McDonnell leads GOP sweep of statewide races

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

The double-digit 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 coattails of the statewide candidates also resulted in net GOP gains in the House of Delegates of at least three seats and possibly as many as six.

Republicans also won the governor’s race in New Jersey, another rebuff to President Barack Obama and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the president’s hand-picked chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The two elections, along with a special election for a congressional seat in upstate New York, drew national attention because they were the first significant contests since Obama won the presidency.

McDonnell, 56, took the stage before hundreds of cheering supporters at the Richmond Marriott and thanked the people who helped him win. He also asked those who didn’t to give him a chance.

“For those of you that did not support me, I say to you: Give me a chance to earn your trust to work with you for the betterment of the commonwealth of Virginia,“ he said.

McDonnell said he will leave Virginia better than he found it.

“Working together as Virginians, we will find those new ways to solve the problems that face us and to create more jobs and new opportunities,“ McDonnell said.

The new governor will face tough budgetary decisions spawned by the recession.

McDonnell called Deeds a “good public servant” and said he looks forward to working with the Democrat, who continues to serve in the state Senate.

Deeds conceded at 9 p.m., shortly after he called McDonnell to congratulate him.

“Just because we didn’t get the right results tonight doesn’t mean we get to go home and whine,“ an emotional Deeds said at the Westin Hotel in Henrico County.

“We still have fight. We still have spirit. We still have something to say,“ he added.

Kaine, at the Westin to support the Democratic ticket, said: “The Virginia Democratic Party is strong.“ He congratulated the Republican ticket for running “a good campaign.“

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., who also attended the Democratic gathering, said of McDonnell: “I hope he will govern as he campaigned—someone who wants to find the bipartisan, practical solutions.“

Deeds, 51, was unable to duplicate the enthusiasm of Obama’s 2008 campaign in Virginia, which drew hundreds of thousands of new voters to the polls.

Despite sunny weather, turnout appeared to be low yesterday, with only about 40 percent of the state’s 5 million registered voters going to the polls. Four years ago, 45 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the election for governor.

National news media packed into the ballroom of the Marriott to cover the GOP 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 candidate’s attention to transportation” and other state issues.

Former Sen. and Gov. George Allen, who also attended the victory party, was asked whether McDonnell’s win would make him 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.

Exit polls by the AP showed that independents, who narrowly backed Obama in Virginia last year, voted 2-to-1 for McDonnell. In addition, exit polls showed Democrats had trouble getting their base to the polls.

Yesterday’s Virginia electorate included more voters who supported Republican John McCain in 2008 than Obama.

Pundits said that in capturing Virginia, McDonnell created a model for other Republican candidates. The former state attorney general and former Virginia Beach delegate emphasized jobs creation and de-emphasized social issues.

Ralph Reed, a former director of the Christian Coalition, attended the GOP victory party.

“If the national conservative movement and the national Republican Party want to find out how to win, they need to come to Virginia and see what happened here,“ he said.

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. They also received significant support from party committees.

Deeds’ upset victory over two better-funded rivals in the June 9 Democratic primary gave him a lift in the polls but left his treasury empty. Deeds spent the summer raising money while McDonnell, who was unopposed for the GOP nomination, was on television defining himself as a moderate and a 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 the thesis, McDonnell appeared to demean working women. He disavowed those views.

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

McDonnell and Deeds agreed the state needs more and better transportation, but they offered different prescriptions. McDonnell, who opposes tax increases, offered a dozen funding mechanisms. He would sell bonds, impose tolls to be paid by motorists entering Virginia from North Carolina on Interstates 85 and 95, and privatize the state-run ABC stores.

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.

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Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or .

Staff writers Olympia Meola and Jim Nolan contributed to this report.