Checking Up ... on Humorous Politicos and Researchers

Thumbs up to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Republican state Sen. Tom Garrett for the participation in a friendly roast of each other to benefit an open government foundation in Virginia.

The occasion Thursday night was the annual fundraiser of the Virginia Public Access Project (www.vpap.org) in Richmond. Garrett, whose Senate district includes part of Lynchburg and Amherst County, was the emcee of the evening’s festivities; Kaine, Virginia’s junior U.S. senator, was the keynote speaker.

VPAP describes itself as “fiercely nonpartisan” with “no dog in any political fight.” Its sole mission is to gather as much publicly available information about Virginia politics, contributions and the like in one place for the commonwealth’s voters to become as informed as possible. And they’ve been doing it since 1997.

What struck us so about the 2015 fundraising dinner is the coupling of Kaine and Garrett on the dais for the night’s events.

Garrett, who describes himself as a tea party-loving conservative who worships at the feet of former Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, is one of the most conservative members of the General Assembly. Kaine, who was Richmond’s mayor and Virginia’s lieutenant governor before winning the governor’s race in 2005, definitely sits on the left side of Virginia politics, backing marriage equality when he was mayor of Richmond.

That these two elected officials, such polar opposites, could come together and rib each other and their own parties with such fun and charm gives us a tad bit of hope that bitter partisanship and demonization of one’s foes isn’t a given in politics, either in Virginia or nationally. (You may listen to a recording of the evening’s event at www.vpap.org.)

Thank you, gentlemen. We needed that bit of good news today.

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