History told Virginia Democrats it wasn’t going to be easy. For the past 32 years, the party that wins the White House has lost the governorship—a trend that sometimes portends shifts in national politics. However, this past Tuesday’s blowout has Democrats looking beyond cyclical inevitability to explain losses for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and perhaps six seats in the House of Delegates.

Saying he wants to keep a base in Richmond as he serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced yesterday that he will join the University of Richmond faculty when he leaves office in January. Kaine will teach one class per semester, beginning in the spring with an undergraduate course in leadership studies. In the fall, he will teach a law school class.

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.

Q. What’s on the ballot?
  A. Voters statewide will elect a governor, a lieutenant governor and an attorney general. All 100 House of Delegates seats are up for election, but only 69 are contested. State senators are not on the ballot until 2011.
  Q. What else is on the ballot?
  A. It varies by locality. Part of Richmond will select a City Council member in the 7th District. Hopewell will elect a commonwealth’s attorney; Petersburg will elect a sheriff; Colonial Heights will elect a commissioner of the revenue.

Republican Bob McDonnell is favored by 53 percent, while Democrat R. Creigh Deeds is preferred by 41 percent—a widened lead from an early October survey for the newspaper. Six percent are undecided in the latest poll.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York campaign for McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and attorney general hopeful Ken Cuccinelli.

A.T. Massey Coal Co. gave $40,000 on Monday to Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell and $10,000 to GOP attorney general hopeful Ken Cuccinelli—an example of the kind of money being plunked down in the closing days of the statewide contests. While those were among the larger contributions that came in this week, donations of $5,000 or more are being received by candidates of both parties, and special-interest groups are continuing their push, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Eight local governments in the Richmond area will have a new way to talk to one another in an emergency, with no telephone wires attached. A $1.73 million grant provided by the U.S. Homeland Security Department will allow emergency officials to complete a regional microwave system that allows them to share critical information in a natural or man-made disaster.

Federal recognition for six Virginia Indian tribes is tantalizingly closer to reality than ever. Two bills that have passed the House were approved Thursday by the U.S. Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee and sent to the full Senate, where Virginians Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner support them. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine also backs the effort and enjoys a close relationship with President Barack Obama.

R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee for governor, is promising fattened jobless pay and health insurance for thousands who will be thrown out of work by the shutdown of a paper plant near Franklin. Deeds, who visited the International Paper Inc. factory Thursday, said on a conference call with reporters yesterday that the closing is “just devastating” and will leave a “gap in the landscape of Isle of Wight County.“

The Virginia Board of Education wants the state to set staffing levels for full-time teachers of special, gifted, and career and technical education. Each school division would be required to hire at least 58 licensed, full-time-equivalent instructors per 1,000 students, under proposed changes to Virginia’s Standards of Quality, state-mandated goals for public schools.

Lawmakers are warning the state’s computer chief and Northrop Grumman against ramming through potentially pricey changes in a disputed contract ahead of a looming shakeup in Virginia’s information-technology bureaucracy. Though by law it falls to Chief Information Officer George F. Coulter to accept or reject revisions, he and Northrop Grumman’s Virginia project boss, Samuel Abbate, were told modifications should be vetted by the next governor and General Assembly.

Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, trailing in the polls, is getting a late push from President Barack Obama, with a new TV ad, an email plea and an appearance in Hampton Roads slated for a week before Election Day. Deeds, a state senator from Bath County and the Democratic nominee for governor, hopes the infusion will reignite voters who helped Obama become the first Democratic presidential candidate in 44 years to carry Virginia.

With Democrats trailing late in Virginia’s contest for governor, former President Bill Clinton lent his star power to R. Creigh Deeds yesterday during a lunchtime rally for the party faithful. “Never underestimate this man,“ Clinton said of Deeds, who soundly defeated a Clinton friend, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, in a June 9 primary.