tim kaine joined congress just as pence was leaving to become governor of indiana. | ap photo both vp nominees have spent the campaign aiming squarely at the top of their rival ticket, but on tuesday, they'll have to reckon with each other. by burgess everett and matthew nussbaum 10/01/16 11:33 am edt when tim kaine and mike pence meet for their lone debate tuesday night, they may need to be reminded of each other<u+2019>s names. the virginia democratic senator and indiana gop governor barely know each other, associates say, and both are spending their time on the stump ripping the top of the ticket <u+2014> and ignoring each other. sure, kaine will ding pence for his socially conservative views on gay rights, and pence will cite virginia<u+2019>s plummeting economy during kaine<u+2019>s recession-tarred governorship, but there<u+2019>s little personal animosity between the two of them. story continued below kaine, after all, joined congress right as pence was leaving to become governor of indiana, and the unfamiliarity shows on the campaign trail. while donald trump is talking about sex tapes and hillary clinton is calling him <u+201c>unhinged,<u+201d> the two vice-presidential hopefuls are treating each other with kid gloves. that<u+2019>s just fine with their allies. asked whether kaine should go right at pence, close friend sen. ben cardin (d-md.) said: <u+201c>no, not at all.<u+201d> <u+201c>people are thirsty to hear bread-and-butter-type issues,<u+201d> cardin said. a clash between kaine and pence <u+201c>would be a wasted opportunity.<u+201d> <u+201c>if you<u+2019>re pence, your target is hillary,<u+201d> said ken khachigian, who did debate preparation work with ronald reagan, george h.w. bush and dan quayle. <u+201c>you want to draw blood against hillary.<u+201d> by daniel strauss in their last days on the campaign trail before the debate, the candidates showcased their different roles: kaine as a g-rated attack dog and pence as trump<u+2019>s explainer-in-chief. those two jobs don<u+2019>t translate well to hurling barbs toward the other vp candidate <u+2014> and that<u+2019>s by design. <u+201c>each vice-presidential candidate will be trying to make points against the presidential candidate on the other side, rather than at each other,<u+201d> said sen. sheldon whitehouse (d-r.i.). <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t think it<u+2019>s going to be a huge determinant of the presidential elections, the positions of the vice president.<u+201d> in recent days, kaine held events with latino evangelical leaders and lgbt activists and visited the site of the pulse nightclub shooting in orlando, florida. he did plenty of local and broadcast tv interviews, but he mostly concentrated on how trump <u+201c>ran out of gas<u+201d> in the first presidential debate. in a morning blitz on abc, cbs and nbc, he never was asked directly about pence. on monday, as the human rights campaign attacked pence as the <u+201c>face of bigotry<u+201d> toward gay people, kaine kept punching upward. <u+201c>we shouldn<u+2019>t let donald trump within 10 time zones of being president of the united states,<u+201d> kaine said in orlando. earlier in the day in lakeland, florida, kaine called out pence once. and he didn<u+2019>t single him out. <u+201c>donald trump and mike pence both want to get rid of birthright citizenship. we can never let that happen. we can never let that happen. we can never go backward,<u+201d> kaine said. this summer, pence, at a town hall in iowa, was even teed up a question about how excited he is <u+201c>to completely demolish tim kaine on the debate stage.<u+201d> he stopped well short of a <u+201c>complete demolition,<u+201d> opting instead for a bland policy barb. <u+201c>you know, he<u+2019>s a fine man. he served his state as governor; i served as governor. our records are a little bit different,<u+201d> pence responded. <u+201c>in the state of indiana, i<u+2019>m proud to say that unemployment dropped from over 8 percent to 4.6 percent, nearly cut it in half. unemployment doubled when gov. kaine was running the state of virginia.<u+201d> the attacks using the unemployment rate are undercut by national economic trends. kaine governed during a nationwide economic collapse, while pence served during a nationwide recovery and expansion. but it<u+2019>s as close to a slam as the two get, and that may be why the vice-presidential nominees have been so thoroughly overshadowed as trump and clinton, with palpable personal distaste, trade insults. those relatively modest attacks in a presidential election that has veered from male anatomy to bill clinton<u+2019>s infidelity to the weight of a supermodel underscore how kaine and pence are campaigning. democrats want trump destroyed from top to bottom; they care about pence only because he<u+2019>s a surrogate for trump. democrats talk about pence like the longtime gop elected official that he is, not a coming scourge like trump. pence <u+201c>was elected to the united states congress, and he was elected governor of a state. he obviously has had to be accountable to constituents and voters in ways that mr. trump has not,<u+201d> said sen. bob casey (d-pa.). 2016 by steven shepard given their undercard roles, neither kaine nor pence has been eager in recent weeks to draw the spotlight from the top of the ticket. kaine<u+2019>s aides teased some availability to the traveling press twice in a recent swing, but ultimately the only moment he spoke to the group of eight reporters following him around was a teary-eyed address outside pulse. karen finney, a spokeswoman for kaine, said little about pence when asked about kaine<u+2019>s debate prep and said kaine<u+2019>s job is to carry clinton<u+2019>s policy portfolio. <u+201c>the task next week is to talk about that vision, talk about those plans,<u+201d> finney said. pence aides put forth a debate platform that sounded like a throwback to mitt romney, not a trump-esque takedown of kaine. <u+201c>mike is going to share how we<u+2019>re going to return jobs, grow the economy and make the case for how america cannot afford four more years of obama-clinton foreign policy,<u+201d> said marc short, pence<u+2019>s communications director. over the weekend, kaine holed up raleigh, north carolina, preparing for the debate before heading to his hometown of richmond, virginia, to gather himself further for the vice-presidential showdown an hour away in farmville, virginia. pence, meanwhile, is spending the weekend at home in indiana, relaxing with family before heading to virginia on monday for a pre-debate rally. and if kaine and pence's campaigns thus far are any guide, their debate prep and tuesday night's showdown are about the only times their vice-presidential opponent will even cross their minds. by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
kaine, pence to stop ignoring each other, briefly - politico
burgess everett matthew nussbaum daniel strauss steven shepard michael grunwald