Education became the driving issue of Kaine’s successful 2001 campaign for lieutenant governor. Kaine joined the race after presumed front-runner Emily Couric, a state senator from Charlottesville, bowed out because of an illness that would take her life. Kaine mounted what he described as a single-issue campaign, calling for the state to fully fund its share of public school costs.
Kaine said he had misgivings about running in 2001. If he won, he could expect to become the Democrats’ instant favorite for the 2005 gubernatorial nomination. A four-year commitment could become an eight-year commitment and cost him time with his wife and children. But, with his family’s support and a spark that was lit in Central America more than 20 years earlier, he pressed on.
I post this not because it’s any sort of news, but because it occurs to me that some people don’t know the history of this seat, and how Tim Kaine came to be the nominee. This was supposed to be Emily’s race.
Are you kidding me? She was a lousy Senator and she would have been an even more lousy Governor. Her qualification for being a state senator was serving on the Charlottesville School Board where she hardly ever attended meetings and she took some classes from Larry Sabato…whoopde do.
So all you Charlottesville Liberals thought she was the answer to your prayers (wait…you guys don’t pray, I forgot. Sorry.) Anyway, she was the answer to your “meditations.” Then she got the “big C” and died. My grandmother had the “big C” and died too! Does that mean she could have been Governor? Hell no. (Grandma, while I loved her to peices, couldn’t keep the pool clean, let alone, be responsible for 7 million people. But she could’ve done a better job than Couric.
I even think that Tucker Watkins’ dog, “Bullet” would have had better constituent services than Couric did.
It’s funny you posted this; I just read an essay about Couric written by Barnie Day in his new book, “Notes from the sausage factory.”
Couric’s first campaign for State Senate was one of the first campaigns I spent a lot of time working on. Of course, I volunteered for the GOP candidate, Ed Robb (who, I believe, is now the Sheriff of Albemarle County), in what was ultimately a futile effort.
My memories of that race, as a college student, was that Couric ran an exceptionally well-organized and strong campaign.
She almost certainly would have been the Democratic nominee for Governor this year, and she would have been a better candidate than Tim Kaine in many ways.
My thought: I don’t think Creigh Deeds would have run for AG as a delegate. I recognize this is a debatable point, but it means that two out of the three Dems this year were directly impacted by Ms. Couric’s death.
I don’t think any comment on a blog has ever made me as angry as Walt Ball’s above.
“Think those poor souls at the National Cemetery could be honored in an appropriate way and just rest in peace?” _ Walt Ball commenting on the NAACP’s protest of displaying the Confederate flag at a memorial service for Confederate soldiers in Illinois.
…So, apparently, men who died fighting against our nation for an unjust cause deserve more decency and respect than a recently deceased State Senator who died of cancer after dedicating her life to public service in the United States of America.
You make me sick, Ball. Your lack of compassion is unprecedented.
Walt, I have to say, I’m pretty upset at your appalling lack of respect. But I find that nothing good comes from anger, so I’m going to write nothing further just now.
Ok, I see where Ball made everyone mad again. I thought Emily Couric was a nice lady, but a not so good Senator. I was not impressed with her constituent services either, having had a friend who requested help from her office on numerous occassions only to be ignored.
The friend was involved in a child custody battle and the judge in the case was suspected of “misbehaving.” This friend of mine wanted some changes made to VA law that would hold judges more accountable. While this may not have been something that Couric would have helped with, she could have AT LEAST met with the person. Her office would not return phone calls or emails to this person who I know to be a very reasonable personality. That is an example of poor constituent services.
Couric was mediocre (sp?) at best and I agree with Ball that she only got elected because of who her sister was, and that does not make a person “great.”
Waldo, I’d be happy to be wrong, but can you tell me why she was so wonderful? Maybe that would help to explain the matter better to folks like Ball and myself who may very well be innocently ignorant of some facts.
Walt,
There’s no shortage of people in Virginia – Republicans and Democrats – who will gladly have you crapping out your eyeballs if you dared to say that to their faces.
Emily was a very nice lady who I had the pleasure to meet on several occasions.
Her husband was and is a fine doctor. Whether Emily would have won her Senate seat under her husband’s last name is dubious at best.
It’s understandable that a nice lady like that would be lionized. Death at an early age can do that. But dying from cancer doesn’t make someone “great.” I can’t imagine why anyone would think she would have been a highly qualified candidate for governor.
