Press. voanews.com
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is widely
expected to announce her vice presidential running mate shortly after the end
of this week's Republican National Convention. People with knowledge of the
situation said Wednesday that Clinton has a "short list" of nine
people she is considering.
“That’s not the real list,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of
Virginia’s Center for Politics, told VOA. “The reason you issue a list of that
length is to please various party constituencies and even powerful individuals.” The Clinton campaign has held focus groups
recently to help identify potential candidates. Clinton has met with several of
them recently at her Washington home.
“I also think they are ... sending out some weather balloons” for
potential Cabinet appointees, Pennsylvania State University political scientist
Mark Major said in an interview with VOA. The running mate announcement from
Clinton is expected to come Friday or Saturday. “This is already determined. We
just don’t know who it is. That’s a very, very tight operation. It’s close to
leak-free,” Sabato said of the Clinton campaign organization.
Clinton is scheduled to attend campaign organizing events Friday and
Saturday in Florida, the nation’s largest battleground state with 29 electoral
votes at stake.
“If you’re looking around the country for swing states with a lot of
electoral votes, you start with Florida,” Sabato said.
Former NATO commander
Clinton campaign aides say she is considering a vice presidential
running mate with national security experience, a factor that has sharpened the
focus on former NATO Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis, who now is dean
of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a graduate
school for international affairs.
David Lublin, professor at American University’s School of Public
Affairs, told VOA that national security “often gets underplayed as a factor in
presidential elections,” but is becoming a higher priority after recent
high-profile terrorist attacks.
Many political observers consider Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia
Clinton’s top choice for the vice presidency. Kaine is among a field of
prospects who include Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Senator Sherrod Brown
of Ohio, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, Senator Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Housing Secretary Julian Castro
and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.
“We’ve seen a huge gender gap in this election.” He added that whoever
is chosen, the impact on public opinion will be negligible, as is usually the
case with vice presidential nominees. “It’s one way to sort of balance out your
portfolio,” he said.
A strong vice presidential running mate, Sabato said, should be able to
help the presidential nominee do two things: win the election and govern.
“It would also be nice if a vice president brought some electoral
votes,” Sabato said, adding that Kaine could potentially do so as a senator
from the swing state of Virginia.
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