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.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has accepted a part-time teaching post at the University of Richmond after he leaves the Executive Mansion in January. The school announced that Kaine will have a joint appointment in the university’s School of Law and Jepson School of Leadership Studies. He will have additional responsibilities in advancing the university’s strategic plan, The Richmond Promise.

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.

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.

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.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was out of state for at least parts of 14 days in October, according to a travel log that his office released late yesterday. Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was in Chicago and Boston on Oct. 15 and returned from Boston on Oct. 16. He traveled to New York on Oct. 20, stayed overnight, and stopped in Washington on the way back to Richmond the next day, according to the log.

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.

The federal stimulus plan to kick-start the economy into a recovery so far has generated or saved more than 1 million jobs, the White House declared yesterday. The Obama administration said it is on track to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. “The basic number is that we’ve spent about a third of the money in a third of the time,“ domestic policy adviser Melody C. Barnes told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is headed to Franklin this afternoon to meet with community leaders and employees at International Paper, an economic mainstay that announced last week it was closing its mill in Isle of Wight County.

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.

Six Indian tribes in Virginia and the Lumbees of North Carolina yesterday took another step toward federal recognition, which would make them eligible for federal aid. The tribes would be eligible for up to $800 million in federal funds under two bills passed by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee. The bills, which bar the tribes from building casinos, already have passed the House.

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.