It's 3:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, and Tim Kaine has miles to go before he sleeps.

An unresolved state budget, Mississippi's presidential primary and the responsibilities of parenting occupy places in the Virginia governor's mind as he moves purposefully down the hall from his office on the third floor of the Patrick Henry Building, on the way to the heliport for evening appearances in Emporia and Petersburg.

This night Kaine expects to hear good news from Mississippi about his pick for president, Sen. Barack Obama. Kaine, a national co-chairman of Obama's campaign, is often mentioned as a potential running mate or Cabinet secretary for the Illinois senator.

Kaine will say later that he will not leave the governor's office early for a seat in an Obama Cabinet. While he's convinced he will not be asked to be Obama's running mate, he says the offer would be difficult to refuse.

"I'm not going to leave before the end of the term," in January 2010, Kaine said, when asked about a possible role in an Obama Cabinet.

"I don't think lightning would ever strike that the VP would be an issue, so I'm just going to help in other ways," he added. "But I'm definitely not going to be a Cabinet member unless it's after I'm done being governor."

The chopper rises above the Richmond skyline and dips south toward Emporia, where Kaine is scheduled to address 150 Virginia Army National Guard troops from the 1710 Transportation Company who are about to deploy to Iraq.

The helicopter passes over the tangle of highways around the city and the comfortable, neatly drawn subdivisions of Chesterfield County. Then Kaine puts down the black-leather folder and settles in, propping his feet on the unoccupied seat of the sparse, no-frills aircraft. He stares quietly out the window as the helicopter speeds toward the open country, sweeping over the green fields and swampy lowlands of rural Southside Virginia, with plenty to think about.

. . .

At 50, Kaine -- a father of three, a former Richmond city councilman, mayor, lieutenant governor and governor since 2006 -- is hitting his stride.

Trim and more physically fit than he has ever been in his public life, the 70th governor of the commonwealth rises early to exercise five days a week and is out the door of the Executive Mansion before 8 a.m. He spends three to four nights a week around the state at various events, usually not returning home until 10 p.m. or later.

These days, Kaine has been barnstorming in Virginia, holding town-hall meetings around the state on the accomplishments and unfinished business on his legislative agenda in the 2008 General Assembly session.

He's met at the airport by two unmarked state police cars for the ride to Greensville County Elementary School in Emporia, where reservists are saying goodbye to their families.

"Welcome Governor Kaine," reads a message from the students on a whiteboard in the first-grade classroom where Kaine meets military leaders and local officials prior to the ceremony.

The governor scribbles a message back: "Thank you. Tim K."

"The family members who are here and friends and the elected officials of the state and from this area have a mixture of feelings," Kaine tells the packed auditorium on this day of separation, where the speeches are punctuated by cheers and the cries of young children.

"Feelings of hope, feelings of concern," he adds. "But our overwhelming feeling is a feeling of pride."

Outside the school, Kaine explains that roughly one-sixth of Virginia's Guard are deployed overseas and in Iraq -- about 1,500 people.

"Some of the folks going today, it's their third time since 2001," Kaine says. "It's very challenging for the families."

. . .

Despite the state's revenue shortfall, cuts to programs and the defeat of his initiatives to ban smoking in restaurants and require background checks at gun shows, Kaine is upbeat about his progress this assembly session.

"You really earn your pay when times are tough," he said.

"We've really tried hard, in tough times, to advance important priorities. At a year where revenues were flat, to advance pre-K, mental-health reform, the health-care safety net, foster care reform. We're not just standing still but doing good new things that are important."

Brought to the forefront by the Virginia Tech slayings 11 months ago, mental-health reform, Kaine said, "is clearly the biggest policy advance this year.

"I feel a huge obligation to these families," Kaine said of the Tech victims. "I've told them many times that the only redemption possible out of this horrible day is to improve and fix the mistakes and be better."

Kaine is likely to encounter more partisanship in April, when the assembly reconvenes to come up with a plan to fix the yawning, $600 million gap in transportation funding.

"It's going to be fees or taxes of some kind," he said, advocating for his original plan to raise Virginia's 3 percent tax on auto sales to meet the 5 percent sales tax on other items.

Kaine also does not rule out supporting an increase in the state's gasoline tax, which has not been raised in 20 years. A gas-tax proposal cleared the Senate this session, only to die in the House.

"I could certainly see supporting that as part of a legislative comprehensive solution," Kaine said.

. . .

Education, not transportation, is most important to the 275 people who show up at the Appomattox Regional Governor's School for the town-hall meeting. Kaine appears to be embraced by the crowd, although some express concerns, ranging from impact of school funding to limits on payday lending.

