DNC CONVENTION | Kaine provides ticket with lobbying, fundraising ties

WASHINGTON (TNS) — Hillary Clinton’s selection of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate may gall some progressives. But Kaine brings to the campaign deep connections with Democratic insiders and fundraising on K Street.

Kaine’s network of former aides and contacts say the ex-Virginia Democratic governor and one-time chairman of the Democratic National Committee is a policy wonk who studies issues, speaks without notes in English or Spanish, seeks out competing viewpoints and comes across as genuine on the fundraising circuit.

“He can speak with great authority on a wide range of policy matters,” said Preston Bryant, a senior vice president at McGuireWoods Consulting, who served as Kaine’s secretary of natural resources in Richmond. “As governor, he got way into the weeds on most every policy or budget matter that crossed his desk.”

Other former Kaine aides with private-sector practices include Lawrence Roberts, a partner in the Tysons Corner, Virginia, office of the lobby and law firm Venable. Roberts served as campaign chairman of Kaine’s 2005 gubernatorial and 2012 senatorial bids. He was also chief of staff at the DNC while Kaine was chairman there. And he served as counselor to him while he was governor.

Roberts says Kaine’s nice exterior belies an inner toughness. “People may underestimate his competitiveness and the fire in his belly,” Roberts said. “In an age when the political process is full of people expressing loud and confrontational points of view, he is understated but very pointed in his words.”

Other former Kaine aides include Lynda Tran of 270 Strategies, who was a Kaine communications director in state government, and Mo Elleithee, now executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. Alfonso Lopez, who was head of congressional and legislative affairs for then-Gov. Kaine and previously lobbied at the firm Alcalde & Fay, is now a Virginia delegate from Arlington and with the government contracting firm Capitol Bridge LLC.

Democratic lobbyist and donor David Castagnetti said Kaine’s national security background - he represents a defense-heavy state that includes the Pentagon and serves on both the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees - boosts the ticket. “He’s certainly qualified to be president,” Castagnetti said.

McGuireWoods is one of Kaine’s top sources of political money, according to an analysis of federal election records by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics .

The political committee of J Street, a liberal, pro-Israel advocacy group that supported the multinational nuclear deal with Iran - which Kaine also backed - is also a top source of funds, as were the University of Virginia and the lobbying and law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Lawyers and law firms were Kaine’s biggest source of funds by industry, the center found.

“On a personal level, I have a very high regard for the guy,” said former Rep. Vic Fazio, D-Calif., a lobbyist with Akin Gump and who hosted a fundraiser for Kaine at Fazio’s Arlington home.

“He came early, left late and met everyone there,” Fazio recalled. “He met all my neighbors. He looks you in the eye, he’s connecting.”

Kaine remembers that Fazio sits on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association, “and every time I run into him we talk about something to do with the national parks,” Fazio said.

Kaine, the lobbyist added, isn’t associated with any specific faction or interest group downtown. His Senate chief of staff, Mike Henry, once worked for the labor federation AFL-CIO.