LEESBURG, Va. – Democrat Tim Kaine talks a lot about Republicans – the ones in his family, the ones he's worked with and the ones he hopes will help him bridge the caustic political divide if he's elected to the U.S. Senate.

"We can't have a functioning nation with a dysfunctional legislative branch," the former Democratic Party chairman says at a recent campaign stop. "John Warner said something to me: 'It's not sick-building syndrome, it's not in the water supply. It's in the character and the inclination of the people who walk in there every day.' The only way it will change is if we put in people who have a different set of character and inclinations."

Kaine's words draw loud applause from the seniors at Leisure World in this northern Virginia suburb, most of them Democrats, a few wearing "Grandma for Obama" buttons.