I can’t imagine why anyone would think she would have been a highly qualified candidate for governor.
I can see why people thought that Mark Earley was a highly qualified candidate for governor, and he sucked. Clearly, you lack imagination.
“Whether Emily would have won her Senate seat under her husband’s last name is dubious at best.”
Pub, you sexist pig! Why would Emily have run for political office under any name other than her own? If her husband was interested in holding political office, I think he’d be the one to run under his name.
As a Republican, I voted for Ed Robb (Emily’s Opponent) in 1995. I thought he was the better candidate. FBI Agent of the year, as well as receiving the U.S. Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award in 1988, which is like the Heisman of law enforcement. That is an accomplishment of note. Remind me, did Couric have any of those? The general belief back then, as I remember, was that she was “cashin in” on her sister’s accomplishments. Dead or alive, I still believe that. I. Publius was correct. Dying of cancer does not make you great. Walt, Jesus Christ man! There’s honest…and then there’s whatever you just typed. God bless you for being blunt. Politics could use a little more. Perhaps a little too blunt, but I think you are on track. Waldo, Ed Robb once said that one thing he disliked about this area was the fact that there are too many liberals. I agree.
No, Hook Blogger, Emily Couric was never FBI Agent of the Year. But, something tells me that you’ve got to be an FBI agent to qualify for that particular honor. Emily’s career, prior to entering politics involved teaching, writing and parenting.
“Cashing in”? How dare you? There was not a more modest, intelligent, hardworking member of the Virginia state legislature than Emily Couric.
Dying of cancer didn’t make Emily great. But it denied Virginians the opportunity to experience and fully benefit from her many talents.
It’s amazing and pitiful to me to see the depth to which right-wing writers will defame the living or the dead for poltical ends. Apparently, the decency, capability, strength, and wisdom of Emily Couric were too theratening to some sad little minds.
To some, apparently, it is impossible that a Democrat could ever embody the best aspirations of a community or a nation.
Your bias, ignorance, greed, and hatred are an embarassment to the nation and to humanity.
America is greater than this. You shame us all.
Harry, get over yourself. The puffed up indignation is pathetic. The vast, vast majority of married women take their husband’s name. I made no normative assessment of that fact. The point is that if Ms. Couric had followed the typical pattern, changed her name to Emily Couric Beller, and then run for office as Emily Beller, it is very doubtful that she would have won her Senate seat.
Still, she was a very, very nice lady, and I was as sad as anyone else not related to her when she was diagnosed with cancer, and when she passed away. The commonwealth is certainly worse off without her.
Josh, can you identify the bias, ignorance, greed and hatred on this thread? I don’t see it.
I wonder how outraged you were at the incredible amounts of hatred many lefties spewed at Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon when they passed away.
Pub, yeah, well regardless of what the “vast, vast majority of married women” do, Emily Couric chose to keep her own name. (As did my wife, and my daughter-in-law, and many other confident, self-assured women.) Polital figures’ names and personal relationships sometimes help and sometimes hurt.
I wonder if Virgil Goode, Jr. would have ever gotten elected to public office if his name was Virgil Badde. It doesn’t matter. He is who he is.
What benefit to anybody would you expect to come from your speculation as to whether somebody might have been elected if they had a different name?
OK, I’ll spell it out for you, since you apparently don’t see the obvious:
Emily Couric won because her sister is very famous. During her campaign, it seemed like every poster or advertisement focused only on her well known last name, and not at all on anything she planned to do as a Senator. At least two fundraisers were advertised with “MEET KATIE COURIC” as the larger-than-life headline.
What benefit? Nothing more than offering a voice of reason to anyone who believes that Emily was on track to be the savior of the commonwealth. People do her memory a disservice when they attempt to make her out to be more than she was. She was a terrific lady who won a Senate seat and did an adequate job in that role. Let’s leave out the idolatry, and accept her legacy for what it actually was.
“Emily Couric won because her sister is very famous.” That’s just a stupid statement. Who cares who somebody’s sibling is when they go into the voting booth? What’s that got to do with anything? You must think voters are pretty dumb.
And I suppose Jimmy Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan because Carter’s brother Billy was an idiot? Or, was it because Reagan’s wife was a famous actress? My head is spinning.