Both vice presidential candidates know how to draw blood when necessary. | AP Photo How Tim Kaine matches up against Mike Pence Neither has a taste for smash-mouth campaigning. But both know how to draw blood when necessary.

Both are known for their distaste for smash-mouth campaigning. Yet each will attack when cornered, and can go on the offensive when necessary.

That’s how allies and rivals alike describe Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the presidential running mates who will go head-to-head in a single, high-stakes debate in early October. Pence, Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, and Kaine, who will appear on Hillary Clinton’s ticket, aren’t likely to play the traditional attack dog roles. But each knows how to draw blood when necessary.


Kaine gave a hint of it in 2012, when he patiently laid back in the final debate of Virginia’s Senate race, waiting for his foe to make the first move.

“I want to be Virginia’s senator. Tim wants to be President Obama’s senator,” charged former GOP senator George Allen. “We deserve a strong independent voice, not an an echo.”

Kaine responded both casually and condescendingly: “I do not think it is anti-Virginia to support the president of the United States.” He followed the barb with a fusillade of numbers showing how partisan Allen was as a senator, ridiculing his claims of independence.

Pence has a famously disciplined and cautious style, marked by his rock-ribbed conservatism on fiscal and social issues. Kaine is a reliably liberal vote though also a deal-maker friendly with Republicans whose down-home style makes him instantly familiar to those who have just met him.

Yet despite those differences, the two vice presidential contenders are widely regarded as safe picks that only serve to further highlight the sharp differences between Clinton and Trump on foreign policy, immigration reform and economic issues. There will most likely be no moment when Kaine or Pence overshadow the two larger-than-life candidates leading their tickets, nor will any debate between them feature the bomb-throwing that’s sure to be evident in future Clinton and Trump clashes.

“Hillary and Trump will be the summer action flick. Kaine and Pence will be the NPR program,” said Tucker Martin, a longtime GOP consultant in Virginia.

The vice presidential debate between the two men this fall will be the most high-profile -- and perhaps only -- direct clash between the Indiana governor and Virginia senator. And if their last competitive campaigns are any guide, both Kaine and Pence will be laying back and waiting for the other guy to punch first.

They could be waiting awhile.

“I don’t know that you’ll see any engagement between Pence and [Kaine],” said Jennifer Wagner, who served as an Indiana Democratic operative for years. “Boring is relative this cycle. I think it will be very predictable.”

Kaine and Pence are described by people that know them and longtime followers as reluctant political combatants, only taking to the arena when it’s absolutely necessary. And both of them ran their most recent campaigns as favorites, lessening the necessity of an attack-first stance that throws an opponent off balance and creates unpredictable soundbites and negativity throughout the campaign.

“There will be some part of an attack that both of them will have to do. But it’s not in either of their DNA,” said Daniel Scandling, a former top aide to former Virginia GOP Rep. Frank Wolf, who served with Pence. “I don’t expect either of them to roll around in the mud.”

In his race against Allen, Kaine ran as a centrist-minded Democrat who still mostly adhered to the national party platform, which he had helped develop as the Democratic National Committee chairman. During that contest, Allen broke out the attack that was in vogue with Republicans in the middle of the Barack Obama’s presidency: That Kaine was too close to Obama and his plans to kill the Bush tax cuts, fight climate change and protect Obamacare.

But Kaine waited for the trailing Allen to lean into his attacks, only to counterstrike with a degree of incredulity that Pence will soon realize is a Kaine staple.

Allen accused Kaine of holding Virginians “hostage” by supporting a blunt mechanism called sequestration that slashed spending absent a big fiscal deal in Congress.

Kaine was outraged to be associated with the word.

“We’re not talking about hostages, George,” Kaine said.

“I didn’t use the word hostage,” Allen responded.

“You did use the word hostage,” Kaine said to laughter in the audience. He won the race two weeks later by 6 points.

That's not to say Kaine is without weak spots. His sunny demeanor and simple explanations of complex budgetary issues are surface level and open to attack, said former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, who Kaine beat in 2005 in the governor's race.

“He’ll give the answer that everyone wants to hear. The point Pence needs to remember is he needs to nail him down on issues,” Kilgore said in a telephone interview Friday. “He will play the victim. ‘I can’t believe you are attacking me on that.’”

Yet Democrats say that behind Kaine’s low-key and humble personality is a tough, prepared politician who can break his opponent when provoked.

“Tim is a sunny positive kind of man. Pence, I think, carries that sort of doom and gloom that a lot of conservatives radiate, that I think is outputting,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a veteran politician in Northern Virginia. But “one should not confuse his positive visage and message and personality with weakness.”

By virtue of Trump’s campaign message, Pence is likely to to forcefully assert that America’s best days will remain in the past without a major Trump-like shock to the system. But beyond ideology and vision, Pence is equal to Kaine in preparation, a marked contrast to Trump, who openly admits that he reads very little.

In preparing for the 2012 debate, Indiana GOP operative Eric Holcomb (and later lieutenant governor) played Democrat John Gregg and adviser Tom Rose played Libertarian Rupert Boneham. They gave Pence no warning of the questions they asked, and attacked the Republican in prep sessions in a manner far more aggressive than actually played out in the mild race.

“He kicked our butts. He came in and eviscerated both of us,” Rose said in an interview. “He doesn’t throw first punches. What he does is he rope-a-dopes and counterpunches.”

Pence ended up narrowly winning by 3 points and never went hard negative at Gregg, gently chiding him for fiscal irresponsibility and efforts to grow government. Yet he could have unwrapped a blistering attack on Gregg, who helped give state legislators lifetime healthcare during his last months as statehouse speaker.

“I really thought they were going to use that against John. And they never did. And they didn’t use it because I don't think they thought they had to,” said Brian Howey, a top political analyst in the state. “In this campaign [Pence] doesn’t have to be the attack dog. Trump is the big Doberman here.”

Indeed, Pence is now famous for his discomfort for negative campaigning. It’s yet another attribute that he and Kaine share as they prepare for a grueling three months of political division alongside two unpopular presidential nominees -- though Kaine and Pence may emerged relatively unscathed.

Pence “will attack Hillary. He will be friendly with Kaine and it won’t be in any way personal … If you’re Kaine, you probably have to criticize everything about Trump.” said a veteran GOP strategist working in Indiana politics. “It will be a fairly uneventful debate. Both men will come out well.”

