Governor-elect is ready to fulfill campaign promises

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By Garren Shipley -- gshipley@nvdaily.com

One day after his party was handed a dramatic election defeat, outgoing Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine met the media with an air of acceptance.

"You can't revel in the good without accepting the bad," Kaine said, reflecting on Republican Bob McDonnell's 18 percentage point win over Democrat Creigh Deeds in the race for the next governor.

There was a great deal of bad for Democrats to accept.

The mass of new Democratic voters who turned out for President Obama in 2008 stayed home en masse Tuesday.

Democratic turnout in 2008 was 39 percent of the vote, compared to 33 percent for Republicans, according to exit polls done for The Associated Press and a number of other media outlets. Another 27 percent said they were independent.

This year, the percentages were nearly flipped. Only 33 percent of voters said they were Democrats, while 37 percent said they were Republicans. Independents made up the remaining 30 percent.

In addition to taking Republicans, McDonnell cleaned up among unaffiliated voters -- 66 percent to 33 percent for Deeds.

While young voters broke for Obama last year, the few who showed up in 2009 went for Republican McDonnell by 10 percentage points.

McDonnell's wave was so great that the Republican even managed to eke out a win in typical Democratic stronghold Fairfax County.

The same trends led to a GOP pickup of at least six seats in the House of Delegates.

Democrats clearly have some rebuilding to do, according to Kaine. But they're in a much better place to rebuild than they were a decade ago.

"The good news is we've got a platform to rebuild from that has an awful lot of good leaders," he said.

In the meantime, Kaine promised his administration would work with McDonnell's team to make the hand-over of power a smooth one.

"We'll make this transition as seamless as we can. That's one of the wonderful aspects of our democracy, peaceful transitions and cooperative transitions," he said.

Poor economic conditions make a fluid change in administrations all the more vital.

"At a time when the economy and there are other issues that are tough, a little more important than normal," he said.

For his part, McDonnell began naming members of his transition team, putting campaign manager Phil Cox in charge of his effort.

Valley residents will see some of the first fruits of the transition not long after Inauguration Day, said spokesman Tucker Martin, who was also named communication director for the effort.

Interstate rest stops that were boarded up in order to save $9 million in the Virginia Department of Transportation's shrinking budget will be re-opened.

"The governor-elect has pledge to re-open the rest stops within 90 days of taking office," he said.

Kaine's administration closed the rest stops amid a budget shortfall caused by falling state revenue and overly optimistic revenue estimates.

Local legislators appealed to have the bathroom and break stops spared from the budget knife but were rebuffed.