Liberals Balk at Talk of Kaine as VP

"Democrats close to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign signaled strongly Thursday that she

would choose Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate, rounding out the ticket with a popular politician from a battleground state.

Many of the groups that backed Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in his Democratic contest against Mrs. Clinton had hoped she would extend an olive branch to the liberal wing of the party and choose a vice-presidential candidate whose stances on Wall Street and global trade deals closely aligned with those of Mr. Sanders.

But with the Democratic National Convention beginning in Philadelphia on Monday, the prospects have dimmed for the two liberal senators who were being considered, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. That has led to more liberal scrutiny of Mr. Kaine’s record.

Liberals say they are concerned about Mr. Kaine’s positions on global trade deals and Wall Street regulation. He has been an outspoken advocate of free trade and has defended the North American Free Trade Agreement, which many voters in Rust Belt states blame for the loss of manufacturing jobs to Mexico. He voted in support of “fast track” authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact that President Obama has championed.

Putting Mr. Kaine on the ticket “could be disastrous for our efforts to defeat Donald Trump in the fall” because of his support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, a liberal political action committee.

“Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential pick will be seen by many as a proxy for how she will govern — boldly, or cautiously?” said Stephanie Taylor, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. She referred to the army of small-dollar donors who fueled Mr. Sanders’s candidacy, adding, “The wrong pick could deflate energy among potential donors and volunteers, hurting Democratic efforts to win the White House.” NYT