Though school bells are no longer ringing for Republican Del. Phil Hamilton of Newport News, they are for other legislators who have a big say in spending your money. Tommy Norment, Fred Quayle and William Wampler, all members of Senate Finance Committee, do as Hamilton, vice-chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, did, until the discovery of a smoking-gun e-mail: toil in the groves of taxpayer-supported academe.

Tim Kaine is losing the mojo he may have never had. His four-year term as governor is winding down. So, too, are the chances of the fellow Democrat who hopes to succeed him—at least, this is the whispered worry of the rank and file. As Jerry Baliles, Doug Wilder and Jim Gilmore learned in the closing, controversy-marred months of their administrations in 1989, 1993 and 2001, respectively, Kaine is discovering that a soon-to-be-out-work politician is as useful as last year’s bird’s nest.

Veteran politicos have seen some very well-run campaigns in the commonwealth over the years, and some very poorly run campaigns. But perhaps not since Ben “Cooter” Jones tried to unseat 7th District Rep. Eric Cantor have they seen a prominent campaign as odd as that of gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds. Deeds won the Democratic nomination through a combination of political aikido—he let his primary opponents throw haymakers while he glided right past them—and a Washington Post endorsement based in large measure on the belief that Deeds “would make transportation his first priority.“

Creigh Deeds makes George W. Bush sound like Barack Obama. In a speech Friday streamed on his Web site, Deeds, the Democratic nominee for governor, sought to reboot his struggling candidacy and recast Republican Bob McDonnell as he really is: a very conservative guy on taxes, social issues and equal rights, who—because of his Ron Burgundy-TV anchorman style—doesn’t come across that way.

Absent from the Bob McDonnell-for-governor narrative: Republicans can do a better job than Democrats—on the budget, revenue, government nuts and bolts. Could this missing piece expose a vulnerability on what would seem a gimme as a talking point?: the state’s problem-plagued hiring of Northrop Grumman for computer services. Promising a look-see, Creigh Deeds struggles to finesse an issue that speaks to the supposed competence of the fellow D’s he hopes to succeed, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. But McDonnell is nearly silent.

The Democratic candidate for governor is pummeled by Republicans for playing coy on new taxes for roads. The Democrat squirms; somehow, still manages to win and promptly calls a special session of the legislature to, you guessed it, raise taxes. A scenario for 2009? Maybe. This is how events unfolded 24 years ago in the run-up to the last big, tax-fattened investment in transportation under Jerry Baliles, a governor invoked by the frenetic fellow Democrat who mimics him without saying so: Creigh Deeds.

Tough job. Political columnist Jeff Schapiro says Gov. Tim Kaine must feel like he has a target on his back as Virginia Tech, the budget crunch, the VITA controversy and his part-time job as DNC chairman generate crisis after crisis.

As Virginia deals with the headaches—financial, political and administrative—of turning over its info-tech system to deep-pocketed defense giant Northrop Grumman, a voice from the past may offer guidance for the future of privatization in a state that seems more corporate subsidiary than commonwealth. Paul R. Verkuil, former president of the College of William and Mary, is a free-market advocate who worries that relinquishing government responsibilities to the private sector only drives up profits at the expense of public capital.

Jeff E. Schapiro’s column on Virginia government and politics will resume next week.

The two candidates for governor clashed over transportation today in the first debate of the general election campaign. Democrat R. Creigh Deeds said Republican Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan, announced this week, would take $5.4 billion out of education funding over the next 10 years. McDonnell said Deeds has no transportation plan.

Although national voter turnout in the 2008 presidential election stayed statistically the same compared to the 2004 election, more voters did go to the polls in Virginia.

Mike Moore, former head computer guy for San Diego County, knows that doing business with Northrop Grumman requires giving the giant company the business. Moore, now in the private sector as a peacemaker on info-tech management deals gone sour, says the county was nervous in 2005 about paying Northrop Grumman nearly $700 million over seven years for computer services.

Joe Biden is the Old Faithful of national politics. Every 90 minutes or so, another torrent of nonsense gushes from his mouth. The vice president was in particularly fine form the other day when he swung through Virginia. During an appearance at J. Sargeant Reynolds, he said the country would go bankrupt without massive expenditures. “People, when I say that, look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?‘ The answer is yes.“

Virginia Republicans are bashing Tim Kaine as an occasional governor more interested in his other gig, the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. But a funny thing happened on the way to the next GOP-orchestrated pile-on: Sarah Palin provided cover for Kaine. Palin, defeated for the vice presidency last year, is quitting as Alaska governor. In doing so—1½ years before the end of her first term and for reasons not fully determined—Palin supplied Kaine, who intends to complete his term, with talking points that could make Republicans wince.

For Virginia Republicans, being out of power quite literally has a cost—about $150,000. That, insiders say, is the deficit the GOP faces after a May nominating convention that generated fewer bucks than expected, a pullback by deep-pocketed donors and an underwhelming response to a multiple appeals for money. And things were supposed to get better at Republican headquarters on Grace Street after Del. Jeff Frederick of Prince William was run off as chairman for insurance man Pat Mullins of Louisa?