McDonnell jobs pitch propels him to victory

Bob McDonnell led a Republican sweep of Virginia’s statewide races Tuesday, restoring the Republicans to power after eight years out of the governor’s office.

The dominant victories by McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli, the party’s nominee for attorney general, reversed a recent string of defeats for Republicans, who lost races for the U.S. Senate in 2006 and 2008 and the presidential election in Virginia in 2008 for the first time in 44 years.

The statewide coattails also resulted in Republican gains in the House of Delegates. Republicans had lost 11 seats in the House since 2001. The House election is important because the party in power will be in charge of redistricting in 2011.

Virginia and New Jersey were the only states electing a governor Tuesday. Those elections, along with a special election for a congressional seat in upstate New York, drew national attention because they are the first significant contests since Obama won the presidency.

The defeat of the Democratic ticket was a blow to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Obama’s hand-picked chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

National media packed into the ballroom of the Richmond Marriott to cover the Republican victory party. The Associated Press called McDonnell’s win at 7:55 p.m., less than an hour after the polls closed.

Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who came down from Maryland for the victory party, said the result will serve as a nice springboard for 2010, when all seats in the House of Representatives and more than 35 in the U.S. Senate are up for election.

He attributed the McDonnell victory to a convergence of two forces: the national debate over health care and the candidates’ attention to transportation and other state issues.

Former Sen. and Gov. George Allen, who also attended the victory party, was asked if a win here would make McDonnell a new star in the GOP.

“Bob will be a star because of the campaign he ran and the person that he is,” Allen said.

McDonnell’s victory continued a remarkable political phenomenon. Since 1976, Virginians have followed every presidential election by electing a governor from the opposing party a year later.

McDonnell’s landslide election was a far cry from four years ago, when he defeated Deeds for attorney general by 360 votes in the closest statewide election in history.

Pundits said that in capturing Virginia McDonnell created a model for other Republican candidates. He emphasized job creation and de-emphasized social issues.

Obama came to Virginia twice to campaign for Deeds. But the president’s appearance with Deeds in Norfolk a week before the election appeared to do the Virginia Democrat little good. Polls showed Deeds losing ground in Hampton Roads in the campaign’s final days.

Both political parties poured millions of dollars into the Virginia race. McDonnell had a clear fundraising edge. He raised more than $21 million, while Deeds raised $10 million in the general election and $6 million in a Democratic primary.

Deeds’ upset victory over two better-funded rivals in the June 9 primary gave him a lift in the polls, but his treasury was empty. Deeds spent the summer raising money while McDonnell, who was unopposed for the GOP nomination, was on television defining himself as a moderate jobs creator.

Throughout the fall, Deeds spent much of his money on ads attacking McDonnell.

On Aug. 30 The Washington Post reported on a graduate thesis that McDonnell wrote 20 years ago while attending Regent University in Virginia Beach. In that thesis, McDonnell appeared to demean working women. He disavowed those views after the Post’s report.

The thesis appeared to give Deeds momentum and the polls tightened, albeit briefly, before McDonnell extended his lead.

The two fought often over transportation. Both agreed the state needs more and better transportation. McDonnell said he would sell bonds, impose tolls and privatize the state-run ABC stores but would not raise taxes. Deeds said he would assemble a blue ribbon commission to come up with a plan, but he did not rule out a tax increase.

McDonnell also spent much of the campaign trying to tie Deeds to cap-and-trade environmental legislation and pro-union legislation on Capitol Hill that is unpopular with many Virginia voters.

As the campaign progressed, McDonnell and his running mates gained widening leads in the polls. Democrats grumbled that McDonnell had run a more disciplined campaign.

McDonnell, 56, had a background in the military, as a businessman and as a local prosecutor, before winning election to the House of Delegates in a Virginia Beach district in 1991. He became chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee before resigning from the House in 2005 to run for attorney general.

McDonnell, whose roots are in the conservative movement, gained a reputation for running the attorney generals office in a non-political manner.

For Deeds, the defeat probably marks his last bid for statewide office, but he still holds onto his state Senate seat. He represents the 25th district, which stretches from Charlottesville west to Deeds home county, Bath County.

Like McDonnell, he is a lawyer and former prosecutor. He has served in the legislature since 1992.

Tyler Whitley is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.