Governor-elect McDonnell announces transition committee

In his first day as governor-elect, Bob McDonnell yesterday announced his transition committee leaders, including Tom Farrell, chairman and CEO of the state’s largest utility, Dominion Resources.

During a news conference at the state Capitol, the Republican said the transition committee also will include Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling; Attorney General Bill Mims; Bobbie Kilberg, president of the Northern Virginia Technology Council; and Kay Coles James, a Cabinet official under Gov. George Allen.

“It was a short night and an early morning,“ McDonnell said hours after he led a Republican sweep of the three statewide offices.

McDonnell plans to detail campaign promises

McDonnell, who fielded congratulatory phone calls from President Barack Obama and top Virginia Democrats, said that in the coming weeks, his team will “outline in excruciating detail everything that I said that I will do” during his four-year term.

“I intend to hold myself accountable for everything I said I was going to do,“ he added.

McDonnell, who looked weary but sounded confident, said the naming of Farrell, a friend since they attended high school together, and Kilberg reflects his emphasis on job creation.

Farrell contributed more than $60,000 to McDonnell’s campaign.

James, who served as director for the Office of Personnel Management under President George W. Bush, also is a former dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, where McDonnell received his law degree.

McDonnell tapped two staff members for the transition team: Phil Cox, who served as his campaign manager, and Tucker Martin, his campaign spokesman. Yesterday, the staff members started moving into the Ninth Street Office Building at North Ninth and East Grace streets.

McDonnell plans to take a few days off, starting tomorrow when he heads to Notre Dame, his undergraduate alma mater in South Bend, Ind., with his wife, Maureen, and several of their children.

The news conference came after McDonnell spent the morning taking congratulatory calls. He said the president was “exceptionally gracious and kind.“

He said the first thing Obama told him was that he should thank his wife.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Jim Webb, all Democrats, also phoned, while Maureen McDonnell, the governor-elect’s wife, received a call from Virginia first lady Anne Holton. The two were scheduled to tour the Executive Mansion yesterday.

Priority: Build another U.S. 460 parallel to current road

McDonnell said that on transportation, his first priority would be to build another U.S. 460, parallel to the current 460, which runs from Suffolk to Petersburg. He acknowledged that finding the money to build it is a problem.

He repeated that he would not raise taxes to pay for new roads and rails.

When a reporter noted that McDonnell, after his victory, is being regarded as a rising star in the Republican Party, McDonnell joked, “there is a lot of Kool-Aid in Washington.“

He attributed his victory to his emphasis on creating jobs and on “kitchen-table issues,“ but he said his attention to federal issues, such as cap-and-trade and card-check legislation, helped win back independents who had been voting for Democrats.

McDonnell carried every congressional district in Virginia except 2

The depth of McDonnell’s victory became more apparent yesterday as final polling results were tabulated.

McDonnell won 1,158,871 votes, or 58.66 percent, to Democrat R. Creigh Deeds’ 814,582, or 41.23 percent. McDonnell won in Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun counties, areas Democrats have been carrying in recent elections.

He carried every congressional district except the 3rd and 8th. The 3rd District stretches from Norfolk to Richmond, and the 8th District covers Arlington County and Alexandria. As a further sign that Deeds did not generate enthusiasm among African-Americans, a traditional Democratic base, the turnout in the majority-black 3rd District was 34.7 percent, the lowest in the state.

McDonnell, meanwhile, exceeded by 5 or more percentage points the total rung up by the 2005 GOP candidate, Jerry W. Kilgore, in all but seven localities, according to an analysis by the Virginia Public Access Project.

A total of 1,975,684 people voted, just under 40 percent of the registered voters, but the voting rolls swelled last year with new registrants.

This year’s turnout was well under the 45 percent figure in the 2005 gubernatorial election and the 74 percent in last year’s presidential election. More than 1 million more Democrats voted last year than Tuesday.

The inauguration is scheduled Jan. 16. The state budget includes $353,600 to pay for the governor-elect’s transition office. Bolling’s transition office will get $67,100, and Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli will get $87,400.