A clean sweep for Virginia's GOP

Republicans mounted a decisive comeback Tuesday at the state Capitol, seizing control of the state’s top job after an eight-year hiatus. The party swept all three statewide offices and strengthened its hold on the House of Delegates by promising a return to prosperity through a detailed program of job creation, investment in transportation and expanded access to education.

Governor-elect Bob McDonnell acquitted himself with poise and dignity on a campaign trail that seemed to never end. His deliberative brand of leadership won him support from independent voters, business leaders and even some prominent Democrats.

His assured presence at the top of the GOP ticket, along with voter anxiety over the tumult in Washington, helped secure wins for Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli. The GOP completed its victory by adding to its majority in the House of Delegates, reversing several years of losses.

Among the Republican newcomers will be Virginia Beach’s Chris Stolle , who won a rematch with incumbent Del. Joe Bouchard. Stolle’s roots in the community and professional experience should shorten his learning curve.

McDonnell and his fellow Republicans will need every bit of the mandate they built for themselves. The financial crisis that awaits is more menacing than they could have imagined just a few months ago.

Like most candidates, McDonnell’s path to victory was sprinkled with commitments, and the specificity of his promises will make them harder to finesse. He — as well as most other Republicans — repeatedly rejected any and all tax increases, no matter how necessary or trivial.

McDonnell pledged to reopen 19 highway rest stops, shuttered this summer because of budget cuts, within 90 days of his inauguration. He vowed to issue up to $4 billion in new debt for road construction. He promised that state colleges would award an additional 100,000 degrees over 15 years. And he committed to preserving 400,000 acres of land during his four-year term.

But McDonnell, whose legislative career did not include a stint on a money committee, is entering unfamiliar and unfriendly territory as he attempts to make good on those promises.

Even now, outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine is completing $1.35 billion in cuts to the current budget while preparing a new two-year spending plan that could include at least $2 billion in additional reductions.

Prisons are being shuttered, college funding slashed and public schools are bracing for unprecedented austerity measures. Federal stimulus aid covering health insurance for low-income Virginians will evaporate over the next two years as demand grows because of rising unemployment. McDonnell’s new college graduation targets will be harder to reach as tuition rises, and tax credits fueling his land conservation initiative will grow increasingly unaffordable.

But transportation presents the greatest challenge as McDonnell attempts to reconcile his campaign rhetoric and the state’s sobering balance sheet. The governor-elect has vowed to shift future revenues away from schools, health care and law enforcement in order to tackle a backlog of road and rail needs. That would be a daunting equation even in flush times. In a year when those programs are already being brutalized, the proposal could put McDonnell at odds with every school teacher, police officer, sheriff, college president and doctor in the state.

McDonnell’s transportation plan is also heavily dependent on borrowing billions of dollars. Based on the current forecast, he could consume every penny of the state’s debt capacity for roads and still fall short of his goal.

Cratering revenues present a dilemma for the new governor. He can opt for a less ambitious bond package or cast aside the state’s long-standing practice of spending no more than 5 percent of revenues on debt payments. The second option would draw the unwelcome attention of credit rating agencies.

Despite the perils ahead, McDonnell is obliged to pursue practical solutions to the transportation challenges facing Virginia. He has vowed to build roads, just as surely as every other winner in Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia and Richmond has done. Many of them — McDonnell included — have promised to do so without raising taxes. Sugar-plum promises may be one way to win a campaign, but they quickly lose their flavor when the time comes to govern.

That hard lesson surely has not faded from the memories of Virginia Republicans, who were banished from the governor’s mansion eight years ago because they indulged in reckless budget gimmicks.

But Bob McDonnell is not Jim Gilmore.

McDonnell’s political career reveals a conscientious public servant who feels a genuine obligation to his state and to the voters who again put their trust in him. To earn that trust, he will need steel-eyed financial advisers who will tell him what he needs to know, not what he wants to hear. He will need the flexibility to adapt his agenda to the reality he faces and the courage to stand firm against the inevitable grumblings from ideologues of every stripe.

McDonnell represented Virginia Beach in the legislature, and also calls Northern Virginia home. He knows full well how crippling decades of inaction on transportation have been. He also knows that his success or failure will be determined by building roads and bridges, unsnarling traffic and commerce.

Hard choices will have to be made, and made immediately. McDonnell deserves credit and gratitude for his willingness to assume the responsibility before him. Regardless of how they voted on Tuesday, all Virginians are united today in wishing him success.