ben pershing covers the d.c. maryland and virginia politics for the was post. he joined the post in 2008 after a decade at the capitol hill newspaper roll call. and we have aaron gilchrist, he attended virginia commonwealth university. let's introduce the candidates and hear their opening statements. in order in which the candidates will speak, i should say the order was determined by a coin toss earlier today. so, first, let's welcome former governor and the former chairman of the democratic national committee, tim kaine. [applause] and next we welcome former golf and former senator -- former governor and former senator george allen. [applause] we will start, as i mentioned because of the doing cross, with governor kaine. kaine: thank you, david, and it's great to be back with the fairfax chamber of commerce. seven years ago we talked about transportation, and right outside this building there wasn't a rail to dulles being built. i was very proud to work on those with you in my time as governor. we talked about education. during my time as governor, we put in