Having initiated his campaign for governor shortly after authoring a famous 1989 thesis, Robert F. McDonnell has concluded the facile phase of his quest. Now he learns whether he’ll suffer the torment of Gilgamesh, watching the plant of life swallowed by the devilish details of running a state stuck in a mire of red and sinking deeper.

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 task for the next governor: restore economic hope. Here are the plans to do it:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell hammered home his message of jobs and the economy during a Friday get-out-the-vote rally before 200 people at Willow Oak Plaza in Waynesboro.

Apparently, this election comes down to what independent and Democratic voters want Virginia to do for the next four years. The last debate for governor allowed Virginians to see and hear the differences between the candidates. Clearly, it is state Sen. R. Creigh Deed’s long-standing commitment to values Virginians share, his hard work and his vision for Virginia that is needed.

An unfortunate son, either of Philadelphia or Richmond, will stride into Timothy M. Kaine’s shortening shadow in January and perhaps thereafter wonder who won in November. Rumblings emanating from the capital, previously and painfully accurate, are that Virginia will begin the year staring across a budget canyon of $3 billion. Hell to the chief.

Robert F. McDonnell wants to make Virginia the East Coast energy capital, while R. Creigh Deeds plans to use Virginia universities to create an energy-based research triangle similar to one in North Carolina.

RICHMOND — Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, trying to narrow a 8- to 9-percentage-point deficit in the Virginia governor’s race, is bringing in his biggest gun: President Barack Obama.

The first Democrat to win Virginia in a presidential race in 44 years, Obama conducts his first downstate campaign rally for Deeds at Old Dominion University in Norfolk on Oct. 27.

Democrat mum on plans, but ex-governor’s letter might clear murk

STAUNTON – Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Richard Cranwell and some prominent Shenandoah Valley Democrats came to Staunton on Monday to tout Democratic gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds’ job creation and support for rural areas.

Voters 18 to 24 went 2-1 for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race, spurring a greater attention to the youth vote in this year’s Virginia gubernatorial race.

Democratic nominee Creigh Deeds called the youth vote “critical’’ during a stop at James Madison University last week, and the campaign of Republican Robert F. McDonnell has mobilized an effort on virtually every Virginia campus.

GOP contender takes margin to 8 points

Transportation funding divides hopefuls

Both gubernatorial candidates appealed to Barent Parslow, a Staunton gun shop worker, until the issue of a gun-show loophole surfaced again in the state legislature earlier this year.

Slightly built, tirelessly energetic and topped by a meticulously styled ’do that could belong only to a politician or an anchorman, Robert F. McDonnell looks more marathoner than statesman, and in that sense hopes to run again after a week of staggering. Platforms for re-launching a gubernatorial bid that once sailed, but now drifts, arise this week, first on Monday with the traditional Labor Day campaign kickoff and later in the week when Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is expected to announce $1.5 billion in budget cuts.