Sen. Kaine may not be liberals' first choice as Clinton's No. 2

With Hillary Clinton's announcement of a running mate imminent, the White House and former President Bill Clinton have both expressed support for Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

But one group is already disappointed at the prospect of Kaine on the Democratic ticket: liberals.

Many of the groups that backed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in his Democratic contest against 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 Sanders.

But with the Democratic National Convention beginning Monday in Philadelphia, 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 Kaine's record.

Clinton's campaign has kept a tight lid on its search for a vice-presidential candidate and is trying to be agile in deciding when to make the surprise announcement.

[Two names emerge from Clinton's VP deliberations: Kaine and Vilsack]

Clinton aides, hoping to seize the moment and steal some of Donald Trump's thunder, planned to monitor his convention speech Thursday night and decide when it made the most sense to make the announcement. The campaign had discussed texting supporters and blasting out the decision on social media before Clinton appears with her running mate in Florida, which could be as early as Friday.

A spokeswoman for the campaign declined to comment.

An aide to Warren planned to meet with Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, on Thursday afternoon to discuss how they could work together in the months ahead, which was interpreted by some people with knowledge of the process as a sign that Clinton had settled on a choice.

Liberals say they are concerned about Kaine's positions on global trade deals and Wall Street regulation.

Kaine 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 Barack Obama has championed.

Two others under consideration, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, also supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But Perez, who is popular among labor unions, has criticized NAFTA, which Trump has called "a disaster."

After praising the partnership as secretary of state, Clinton has recently said as a candidate, "I don't believe it's going to meet the high bar I've set" on protecting U.S. workers, the environment and other issues.

About 60 percent of voters said trade with other countries caused job losses in the United States, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Trump has a slight edge over Clinton on the question of whom voters consider better poised to tackle the trade issue.

Putting 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.

Kaine, the son of a welder who owned a small metalworking shop in a Kansas City suburb, could help Clinton reach white male voters and independents. Those voters may prove more critical to her chances in November than the young liberal voters who backed Sanders in the primaries.

As governor of Virginia, Kaine appealed to both Democrats in urban pockets and independents in rural areas, and established a reputation as a pragmatic consensus builder.

"He'd appeal to people in the Midwest because that's his roots," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. And Tobias said Virginians across political lines considered him "a thoroughly decent and honest person."

Sanders endorsed Clinton this month, declaring she is "far and away the best candidate." And while polls suggest that most of his supporters plan to vote for her in November, some surveys suggest that only a small fraction of them will do so enthusiastically and that Clinton remains unpopular with independents.

"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.

Taylor referred to the army of small-dollar donors who fueled Sanders's candidacy, adding, "The wrong pick could deflate energy among potential donors and volunteers, hurting Democratic efforts to win the White House."

Of course, no running mate can please every demographic and constituency.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, also in the running for the No. 2 spot, supported Gov. Chris Christie's push in New Jersey to expand charter schools and implement merit-based pay for teachers. Those positions made him deeply unpopular among the teachers' unions who have been among Clinton's most loyal supporters.

On Thursday, Booker, speaking from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, defended Clinton and derided Trump as "someone who has been so indiscriminate with his demeaning and degrading language."

Asked about the prospect of Kaine on the Democratic ticket, Booker praised his Senate colleague. "Tim Kaine is one of the most honorable people I've met in all of politics."