best State for Business," "Best Place to Raise a Child"); see here for a fairly comprehensive list.
20. OK, this is a blog, so I've got to finish with at least one snarky one. During this governorship, Tim Kaine increased the profile and prestige of the male eyebrow, specifically his own, which he raised (literally) to unheard-of heights on the human forehead. Kaine also gave cheerleaders everywhere a fine role model, appearing at JJ dinners and other events all over Virginia and firing up the crowd with lines like "Man, you guys look GREAT!!! and "Is a AAA bond rating awesome or WHAT?!?" :)
Conclusion
In all seriousness, I'd say that Tim Kaine had a number of modest accomplishments during his 4 years as governor, mostly on the political front and in a series of executive orders (although we haven't gotten to the Top 20 failures list, so stay tuned!). Overall, however, Kaine was faced with an intractable bunch of flat-earth Republicans in the House of Delegates who were determined to deny him any successes, so it's almost miraculous he accomplished anything at all. In addition, Kaine made a number of missteps and bad decisions, but we'll get to those in the Top 20 Failures list; for now we're focusing on successes.
As I look over this list, there's no question that while Kaine managed to accomplish some good stuff as governor, more than anything I'm struck by the relatively small-bore, downscaled nature of most of these items. For instance, instead of getting universal pre-k for all four-year-olds in Virginia, Kaine gained only modest expansions in this area. On transportation, Kaine's promise to make major progress didn't happen, nor did his goal of promoting "smart growth" (e.g., tying land use and transportation developments closer and more intelligently together). Also, towards the end of Kaine's governorship, the national economy imploded (under George W. Bush), which seriously limited any possible initiatives he might have undertaken. Given all that, I'd say that Kaine did what he could, but it wasn't nearly as much as he had laid out in the 2005 governor's race or in the ambitious goals he had set out to accomplish when he assumed the governorship in January 2006.
Anyway, now it's your turn. What did I miss on the "Top 20 Successes" list and also which ones shouldn't have been included? Any suggestions for the upcoming "Top 20 Failures" list? Thanks.
