Eleven years later, with the state's top office in sight, Kaine prefers to be seen as a non-ideological pragmatist. He is running on a 2004 tax increase, supported in the polls, that he describes as "budget reform." He expresses a faith-based opposition to the death penalty but vows to carry out executions.

"Tim wasn't as nuanced then as he is now," said University of Richmond researcher John V. Moeser, a Kaine friend, North Side neighbor and occasional adviser who is an expert on the city's racially charged politics.

But the agility with which the patient, slow-to-anger Kaine approaches politics, prompting opponents to brand him untrustworthy, also frees the private Kaine - the harmonica-blowing sports and outdoors enthusiast - to sharply focus on the needs of others, notably friends and loved ones.

"He always has empathy for your point of view," said Charles Hirschhorn, a Hollywood film and broadcast executive who roomed with Kaine at Harvard.

Hirschhorn recalls debates with Kaine "years ago" over the death penalty and abortion, which Kaine also resists because of his Catholicism.

"Tim's respect for his faith and his moral issues, and his respect for the law that he has to uphold, absolutely peacefully co-exist in him," said Hirschhorn.