Tim Kaine said the country needs to begin embracing talent again to turn around the economy, while he portrayed his chief opponent, George Allen, as a bully who will continue the divisive politics in Washington.

During his campaign stop Saturday at University of Mary Washington, Kaine said the top priorities in this election are the economy, fiscal responsibility and finding a common ground with Republicans. He also championed many causes of President Obama, and told the crowd of more than 100 Democrats that if Obama can win the 13 electoral votes in Virginia, he will win a second term as president. Kaine was shoulder-to-shoulder with former Democratic Virginia senator Edd Houck, who made his first public speaking appearance since narrowly losing to Republican Bryce Reeves in November.

"My opponent in this race likes to bang on the president all night long," Kaine said. "He mentions the president more than he mentions me. I am not going to be one of those Democrats who distances himself from the president."

Kaine, who has 16.5 years of experience in an elected office, has also been a missionary and civil rights attorney. After his term as governor in Virginia expired in 2010, he became the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

"When I was governor I did govern in the in the worst recession is 70 years and I had to make about $5 billion worth of cuts," Kaine said. Virginia requires a balanced budget and cuts were a necessary action as the housing market malaise worsened. Kaine said he upset every friend he had with some of the decisions he had to make as governor to balance the budget, but he had the will to do it. 

Sharp Contrast

Kaine said his record is in sharp contract with Allen, who also is a former Virginia governor and served on the U.S. Senate until 2006 when Jim Webb upset him. Now, both men are trying to win the seat that Webb is leaving behind this year. Kaine said that when he was governor, magazines ranked Virginia as one of the best-managed states and one of the friendliest to do business in. He said when he was born, Virginia was 34th in per capita income and now it is 7th in the nation.

"Why did we move? We moved because we decided we wanted to embrace talent. If we embrace talent we are going to be strong," Kaine said. "Win the talent war and your economy will get better. We are losing the talent war in this country right now. I want to go into the Senate with the commitment that I want to make sure the U.S. wins the talent war"

Kaine said Allen's strategy for economic growth is "about drilling," a reference to Allen's support of off-shore drilling. In Allen's "Blueprint for America" he mentions how off-shore drilling could not only loosen America's reliance on foreign oil and lower prices, but also improve Virginia's economy because the royalties gained from drilling off-shore in Virginia can be shared with the state.

"We are producing a lot more natural gas under President Obama than George Allen ever did," Kaine said. "We are producing a lot more oil in this country than we ever did when George Allen was senator. We are doing a lot on the energy side, but it is not enough. But the most important natural resource in the world is not oil, it’s brain power, it’s talent."

Bill Riggs, Allen's campaign spokesman, said Kaine has consistently supported President Obama's energy policies, such as the cap-and-trade energy bill and pushing back efforts to drill off-shore.

"As families and businesses are facing skyrocketing gasoline prices, the fact that Tim Kaine would mock the jobs and affordable energy that would result from exploring off Virginia’s coast shows just how out of touch he is with Virginia families and businesses," Riggs said.

Fiscal Responsibility

Kaine said that state spending went up 45 percent when Allen was governor and when Allen came to the Senate in 2001, the country was enjoying a record surplus. But when Allen lost in 2006, the country was reeling in debt. He said Allen pushed for tax cuts without concern of how the country would pay for them, which helped further erode the economy.

“There is not a government or a family or a business that has ever cut its way to prosperity," Kaine said. "You just cant do it. Do you have to make cuts? Absolutely. If you are not investing along the way you can cut all you want and you are not going to like what you get to at the end of the day. So, I am running against a guy who’s attitude about the deficit is you just need to make cuts, even though he has never been able to do it, he’s never had the backbone to do it. Suddenly, he’s got the zeal of a convert and says 'I am going to go in there now and finally be a small government guy, and do it all through cuts' and I say 'You are foolish.'"

Kaine supports letting the Bush tax cuts for the top 1 percent expire, and he wants all subsidies to oil companies to end because they don't need the money.

"The all-cut approach (Allen) advocates would hurt Pell grants, would hurt Medicaid, would hurt Social Security, would hurt defense. We’ve got to have a balanced approach where we are cutting, but we are also investing," Kaine said.

Finding Common Ground

Finally, Kaine said one of the most important qualities he has is the ability to find common ground with other legislators, including Republicans. He said he wants to build a bipartisan "coalition of progress."

"Even the people I disagreed with were my friends," Kaine said. "We didn’t let disagreements on an issue poison the relationship. I am going to get elected and I am going to find the Republican who got elected the same day I did, and I am going to try to build that relationship."

Kaine criticized Allen for participating partisan politics and negative campaigning. He specifically noted the infamous 2006 campaign event at which Allen referred to a man of color by a derogatory slur, which resulted in a campaign meltdown and an eventual loss to Webb. Kaine said Virginia residents don't like when Allen refers to federal employees as "sanctimonious social engineers."

"He’s got a record of frankly bullying and division," Kaine said. "Do you really think that what we need in Washington to fix Washington is more of that attitude, more of the bullying more of the division? I think we need less."

Although President Obama's approval rating has climbed up this month, Riggs said Kaine has had unabashed support of the president's policies. But under Obama's leadership the country had its first credit downgrade and that the national debt continues to rise. He said there's no one in politics who was more partisan than Kaine when he was head of the Democratic National Committee.

“George Allen is the only candidate in this race with a record of expanding access to affordable higher education by freezing tuition rates and creating the Virginia College Savings Plan to help families save for college while investing in our universities and community colleges," Riggs said. "If Tim Kaine was concerned about improving Virginia’s economy he wouldn’t have sided with President Obama over the people of Virginia on every major job-crushing initiative to come out of Washington in the last three years.”

Tight Race

This U.S. Senate race is very close. Although he is the frontrunner, Allen still has to get through a June 12 primary against four opponents. Among those opponents is Del. Bob Marshall, who has possibly the most conservative platform in the Virginia General Assembly. Marshall is no slouch. In the 2008 U.S. Senate convention, he lost to former governor James Gilmore by just 66 votes. Allen's other challengers are Tea Party activist Jamie Radtke, Bishop Earl Jackson and a lawyer from the Hampton Roads area, David McCormick.

Kaine said this race might be one of the closest-watched ones in the country in 2012 and called Virginia a battleground state.

"The race is very close," Kaine said. "The last three polls have had us either tied or slightly ahead. But I think we are going to win."