http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aXyrR9n88Nxc
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has a Harvard Law School degree, has twice won statewide office, and is fluent in Spanish. It’s a recent line on his resume that may become an issue as President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the Democratic Party.
Kaine, 50, is the chairman of the Southern Governors’ Association, a group that raises money from tobacco, oil, energy and pharmaceutical companies in exchange for access to governors and other state officials.
The donors include more than 60 associations, trade groups and companies, including tobacco giants Altria Group Inc. and Lorillard Tobacco Company, Pfizer Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. Participants in the group’s Corporate Affiliates Program also include mortgage lender Freddie Mac, which was taken over by the federal government last year, and General Motors Corp., which is among automakers being rescued by the government.
Kaine’s continuing involvement with the SGA as Democratic National Committee chief may raise questions for Obama, who targeted special interests during his campaign, vowing to end their “days of setting the agenda in Washington.”
“If Tim Kaine is going to be the head of the DNC, given Obama’s rhetoric in the past, Mr. Kaine will have to either change the rules of the SGA or step down as chairman, because the policies of the SGA appear inconsistent with Obama’s,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Washington-based watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
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