2012 Virginia Senate Debates: on Principles & Values


Tim Kaine: Smash-mouth partisanship is yesterday's politics

KAINE: Many in the room who have been in Virginia politics for a while remember Gov. Allen's famous quote when he was governor: "My job is to knock Democrats' soft teeth down their whining throats." George, as a governor, called General Assembly members "dinosaurs, monarchical elitists." He calls federal employees sanctimonious social engineers. That is yesterday's politics. We're not going to solve our problems if we continue down that path of smash mouth, consider the other side rather than the opponent. We got to compete against the world to win.

Q: [To Allen]: Was your smashing teeth remark not literal?

ALLEN: It is an example of where sports analogies are not appropriate, and that was a mistake on my part for it. [My campaigns] are not running down the others, there's contrasts. That is what we have in competitive representative democracy, contrasting or competing ideas.

Source: CNN State of the Union on 2012 Virginia Senate debate Jul 22, 2012

Tim Kaine: Served as a missionary in Honduras

ALLEN: Tim was the hand-picked chairman of the Democratic National Committee by President Obama, and he's, in effect, the hand-picked senator and recruited to run for the Senate.

KAINE: I am highly offended at that. He cannot help himself.

ALLEN: I didn't interrupt you.

KAINE: I have had a career of serving people. I was a missionary in Honduras. I was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years. I was a city councilman, mayor, lieutenant governor, governor. His suggestion that I'm running for office just because somebody else asked me to, I've not lived my life that way. I live my entire life to serve other people. And so his notion, oh, you're just handpicked to run the Senate race, come on. I had to give up a job and a salary and health care benefits to run for the U.S. Senate. And I'm doing it because the nation needs people who know how to find common ground moving forward.

Source: CNN State of the Union on 2012 Virginia Senate debate Jul 22, 2012

Jamie Radtke: Career politicians are part of the problem

Radtke went on the offensive from the outset, calling Allen "part of the problem" of out-of-control federal spending. Radtke kept up the drumbeat through her closing statement, when she lumped Allen in with the "career politicians" she said are destroying the country. "We need a new generation of conservative and courageous leadership that can inspire young people to believe in the conservative message again," she said.
Source: The Virginian-Pilot on 2012 Virginia Senate debate May 12, 2012

  • The above quotations are from 2012 Virginia Senate Debate.
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Candidates and political leaders on Principles & Values:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 05, 2018