While Tim Kaine was limited to only one term under state law, his emails open a window into a time that was packed with powerful moments. | Getty The 11 emails that explain Tim Kaine A trove of messages from Kaine's time as governor of Virginia provides a remarkable snapshot of Hillary Clinton's running mate. Here are the 11 most revealing.

Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton have something in common besides sharing the Democratic presidential ticket: Both are prolific emailers with inboxes that reveal much about their governing style and personalities.

But while the FBI, congressional investigators and reporters have combed through just about everything that’s been made available to them involving Clinton’s State Department account, the same can’t be said for more than 145,000 messages exchanged during Kaine’s time serving as governor of Virginia.


Until now.

Over the last few weeks, as Kaine’s stock kept rising in the vice presidential sweepstakes, POLITICO closely studied many of the emails that the governor sent to his senior aides, administration officials, CEOs, outside advocates and even his wife while serving in Richmond between 2006 and 2010. While Kaine was limited to only one term under state law, his emails open a window into a time that was packed with powerful moments, from the presidential inauguration just across the Potomac River of his close friend, Barack Obama, to Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Jamestown and Richmond and the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.

Under Virginia law, Kaine’s emails must be catalogued at the state library, and archivists there made the decision to put them online starting, starting with a first batch more than two years ago. It’s an unprecedented digital repository for a state executive from anywhere in the U.S., though the uploading process has been slowed as non-partisan staffers comb through the Kaine records for personal or private information that needs to be redacted. So far, they’re only a fraction of the way through the roughly 1.3 million messages handed over from more than 200 email accounts inside the Democrat’s administration.

As for the messages that are now public, many offer remarkable snapshots into Kaine’s style and reveal much about who Clinton has just tapped as her No. 2. Here are 11 of the best email exchanges that help explain Kaine:

1. Virginia Tech

The governor was on a trade mission to Tokyo when the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings happened, and the emails exchanged in the frantic first moments as the news broke offer a moving look into the tragedy that left 32 students and faculty dead, as well as the shooter.

“There is a preliminary and unconfirmed report that a student was shot and killed on the Virginia Tech campus this morning. Campus Police have reportedly called in the VSP to investigate,” Kaine’s chief of staff, Bill Leighty, wrote at 8:48 a.m., beginning a chain of messages that included a Bush White House aide inquiring whether the lieutenant governor was “taking lead at this time” while Kaine was in Japan, and asking when he’d be “coming home.”

“POTUS will make a statement this afternoon,” the White House staffer added.

Reflecting on how he handled a pivotal moment as the governor scrambled to return to the U.S., Leighty a month later explained in an email to a Cabinet secretary that he had withheld details from Kaine about his return flight options from Japan “because this was another case where a rationalized decision would not serve as well as a decision made from the heart. He needed this one to come from the heart.”

Kaine did fly home in time to give a memorable speech the next day at a campus memorial service attended by President Bush.

Mike Henry, who at the time was Clinton’s deputy presidential campaign manager, actually wrote Kaine after the ceremony -- “You did a great job yesterday connecting with and helping everyone through such difficult times” – and forwarded along a letter from the parents of a Virginia Tech student who detailed what life was like on the Blacksburg campus as reporters from around the globe descended. “It might be a helpful perspective on what family members and students are going through,” Henry wrote.

“It has been a very emotional week,” Kaine replied. “There are still some tough days ahead with families grieving and some hard questions to answer. But, the Tech community is very strong and will rise to the occasion. The student’s perspective you sent was very telling.”

“I hope to get a little rest this weekend,” Kaine concluded. “I look forward to talking soon.”

Henry, now Kaine’s Senate chief of staff, resigned from Clinton’s campaign in February 2008 after her surprise loss to Obama in the Iowa Caucuses.

2. The Queen’s speech

Queen Elizabeth II’s historic visit to Virginia in May 2007 required plenty of coordination between Kaine’s office and British officials in Washington and back in Buckingham Palace.

Amanda Howe, who served as the governor’s lead liaison for the international event, even had a chance to offer edits on the queen’s speech about 10 days before it was delivered at the Richmond state capitol, according to several email exchanges.

Among Howe’s suggested changes to an early draft: describing the Jamestown settlers as “Englishmen” instead of “British citizens,” clarifying a mention that the colony “was full of indolent noblemen, with a propensity to spend their hours playing bowls” and flagging an awkward reference to Lawrence Wilder, then Richmond’s mayor, as a “grandson of slaves.”

“A little weird to refer to slavery as a tradition,” Howe wrote in a marked-up version of the queen’s speech that she sent to Dominic Martin, a U.K. counsellor for political, economic and public affairs.

