"People on the other side of the issue" could just as easily mean...well, you.  Or me.  Or Lowell.  Or other individual contributors who don't agree with the powerplant.  The fact that the majority of his contributions didn't come from single-issue environmental voters or PACs doesn't mean that there isn't a large part of his donor base that opposes the plant in Wise County.

That's all well and good, but if Gov. Kaine's office can't say who they were, why is he saying it in the first place?

Gotta sit down for a while, the room's going in circles really fast. :)

I'm unclear on whether you think it's spin that Miles managed to extrapolate how everyone who has given Kaine money must feel about the powerplant based on Corporated Contributions versus single-issue PAC contributions as catalogued and classified by VPAP.  He even took the time to look up the individual contributions of people who work for Dominion in addition to Dominion's corporate contributions without bothering to consider that individual contributors on the other side of the issue must certainly exist, so it's not even an apples to oranges comparison, it's an apples to (oranges+grapefruit) comparison.

I'm sorry, Miles, but this isn't a courtroom and you're not a prosecutor, so the burden of proof is yours as much as anyone, especially since you've already felt compelled to act like you can prove a point based on VPAP's numbers.  So have at it: Tom Farrel gave Kaine $2,500 out of his own pocket.  Okay, that's a lot of money for a lot of folks.  John Grisham (just to pull one name out of a hat) contributed $100,000 to Kaine's gubernatorial campaign--do we know how he feels about global warming?

Here's a statement that I can't prove: "Hillary Clinton has gotten as many campaign contributions from people who secretly want the terrorists to win as she has from people who love freedom." By your logic, since the burden of proof is on me and not Kaine on Kaine's contributions statement, then it's up to you to prove me wrong on the Hillary/freedom-hater thing.

Burden of proof is on you bub. You have anointed yourself prosecutor of Gov. Kaine. The burden of proof is always on the prosecution, but of course, you know this.

Prove to us that Gov. Kaine is influenced more by the Dominion money than the individual contributions.

I find myself torn here because I believe the Wise Co. Coal plant is a bad thing in the overall picture. But I also will not sit by and read you accusing Gov. Kaine of this and not speak up about it. You have no proof.  

You've completely lost me. I pointed out Kaine made a questionable statement and his office admitted they had no evidence to back it up. I never said who Kaine is influenced by. I just would like him to state, y'know, facts. Do you disagree?

is from Kaine.  If you look at the statement Miles bolded, it has Kaine directly saying that he's received as much money from pro-coal as anti-coal forces.  

While this may be technically true (for instance, anti-coal advocates gave Kaine money during his 2005 run), the implication is that people who are directly lobbying him on this issue are giving (or have given) equal amounts of money to him.  

The spin here is that he's lumping single issue contributions (Dominion giving to get specific things they want) with general contributions (anti-coal people who gave to Kaine 3 years ago because they really didn't want Kilgore).  Again, technically true, but from a real world perspective those monies arrived at his doorstep in drastically different manners and for drastically different purposes.  Meaning he shouldn't be creating the impression that he's received equal funds from both pro and anti coal groups.

that Kaine has received a LOT more money from energy and utility interests than from environmental groups.  I suppose you want to ask every individual who gave to Kaine what they think about the Wise County power plant, but since nobody's done that, we have no idea nor does Gov. Kaine.  That brings us right back to the corporations and the environmental groups, and there the balance sheet is crystal clear.

$230k is nothing to sneeze at, but I'd like to remind you that the Governor's campaign cost more than $20 million.  I don't agree with the Governor on this issue but I also don't agree with people insinuating that he's in the pocket of a industry that has contributed less than 2% of the total money he raised to run for his current office.  And I also don't think it's outlandish to suggest that somewhere out of the $20 million he raised to run for Governor we couldn't find enough donors to match that 2% who think that the Governor is wrong on this issue.
As a matter of fact with a number as small as 2%, I'm surprised people aren't willing to take it for granted.

I suppose it's a matter of how passionate and emotional good people are getting about this important issue.  That passion is commendable, but I disagree strongly with what is being insinuated about a decent and honorable man.

(incidentally, if you remove the political and miscellaneous industry codes, the energy industry code is the 10th largest contributor to Kaine on VPAP.  Maybe we can have a conspiracy theory party about what dirty favors Virginia's healthcare providers purchased with their $1.03 million.  Compared to what the energy industry's $376k "bought," our states' doctors must be up to something really horrible!)

Gov. Kaine has ignored every request we have made for a meeting to talk about the issues we have regarding this plant. I know he doesn't like our tactics of holding him accountable for his actions and words, but that is no reason to shut the door on us completely.

Meh, it would be unfair of me to assume that we don't get meetings with the Gov. because we haven't given him money. I bet that proponents (Dominion) and opponents (us, the Sierra Club, etc) get equal access to Kaine on this issue...

is this surprising to anyone? Kaine won't meet with anyone and has taken plenty of contributions from unions, labor and hasn't met with anyone or done anything for these groups.
He won't be elected to dog catcher after his term. So not meeting with the coal environmentalists doesn't surprise me at all. His $ takn from Dominion is no shock either.

that he hasn't met with labor or any of the unions either?

BTW, I believe he should meet with environmentalist, such as Sierra Club, as much as he meets with Dominion and other energy companies. One doesn't have to agree with everything one's constituents want to be gracious to them and give them a fair hearing. These were his supporters too.

He doesn't have proof.  The Governor's first conflict with the Republicans in the GA when he assumed office was over the GOP's rejection of the nomination of fmr state AFL-CIO director Danny LeBlanc as Secretary of the Commonwealth.  I don't know how the Governor was planning on ducking meetings with labor leaders if he appointed one of them to his Cabinet.

I understand Lowell and Miles' frustration with the Governor on the power plant issue, and while I agree with them on the issue at large, I disagree with some of their conclusions.  Nevertheless, I respect both of them for their passion.  On the other hand, leftofcenter's assertion that Kaine hasn't been a friend to labor in Virginia is an outright lie.

but let's just put it this way, Miles (if I may speak for him here) and I are a lot more passionate about the environment than we are about any particular politician.  Or, to put it another way, I was a passionate environmentalist many years before I ever heard of Tim Kaine.  

Tim Kaine has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from labor. He has done virtually nothing for unions in this state. He brings in companies with the promise that they certainly don't need to worry about unions in this right to work for less state but they can have plenty of tax breaks. It is fairly obvious that Kaine wants a seat on the Dominion board after his term is up. Obviously he won't get elected in this state for anything except maybe dog catcher. If lucky. So someone let me know when Kaine behaves like a Democrat. Hopefully Moran or Deeds will stand up for working folks in this state. But I won't hold my breath.

The Wall Street Journal has an article that seems timely regarding the politics of coal and it's quite interesting.  It also illustrates how complicated the politics of coal are.  

http://online.wsj.com/public/a...

Green Mile has the article in his post.  Sorry for the duplication - it's been a long day.