RICHMOND
Robert F. "Bob" McDonnell has steamrolled R. Creigh Deeds in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election, in a race quickly called by the Associated Press just after polls closed across Virginia at 7 p.m.
The elections of governors in Virginia and New Jersey are viewed by many as the first voter verdicts on President Barack Obama and on a Democratic Congress heading into the 2010 midterm elections.
Speaking shortly before 9 p.m., Deeds conceded the race but told a crowd of supporters, “We have challenges ahead – those challenges aren’t disappearing.... we’ve got the same work ahead of us.”
He spoke of the need to create jobs to revive the state’s economy, solve its transportation problems and broaden access to college.
Just because Democrats didn’t get the result they wanted tonight, he said, “doesn’t mean we get to go home and whine – we’ve got to keep working and keep fighting. And I’m fighting!”
A staunch conservative on most issues, McDonnell’s campaign strategy emphasized kitchen-table concerns rather than social ideology.
His message of restoring economic prosperity and creating jobs appeared to resonate with voters worried about the recession and national policies coming out of Washington.
While making a case for himself, McDonnell maligned federal proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions and to make it easier for workers to unionize, claiming Deeds supported those “job killing” policies favored by national Democrats.
Conversely, McDonnell rolled out plans to fund transportation, education and other core services by trimming excess state spending, reprogramming existing funds and using other means without raising taxes.
His Democratic foe hitched his wagon to the legacy of popular former Gov. Mark Warner, now a U.S. senator, and, to a lesser extent, current Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Obama, stumping with them when possible, even though the fit wasn’t as natural.
Born of rural stock and representing a Bath County district, Deeds is a more conservative Democrat whose leanings perhaps aren’t as liberal as those of Kaine or Obama.
Against McDonnell, it was believed that more moderate quality would make Deeds an appealing candidate in regions of the state where Democrats often don’t run well.
And after he improbably won the Democratic nomination in a three-way primary over two candidates viewed as more liberal than Deeds, the conventional wisdom suggested he would also perform well in party strongholds.
The best laid plans, however, don’t always yield the expected results.
Early on, Deeds attacked McDonnell, firing a quiver full of critiques to make a case against the Republican.
As a result, his campaign was perceived by some to have a negative tone.
Democrats throughout the campaign accused McDonnell of adopting a moderate image to cloak his true beliefs.
Exhibit A in that argument was the governor-elect’s 1989 graduate thesis advocating a conservative social agenda in government. Polls showed that message gained some traction after the thesis came to light in late August, but the momentum was short-lived.
Although McDonnell’s polling leads narrowed at the peak of the post-thesis fervor, Deeds never overtook the Republican, who recovered, then expanded, his edge.
McDonnell’s victory ends eight years of Democratic control of the Governor’s Mansion and mutes some of the recent electoral gains made by the party.
Tuesday’s results also have political implications that reach far beyond Virginia.
In the commonwealth, McDonnell approaches his inauguration with a strong mandate and a phalanx of Republican officials who can help push his agenda.
Assuming Democrats maintain control of the state Senate – the party had a 21-19 advantage in the chamber before the election that left vacant two GOP seats – that body may function as the loyal opposition to the incoming governor.
Republican wins are certain to raise questions about Kaine’s stewardship as party chairman. Similar queries will be directed at Obama, the man who chose Kaine for that role.
McDonnell’s victory gives Hampton Roads its first geographic claim to a governor since Mills E. Godwin Jr., who served two terms, one in the late 1960s and another in the mid-1970s.
Godwin was born in what is now Suffolk and matriculated at the college that became Old Dominion University.
McDonnell is also the first former attorney general to be elected Virginia’s chief executive since former Republican Gov. Jim Gilmore in 1997.
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