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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

As Virginia again braces for budget cuts, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is trying to make the past of Jody Wagner, his Democratic opponent in the November election, come back to haunt her. Bolling, a Hanover County Republican who is seeking re-election, says overly optimistic revenue forecasts by Wagner—as Virginia’s secretary of finance—and the administration of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine have resulted in the series of painful budget cutbacks the state has been undergoing for the past two years.

The latest survey by Public Policy Polling shows Republican Bob McDonnell has the support of 49 percent of those polled, and Democrat R. Creigh Deeds has 43 percent, in the race for governor. The result follows polling right after the June 9 Democratic primary that showed Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, with an edge over McDonnell.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, running for re-election, is blaming Democratic challenger Jody Wagner, a former state finance secretary, for Virginia’s budget woes. In a newspaper column and a fundraising appeal, Bolling links departing Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s former finance chief to the continuing cash crunch, faulting her for flawed revenue projections.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, running for re-election, is blaming Democratic challenger Jody Wagner, a former state finance secretary, for Virginia’s budget woes. In a newspaper column and a fundraising appeal, Bolling links departing Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s former finance chief to the continuing cash crunch, faulting her for flawed revenue projections.

Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Jody M. Wagner yesterday challenged Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, the Republican incumbent, to five debates to be held in different regions of the state. A spokesman for Bolling noted that “we look forward to a rigorous discussion of the candidates’ qualifications, their records and their vision for the future of Virginia.“

To many Virginia voters, the Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general may seem like the obscure celebrities who appeared in those old credit-card commercials, uttering the line: “Do you know me?“ Mike Signer and Jody Wagner may not be household names. But both want to be the party’s nominee for the No. 2 job in Virginia.

Jon Bowerbank, who pumped nearly $1 million of his own money into the Democratic contest for lieutenant governor, is pulling out and backing perceived front-runner Jody Wagner. Bowerbank, a member of the Russell County Board of Supervisors, said yesterday that responsibilities to his family and business prevent him from pressing on to the June 9 primary.

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli of Fairfax County, seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general, is offering free bus rides to Richmond from nine Virginia localities and has reserved a block of hotel rooms at the new Hilton Garden Hotel. Republicans are nominating their statewide candidates at a convention May 30, and the down-ticket contests for attorney general and lieutenant governor hinge on who will show up.