"What I've learned at many points during my career in public life is that people aren't necessarily looking for somebody who they just agree with on everything," he says later.

"They want somebody who they think has ideas and a moral compass and is accessible and approachable," he adds. "People respect honestly expressed disagreement better than dishonestly expressed agreement."

The governor is ahead of schedule this evening -- no small feat considering the logistics of his typical day. "Down time" is a commodity to people like Kaine, a self-described "go with the flow person" who doesn't mind being in the public eye but doesn't enjoy having every minute accounted for.

Kaine steals moments of solitude while traveling, plugging in his iPod to listen to the Beatles, Steely Dan and Midnight Oil among other artists, or immersing himself in travel literature books by authors like Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux.

Even more challenging is finding time with his family. Kaine's children -- Nat, 18, Woody, 15, and Annella, 12 -- also face the pressures of public life and the challenge of being credited for what they've accomplished on their own given their prominent parents. Much help comes from their mother, Anne Holton -- a former judge who lived in the Executive Mansion as a child as the daughter of Gov. Linwood Holton.

Escape comes on backpacking, camping and canoeing trips several times a year.

"If I can do things outdoors, that's really about the only time I do not think about work, so I really try to do that a lot," he says.

. . .

"There's my governor," says Appomattox school principal Dr. James L. Ruffa, greeting Kaine as he gets out of a black SUV with Deputy Press Secretary Jeff Tiller, a reporter and two state police officers assigned to his security detail.

"Welcome to the Governor's School."

Arriving early for the 6:30 meeting, Kaine ducks into school restroom with an electric razor to clean up a five o'clock shadow. He emerges fresh-faced, then pulls up a desk and spends 20 minutes talking with a small group of students.

He asks each about their studies. The students are ready for him with questions -- and cans of his favorite soft drink, Dr Pepper. They ask him about Obama.

"I have a great deal of confidence that he can be president," Kaine tells them.

At the town-hall meeting, Kaine speaks and then takes questions from the audience for an hour, most of which revolve around schools and the economy. Lured by his inviting twinkle-eyed charm, some sidle up to get their pictures taken afterward, or to whisper in the governor's ear about a particular issue.

Kaine takes note of one man who says underfunding of the school lunch program leaves only 4 cents to purchase breakfast for each child -- the price of a pack of crackers.

A reproductive-rights advocate asks him to look for a budget amendment that denies funds to Planned Parenthood.

"How does it feel to be a superdelegate?" one man asks Kaine, one of the 796 Democratic Party insiders who could play a decisive role in picking the nominee.

"I feel very committed to be a superdelegate," he quips, drawing applause and laughter.

Kaine says he does not expect Obama to tap him as a running mate should he win the Democratic nomination. But he also acknowledges the offer would be hard to refuse.

"It would feel like kind of a draft notice or something where there's a sense of duty that would attach, but again, family discussions -- I've got an obligation here and all kinds of other things that would get in the way -- I think I have the luxury of not frankly thinking about it much."

While Kaine says he has not sworn off another run at elected office, he had a gut feeling during his successful run for governor in 2005 that the campaign would be his last.

Observers have speculated that Kaine could end up running one of the state's universities -- Eugene P. Trani, president of Virginia Commonwealth University, retires in 2010 -- or filling a similar job in the public sector.

"What I liked about being mayor, what I like about being governor, is the community-building aspect of the job," Kaine says. "So doing something that is like that, whether it's in education or the nonprofit world, is probably the most likely thing that I would do next. And it's highly likely that I would do that in Richmond."

. . .

The day draws to a close around 9 p.m. as the SUV pulls into the driveway of the Executive Mansion. A uniformed Capitol police officer raises his hand in salute as Kaine heads inside.

As he gets ready to leave, Kaine articulates his view of his job: "The bottom line at the end of the day, [is that] everything I do is about judgment," he says.

"In terms of making decisions, in terms of trying to decide what I should spend time on. So my judgment has to be at its peak that it will ever be in my life during these four years.

"I'm a judgment machine," he adds. "That's what a governor is. You just make one judgment after the next, so I've got to keep it as clear as I can."

Inside, Nat, awaiting word on college admissions, will be waiting with the latest results of the Mississippi primary. Woody, a member of the Maggie Walker JV basketball team, may want to know more details on the Wizards-Cavaliers game he and his father will attend on Thursday. Anne will be getting ready to read to Annella.

Some food will be around for a late dinner. Kaine might pick up the biography of Frank Zappa his daughter gave him as a recent birthday present for some late-night reading.

And tomorrow, the governor of Virginia will wake up to another day of judgment, and miles to go before he sleeps.
Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.