Some of Howe’s proposed changes may have been heard. There’s no reference to indolent noblemen in the delivered speech. And a mention of both Wilder and his forebears is also dropped, leaving the queen’s only allusion to slavery near the end of her remarks when she describes the recent 200th anniversary in the United Kingdom of a parliamentary act to abolish the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

3. Jens Soering

One of Kaine’s last acts as governor in January 2010 was his controversial decision recommending to the Obama Justice Department that it repatriate a German man serving a life sentence for his conviction in a 1986 double murder in central Virginia. Kaine’s move would have allowed Jens Soering to be released from a German prison after at least two years there, but it was overturned almost immediately when the next governor, Republican Robert McDonnell, took office. Kaine didn’t speak publicly about the Soering decision during his final days as governor, but he did explain himself in later interviews as he ran for the Senate. He told the Associated Press in 2011 that at the time he was unconcerned about the political fallout since he wasn’t planning to run again for public office and also that he wanted to save Virginia taxpayers money.

But the Kaine email archives shed more light on the reasoning behind the decision at the time as his press staff prepped for controversy and media questions.

Shane Emmett, a Kaine counsel, explained to the press shop that the governor was well within his bounds. “The DOJ (even under Bush) heavily encouraged states to participate in this program as it assists the State Department in retrieving Americans incarcerated abroad and saves $,” he wrote.

And Kaine communications director Lynda Tran instructed spokesman Gordon Hickey that he could respond to reporters by emphasizing the governor had considered the case “very carefully” and only made his decision after getting “assurances from the German government that made us feel comfortable with the transfer.”

Tran also provided Hickey with some guidance that couldn’t actually be used in stories but would put the governor’s move into context: “OFF THE RECORD and not for attribution you can say that the DOJ looks upon these types of transfers with other nations favorably because it puts us in a good position should there be American citizens held abroad that we wish transferred home in the future,” she wrote. “We're essentially logging a favor for the US.”

Soering, who maintains his innocence, is still serving his life sentence in a state prison in Virginia, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe in December rejected the latest request for a transfer. A documentary film about Soering’s case debuted in Germany last month and its producer, Louise Rosen, emailed POLITICO that she expects to be “making some announcements soon” about its arrival in U.S. theaters and film festivals.

4. ‘ShitShitShitShit’

In June 2007, Kaine and state lawmakers were facing heat as new “abuser fees” took effect that increased speeding ticket fines. Then, an inquisitive Washington Post reporter found out about some blemishes on the governor’s driving record and requested an interview for a feature story that shows “lawmakers are people too, who drive cars like the rest of us, who are subject to the law and are capable of getting speeding tickets.”

“ShitShitShitShit,” Kaine spokesman Kevin Hall wrote into the subject line of an email to the governor and other aides, forwarding the journalist’s query about the two speeding tickets that had come several years earlier.

“I remember both well,” Kaine replied, explaining he’d gotten caught in 1997 en route to Richmond “late for a City Council meeting and was pushing it.” A 2001 ticket, Kaine added, came when he “was in the heat of the Lt. Gov campaign, driving myself and was late for a public appearance in Hampton.”

Covering his bases, Hall followed up in an email to his boss asking whether Kaine used his leverage as a city leader in Richmond to get special treatment. “Were they knocked down from 20mph+ charges. And are there any others, sir?” he asked.

“My memory is not 100% reliable, but I do remember these incidents pretty clearly and do not believe that either were knocked down,” Kaine replied. “I think I just paid the tickets by mail in both cases – you can’t knock them down unless you go appear in court.”

“I have had others during my driving days, but not recently,” Kaine added. “I think I had one speeding ticket and one ticket for out of date registration in the 1980s. The registration charge was dropped because I had paid, but the sticker that you put on your license got lost in the mail. I was able to show that I had paid so the matter was dropped.”

5. Dealmaker

In September 2009, Kaine had some exciting news to share with his staff. He’d just finished a phone call with the CEO of a major defense contractor “to pitch him to move his company” from San Diego to Northern Virginia.

“There are still a few details, but I think they will do it,” Kaine wrote, explaining an announcement from SAIC would come just before Thanksgiving. “This is a big deal for Virginia,” he added, requesting his staff make sure his calendar was free that day to attend the roll out. Then he ended with a warning to keep the news close to the vest. “This is still very hush hush,” he wrote.

Kaine played the role of Virginia dealmaker-in-chief on other occasions too, including a January 2010 exchange with Northrup Grumman CEO Wes Bush explaining he was “excited to know” about the defense contractor’s pending relocation from Los Angeles to Falls Church, Virginia.

With his term about to end as governor, Kaine in his email included his personal cellphone number and email at the Democratic National Committee, a job he would keep for another 14 months. Kaine also shared an op-ed he’d just published about the state economy. “I wanted you to see it because of the key role that NG has played in Virginia.”

6. Abstinence education

Kaine, a Roman Catholic, was personally pro-life but attempted to govern as a pro-choice Democrat. It wasn’t always easy, but his decision in November 2007 to cut off funding for abstinence-only sex education certainly helped him out in his relationship with Planned Parenthood and other similarly-minded groups. While Kaine’s staff told reporters that the move was done because the governor wanted more “evidenced-based” policies, he gave a much more frank explanation in an email to a woman’s rights group.

