Kaine reflects on losses

Even before the first tallies were in Tuesday night, the sign outside the Westin Richmond Hotel meeting room where the Virginia Democratic Party convened seemed a plea to forget what was about to happen:

"Channel Your Energy, Replenish Your Spirit and Embrace The Endless Possibilities The Day Brings," it stated.

Yesterday, after Republicans had swept Virginia's statewide offices and captured the New Jersey governor's office, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine did not sound like he would be leaving his post as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The White House press secretary later bolstered Kaine's position.

Kaine did his best to endure, if not embrace, the criticism and speculation that his party has lost its grip on the commonwealth and the nation.

"The results of last night were tough and will occasion some reassessment and rebuilding," Kaine told reporters in Richmond. But he said Virginia's Democratic Party will bounce back quicker because of gains it had made during the past eight years.

"I don't think it's really going to affect my services as DNC chair," he said of Tuesday's outcome.

He told reporters he already had been in consultation with the White House about Tuesday's elections and was laying plans for the 2010 U.S. House and Senate contests.

Kaine reluctantly accepted the DNC job after President Barack Obama asked him to take it in January.

"The president is enormously grateful for the leadership that Governor Kaine has and will continue to provide at the DNC," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday.

He noted that Democrats carried a special election for a U.S. House seat in upstate New York on Tuesday.

"I think if you look at the record, again, of the president in these special elections involving members of Congress, the results are very positive for the DNC."

Kaine, making the rounds on a slew of cable television news shows, said Democrats were the underdogs in Virginia.

He said the Virginia and New Jersey contests hinged on local issues, rather than dissatisfaction with Obama's leadership.

Kaine said Democratic gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds went up against a "historic headwind" in Virginia, which has followed every presidential election since 1976 by electing a governor from the opposing party a year later.

He said the same wind blew against defeated Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey, where for the past 24 years the opposite party of the White House has won the governorship.

But Kaine did not shrug off the defeats, the most significant losses for Democrats in Virginia since 2001.

"I don't think either party can any longer take Virginia for granted," he said.

The top concerns for Democrats are the depressed turnout a year after Obama carried Virginia and independents' shift toward the GOP ticket.

"The wholesale abandonment of the Democratic Party by independents, combined with the drop in enthusiasm with the base, are as strong an early-warning sign as you can imagine," Virginia political analyst Robert D. Holsworth said.

"It's a very discordant note for Kaine," whose "major success outside of a very admirable response to the Virginia Tech shootings has been the trajectory that the Democratic Party has been on during his term," Holsworth said.

The question for Kaine's future as party chairman is, "How does his new constituency in Washington, among Democratic elected officials and Democratic activists, respond?" Holsworth said.

"They have already been whispering relatively loudly regarding their concern about whether he is the best fit for that position, and my sense is those whispers are going to get louder."

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or .