When Timothy M. Kaine took his message of bipartisanship to the crowd gathered at the Virginia NAACP’s annual convention, the crowd nodded in agreement as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate criticized an obstructionist Congress working against the country’s first black president.

“Watching people decide they would like to proclaim [that] their success would be making the president not successful, I just decided to get in and run,” Kaine told the audience last month. “I do know how to work together with all kinds of people.”

Kaine spoke to the crowd for nearly half an hour in his opponent’s absence, although both candidates were invited.

The following day, GOP candidate George Allen showed up at the convention in Fredericksburg, working the crowd at a sit-down dinner.

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“Reaching out to African Americans, especially in the days when African Americans were having a hard time here . . . that was like a moral imperative for him,” said David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. “He’s one of the politicians in Virginia who African Americans just really, genuinely like.”



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