“I like abstinence-focused programs, but I do believe (and the research confirms) that youngsters must also be given information about sexuality and contraception or the programs will not accomplish the goal of reducing sexual activity and unwanted pregnancy,” Kaine wrote to Vicki Sant at the Summit Foundation. “Abstinence-only is more of a political statement than a true effort to help youngsters.”

7. Secret service props

Kaine wasn’t just popular with the Obama White House. The president’s Secret Service handlers were fans, too.

The security detail’s props to the governor are relayed in an email to Kaine by Preston Bryant, his secretary of Natural Resources. Bryant shared a conversation he’d had on the sidelines of a Washington D.C. meeting with senior Secret Service officials who “proceeded to say extraordinary good things about you, specifically singing your praises for the way you handled some meeting back in January” surrounding Obama’s 2009 inaugural.

“I made some controversial calls about bridge closings before the inaugural that helped security and earned me some heat from the Post,” Kaine explained in his reply. “I stuck to my guns because I also knew that traffic would have been a disaster otherwise. The Secret Service and the WH really appreciated it. The day after the Inaugural, the Post ran a grudging editorial saying that maybe the decisions weren’t so bad after all.”

8. Let’s get drinks

If she wins the White House, the New York Times says Clinton is expected to bring back boozing with lawmakers as a way to forge relationships and cut big deals. According to Kaine’s emails, that’s a page out of his playbook too.

The governor’s 2007 year-end email to his staff detailed a number of policy areas he wanted to tackle with the state legislature, from pre-kindergarten to mental health, foster care and a “health care safety net.”

That “strategy to win” included creating new staff teams that “should probably be talking everyday” and taking “advantage of Cabinet/Agency folks in each area and external stakeholders.”

Kaine was also sensitive about his own schedule, which he thought needed to include more road trips to sell his agenda across the state and as much intelligence as he could gather on the state’s senators and delegates. “As far as my time goes, I have a couple of thoughts. I need to have meaningful interaction with the key GA leaders. Let’s talk next week about the regular breakfast schedule. I also would like to have a 1 on 1 cocktail time with each committee chair in the first month of the session. Finally, I would like your everyday intel about any member that I should reach out to personally.”

9. Heads up, hackers

Kaine’s emails suggest he’s either a Civil War buff, or he could just like paying tribute to Virginia’s counties. Whatever it is, the governor revealed to a staffer in December 2009 that his computer password was “appomattox.”

10. A spouse’s advice

It’s pretty clear that former President Bill Clinton would be a central figure in his wife’s White House. But Kaine’s spouse shouldn’t be discounted. In an email exchange from May 2008, Virginia First Lady Anne Holton flagged for her husband a Washington Post article that describes how $4 a gallon gas has prompted a surge in people carpooling and public transportation.

“This is a huge opportunity to make lemonade of the lemons of rising gas prices,” she wrote. “I hope/trust your VDOT folks are thinking about any creative, immediate ways even without $$$ to support this trend.”

Kaine replies by forwarding his wife’s message to the members of his administration’s inner circle. “Anne makes a good point,” he wrote. “I have been emphasizing the need for more transit and the fact that the increases in demand have been so significant with increases in gas prices. We should continue to push this in both the regional plans and the Transportation Change Fund.”

11. “Barry from D.C.”

It was no secret that Kaine and Obama were close friends. They were both Harvard Law School graduates. Their moms were from the same small Kansas town. And Kaine lagged behind only Rod Blagojevich among Democratic governors who endorsed Obama in the 2008 primaries.

As the governor’s term wound down, the president paid a public tribute as a surprise caller – “Barry from D.C.” -- to Kaine’s final appearance on a local radio station.

“Well, Gov. Kaine, this is actually the president of the United States calling. I have a question about traffic in Northern Virginia,” Obama joked. “Oh my gosh,” Kaine replied.

While Kaine may have been caught unaware by Obama’s call, the emails show close coordination with the White House. Tran wrote up “KEY MESSAGES FOR POTUS” that included “Commend Governor Kaine for his service. Wish the Governor well as he leaves the Executive Mansion for full-time responsibilities as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Share a brief personal anecdote about an experience with the Governor at an event or meeting in Virginia.”

The Obama call, which generated headlines around the world, almost didn’t happen. Tran had written to Patrick Gaspard, then the head of White House political affairs, several days before the show with a “rather unusual personal request.” She noted other callers would include McDonnell and the musician Bruce Hornsby.

But Gaspard waited until just hours before the show to agree, with a key condition. “I just need an ironclad assurance that we aren’t going to get crazy qs from mark plotkin,” Gaspard wrote, referring to one of the co-hosts of the show. “it has to be a quick dial in and out.”

“You have my guarantee – I will hurtle myself at him,” Tran replied. “Kidding. He won’t even be in the room until 1050 am.”

Donovan Harrell and Dan Spinelli contributed to this report.