CNN "American Morning" - Transcript
Interview
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What a difference a year makes. This morning the Republican Party celebrating big victories in two key governors races but even on the big night for the GOP, the Democrats did pick up yet another House seat. We spoke to RNC chairman Michael Steele just a few minutes ago and now joining us on the democratic side is Virginia Governor and DNC chairman Tim Kaine. Governor Kaine, great to have you with us this morning. Thanks.
GOV. TIM KAINE (D), VIRGINIA: Kiran, great to be back.
CHETRY: Let's talk about Virginia first of all. What happened to the Democrats in Virginia?
KAINE: Well, obviously, you know, five years ago the notions that the Republicans would win a race in Virginia was hardly news. It would have been like the sun coming up tomorrow. We've won a lot of races. But it didn't go our way last night.
Kiran, for 36 years in Virginia the party that wins the White House then loses the governorship the next year and our candidate, Creigh Deeds, a fantastic state senator. It was a rematch. He ran four years ago against Bob McDonnell for attorney general and lost. And so when he became our nominee this year, everybody viewed him as the underdog. We've been winning some races with the underdogs but we were not able to prevail last night.
Got to give credit to Bob, and Creigh has been a great state senator. But we were not just able to overcome the advantages that statewide office holding had given Bob McDonnell for the last four years.
CHETRY: And Governor Kaine, we just heard from RNC chair Michael Steele, and he says that GOP victories particularly in Virginia are actually the voters' rejection of liberal tax and spend policies that Washington Democrats are trying to force on Americans. Those are his words.
Do you agree that it had to do with what was going on in Washington and some of the concerns about spending?
KAINE: I really don't, Kiran. I think that Michael may have changed his positions from last night. Last night we were together on "LARRY KING," and he said that it was not a referendum at all on President Obama. President Obama actually remains very popular in Virginia with strong job approval numbers. Better than a year ago when he was elected. And the same holds true in New Jersey.
Exit polls show in New Jersey and Virginia both the voters approve of the way President Obama is handling the most difficult economic situation that the nation has been through since the 1930s but again a rematch race is always tough. We've got a trend, a 36- year trend that was kind of blowing at us.
What we were really interested in last night, obviously, was the race you mentioned, the congressional race in New York where the Republican candidate...
CHETRY: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I want to get to that in one second. Because I do want to bring that up. But first of all, let's get back to the president's approval ratings quickly. Because you did mention...
KAINE: Yes.
CHETRY: ... that he had strong approval ratings. But we actually have seen though a big drop. Back in February, he had a 67 percent approval rating. CNN's latest poll has him at 54 percent. And the big areas of concern or weak spots, I guess, for the president have been the handling of the war in Afghanistan and the handling of the economy.
So, the question is how much of these Democratic losses are a referendum on the job, the White House, the administration is doing right now on those two key issues.
KAINE: Well, in exit polls in both Virginia and New Jersey, strong majorities of citizens said their vote was based on local issues and was not at all connected with their views of the president. When they were asked then about their views of the president in exit polls in both states, they had good things to say about their approval of the way he was handling his job.
You are right that the president had honeymoon numbers right after inauguration day. Those honeymoon numbers never last. But he is more popular today among the American public than he was on election day last year when he won that historic race.
And in Virginia, the most recent poll that I've seen huge sample sized poll had his approval rating with Virginia voters at 57 percent which is very, very strong. So I think you just need to read these as local races with local concerns. That's traditionally been the way these two races have gone in the years after the presidential race but the president is quite popular in both New Jersey and Virginia.
CHETRY: Well, in New Jersey also Republican Chris Christie won 60 percent of independents. In your state of Virginia, the GOP candidate winning 66 percent of independents. And a year ago, Barack Obama as the candidate won the independents in both of those states. Why do you think that independents who heavily favored Candidate Obama went for the GOP this time around?
KAINE: Well, we're going to have to scratch our head a little bit on that one, Kiran. Because, again, on independents, the recent polling that I have seen -- "The Washington Post" did a poll a couple of days ago that showed the president's favorability among independents nationally at 55 percent. Now, he won 52 percent of independents votes last year. So that means today again he is north of where he was last year in terms of favorability among independents.
So why he remains strong with independents and the two gubernatorial candidates had trouble, that's something that we'll have to take a look at. But when asked about the president, independents still approve of the way that he is handling this most difficult economy since the 1930s.
We're seeing GDP growing again for in a robust way for the first time in nearly two years and other economic trends beginning to move the right way. The rate of job losses is being cut. We didn't get into this problem overnight. And we're not going to climb out overnight. But I think independents and the mass of American voters understand this president is leading us to a better place.
CHETRY: All right. I said we would get back to it. So let's talk about the 23rd congressional race.
KAINE: Absolutely.
CHETRY: This was a special election. It was a bright spot for the Democrats. But then we got to go right back to the table next year because this was a special election, they got to run again. So how are some of the lessons learned?
KAINE: So it's an interesting one. You know, I think it may be more kind of a (INAUDIBLE) of things to come, Kiran. New York 23. I mean, here you have a situation where the Republicans rally behind a nominee. Michael Steele and others with the party support the nominee. They invest a million dollars nearly in the nominee but then a right wing candidate supported by radio talk show hosts and kind of the extreme side of the party chase the nominee out. That nominee then turns around and endorses the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, who wins. Becoming the first Democrat to hold that seat in over 100 years.
CHETRY: Right.
KAINE: And the reason that I say this...
CHETRY: You don't think the GOP is going to make that same mistake again come next year when they run a candidate against Bill Owens.
KAINE: We're already are seeing the Bill Owens race, you know, they try to figure that out. But we already are seeing the Republican party kind of making that mistake going into 2010 because you have extremely vigorous Republican primaries going on in Florida and Texas.
Just in the last couple of days, you have seen a war of words between Tim Pawlenty and Olympia Snowe. You saw Arlen Spector chased out of his party earlier this year. The Republicans are kind of marginalizing themselves by hanging a label on the party that moderates aren't welcome and the more that happens and we see it happening going into 2010, the more independents will realize that their natural home is supporting Democratic candidates.
So I think the vote last night in the New York 23 is not the beginning we saw with Arlen Spector but the continuation of a trend that is likely to have some real significance going into next year's mid terms.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we'll be watching that for sure. Governor Tim Kaine, great to get your perspective this morning. Thanks for being with us.
KAINE: Thanks, Kiran.
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