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Republicans sweep statewide races

Bob McDonnell wins governor's race

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Republican Bob McDonnell has easily won the Virginia governor's race just a year after the state went overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama and the Democrats.

Unofficial results show the former attorney general defeating Creigh Deeds and returning a Republican to the governor's office for the first time in eight years.

This race and the contest for governor of New Jersey are viewed as the first referendum on the president and the Democratic Congress before the 2010 mid-term elections.

A year ago, Obama became the first Democrat in 44 years to carry Virginia in a presidential race.

This time voters expressed angst about major Obama initiatives such as health care, energy and stimulus spending. But McDonnell dominated the campaign's central issues: jobs and the economy.

Deeds conceded the governor's race to McDonnell.  Deeds addressed a somber crowd, saying he had called McDonnell to congratulate him. He also says that just because Republicans swept Tuesday's elections, Democrats can't give up.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Bolling wins re-election

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling has been elected to a second term, defeating former state finance secretary Jody Wagner.

Unofficial returns from Tuesday's election show Bolling easily turned back Wagner, who worked for the last two Democratic governors.

Bolling is the first lieutenant governor to run for re-election since Don Beyer in 1993. He is a former state senator from Hanover County and an insurance executive.

Wagner served as secretary of finance under Gov. Tim Kaine and state treasurer under former Gov. Mark Warner. She owns a gourmet popcorn shop in Virginia Beach.

The lieutenant governor is a part-time, $36,000-a-year job with two duties: presiding over the Senate and succeeding the governor.

Republican Cuccinelli elected attorney general

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Ken Cuccinelli, one of Virginia's most conservative legislators, has been elected attorney general.

Unofficial returns show the Republican state senator from Fairfax County defeated Democratic Del. Steve Shannon of Fairfax in Tuesday's election.

Cuccinelli has served in the Senate since 2002. He has been a leading opponent of abortion rights, gun control, tax increases and same-sex unions. In his campaign, however, he mostly avoided social issues and emphasized his broad range of experience as a private attorney and his early call for a special legislative session to respond to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that jeopardized drunken driving and drug prosecutions.