Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell’s transition team has announced additional placements from the gubernatorial campaign staff. McDonnell tapped Janet Polarek as deputy director for personnel and administration and Eric Finkbeiner as director of policy. On Wednesday, McDonnell named his campaign manager, Phil Cox, as transition director.

Democrat Tom Shields challenged Republican incumbent John O’Bannon in the 73rd House of Delegates District. In the weeks prior to Tuesday’s election, yard signs promoting Shields proliferated in the West End. They were impossible to miss along Patterson, Three Chopt, Forest, and other roadways. Their multiplying numbers suggested a competitive race. O’Bannon won in a landslide. It turns out that everyone who voted for Shields must have displayed a sign. Oh well.

Big win notwithstanding, Republican Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell will start his administration hampered by a slashed state budget, a politically divided legislature and a sour economy. Less than 24 hours after he was elected Virginia’s 71st governor, McDonnell acknowledged that he will face tough economic times when he takes office Jan. 16.

Even before the first tallies were in Tuesday night, the sign outside the Westin Richmond Hotel meeting room where the Virginia Democratic Party convened seemed a plea to forget what was about to happen: “Channel Your Energy, Replenish Your Spirit and Embrace The Endless Possibilities The Day Brings,“ it stated. Yesterday, after Republicans had swept Virginia’s statewide offices and captured the New Jersey governor’s office, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine did not sound like he would be leaving his post as chairman of the Democratic National 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.

Bob McDonnell won nine of the state’s 11 congressional districts; only the 3rd and the 8th went for Creigh Deeds, and they are Democratic bastions. The GOP ticket prevailed from top to bottom. Bill Bolling easily won re-election as lieutenant governor. If one year ago an expert had predicted Ken Cuccinelli would be elected attorney general in a landslide, he would have lost his license to practice punditry.

National Republican chairman says victories in Va., N.J., mean party is on the move again; Democratic leader and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says his party has a “higher platform” from which to rebuild.

One word applies to yesterday’s election in numerous ways: message. Bob McDonnell stuck with his; Creigh Deeds did not have one; the results send several. But first, a primal wow: One year after going blue at the presidential level for the first time since 1964, Virginia produced its reddest election in more than a decade. Last night Virginia Democrats learned again that glory is fleeting. Giddy Republicans would be wise to remember.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Bob McDonnell’s comfortable win in the race for governor of Virginia—not because it necessarily portends a GOP sweep in the 2010 midterms, but because it serves as a model for conservative and Republican victories in battleground states across the country. McDonnell’s election last night—and his impressive coattails—are the product of personality and philosophy. McDonnell triumphed, in a state that Barack Obama carried by 6 percentage points, by running as an unabashed conservative—but never an angry conservative.

A year after tipping Democratic for president for the first time since 1964, Virginia fell to Republicans in a dramatic statewide sweep that is a historic reminder of its enduring competitiveness—but may not be a model for a national GOP comeback. “It’s not a red state,“ said Jay Timmons, chief of staff in the governorship of George Allen, whose victory in 1993 led the last Republican resurgence.

Double-digit victories by Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli, the party’s nominee for attorney general, reversed a recent string of defeats for Republicans.

WASHINGTON Bob McDonnell’s decisive victory is even more impressive if one stops to acknowledge that it came in the face of incredibly daunting opposition, misleading and low-brow campaign commer cials, and a “news” organization which often advocates for left-of-center candidates and causes. To win the election, McDonnell had to defeat not only the Deeds campaign, but the DNC, the White House, and The Washington Post.

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

Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates cast their ballots this morning.

Virginians cast ballots for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. Virginia, N.J. are the only states electing governors today.