Va. Assembly Wraps; Kaine Cuts Losses; Governor's Agenda Largely Unrealized Despite Budget, Smoking Ban Successes
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine oversaw the conclusion of his final General Assembly session last night, virtually assuring he will leave office without fulfilling his most conspicuous campaign promise: to resolve Virginia's transportation mess.</br></br>Facing the worst economic crisis in generations and stiff resistance from Republican lawmakers who felt burned by past efforts at compromise, the commonwealth's 70th governor discovered that the ambitious agenda he laid out to voters in 2005 would remain largely beyond his reach.</br></br>As the gavel fell Saturday night on the 2009 legislative session, he acknowledged leaving his efforts to address vexing traffic issues unfinished and his pledge to fund pre-kindergarten programs statewide unresolved. But Kaine, ever upbeat, said he found other ways to deliver for voters, including Saturday's accord on revisions to the state's $77 billion budget and last month's decision to impose a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.</br></br>"There are things I wanted to do that I will not get done, and then there are things I have gotten done that I would have never imagined in my wildest dreams," Kaine said in an interview. "It's been a weird three years."</br></br>The House and Senate adjourned about 8:45 p.m., signaling to Kaine that they had completed their work. The close of this year's session marks the start of a 10-month transition for Kaine from elected chief executive to full-time chairman of the Democratic National Committee.