Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling last night won re-election to the part-time office that traditionally serves as both gubernatorial sidekick and as a steppingstone to the state’s top job. Bolling, 52, an insurance executive from Hanover County, soundly defeated Democratic challenger Jody Wagner of Virginia Beach, the 54-year-old former state treasurer who served as secretary of finance under Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

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.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling easily won a second term as lieutenant governor tonight, defeating Democrat Jody Wagner, a former state treasurer, according to unofficial returns.

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.

Things are looking up for the Republicans’ down-ticket candidates, according to the latest poll for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

McDonnell Deeds The Republican statewide ticket rolled into the GOP heartland yesterday exuding confidence but urging stepped-up get-out-the-vote efforts. “Put up the last sign, talk to someone at the water cooler, send out another e-mail,“ gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell told about 75 Republicans crowded into the Homemades by Suzanne catering shop in Ashland.

Virginia’s lieutenant governor has just two constitutionally mandated responsibilities. Yet the short job description hasn’t stopped Republican Bill Bolling or Democrat Jody Wagner from spending millions of dollars to win election.

Candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general struggle for attention in a scene dominated by the gubernatorial race. The down-ticket nominees run as members of a team yet manage their own campaigns. The frustration is compounded by the point that neither the lieutenant governor nor the attorney general ought to be subject to direct popular vote.

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.

The candidates for lieutenant governor hurled insults at each other last night in their first and only debate. “That was a meaningless platitude about nothing,“ Republican Bill Bolling told Democrat Jody Wagner at one point in the debate at Roanoke College. “Bill, I don’t need a lecture from you about fiscal responsibility,“ Wagner told Bolling at another point.

Another new poll shows Republican Bob McDonnell with a solid lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in the race for governor. McDonnell, a former state attorney general, led Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, 50 percent to 43 percent with 6 percent undecided in the Rasmussen Reports telephone survey taken Monday. The survey of 500 likely voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Virginia’s Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general hold sizable leads over their Democratic opponents, but large swaths of voters remain undecided, according to a poll conducted for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who is seeking re-election, led Democrat Jody Wagner 44 percent to 31 percent, with 25 percent undecided, in the survey conducted Tuesday to Thursday by Mason Dixon Polling & Research Inc.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain are coming to Virginia to help their parties’ candidates for governor. The Democratic vice president will help R. Creigh Deeds at a private fundraiser in Alexandria tomorrow. McCain, a Republican U.S. senator from Arizona, will help rally veterans to support Bob McDonnell at an Oct. 17 rally in Hampton Roads, which has a large population of veterans.

The powerful National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund has spent $537,216 to buy TV and radio commercials supporting Bob McDonnell in the Virginia governor’s race. The group, which has 120,000 Virginia members, backed Republican gubernatorial nominee McDonnell last month. It was a reversal of the NRA’s stance of four years ago, when the group endorsed McDonnell’s rival Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, when the two competed to be attorney general.

Campaigns for lieutenant governor seldom make noise. The race for attorney general typically generates more headlines. The gubernatorial contest dominates the scene. The reason is simple: The lieutenant governor has few stipulated duties. The position’s main obligations include presiding over sessions of the State Senate and succeeding the governor in the event of the governor’s death or resignation. Principally because of the second function,