Faith enters the governor’s race:

Kilgore, who has tried to expand the kinds of crimes that would be eligible for the death penalty, has talked about Kaine’s opposition throughout the campaign. But even Democrats were unprepared for the stark and emotional tone of his ads.

One features the widow of a Winchester police officer whose husband was killed in the line of duty. "How could you not think the death penalty was appropriate" for her husband’s killer, asked Kelly Timbrook. "When Tim Kaine calls the death penalty murder, I find it offensive."

The other ad shows Stanley Rosenbluth, whose son and daughter-in-law were murdered in 1993. Kaine was involved in representing the killer, who was later executed. "No matter how heinous the crime, he doesn’t believe that death is a punishment," Rosenbluth says. "Being as liberal as he is on the death penalty, he’s not representing everybody in the state."

Kaine immediately responded with his own ad, which has him directly addressing the camera. "My faith teaches that life is sacred," said Kaine, who speaks often on the campaign trail about his strong Catholic beliefs. "That’s why I personally oppose the death penalty. But I take my oath of office seriously, and I’ll enforce the death penalty . . . because it’s the law."

Several Democratic activists were taken aback by Kilgore’s strong ads, and although they would not criticize the Kaine campaign openly, they said they were disappointed with Kaine’s measured response. Kaine press secretary Delacey Skinner disagreed.