McDonnell: Stay With Issues 'People Care About'

Sticking to conservative principles but keeping in mind that citizens are focused on quality-of-life issues could be a winning prescription for Republicans in 2010, Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell of Virginia said Sunday.

McDonnell was elected Nov. 3 by a decisive margin, giving his party a major boost in a state where Democrats had made major gains in recent elections. In November 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democrat to carry the state for president in 44 years.

"We tried to focus on the issues we knew people cared about," McDonnell said on "Fox News Sunday." "It was jobs, the economy, economic development, transportation, the things that the citizens overwhelmingly said they wanted government to fix.

"Secondly, we kept it overwhelmingly positive, giving people an uplifting alternative for the future. And thirdly, we, I think, tapped into some of the sentiment at the national level on the issues of card check, cap and trade, and some under-funded mandates and things like that were not resonating well with Virginia businesses and families."

Consumers are well aware of the "massive spending at the federal level, at the state level" and "want a better bang for their buck out of government," McDonnell said. "And fiscal conservatism is the way to deliver that deliver that message."

His campaign also stressed that "I'm going to make government work better," he said. "We're going to find ways to cut spending out of state agencies and retool government to find ways to keep taxes low ... and when the economy returns, find ways to reduce the tax burden on working families, use tax cuts as a way to promote economic development."

McDonnell said his new administration would focus on the priorities he campaigned on, including high unemployment and budget deficits. On social issues, McDonnell similarly said that during the campaign he made clear "I am pro-life, I am pro-family and I'm going to support those issues in the General Assembly."

On the abortion issue, McDonnell cited Saturday's House vote on the health care overhaul bill.

"I've said that state policy ought to be the same as the Hyde Amendment," he said, referring to vote a 1976 House vote that barred the use of federal funds to pay for abortions via appropriations covering the Department of Health and Human Services. It was named for its chief sponsor, Republican Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois (1975-2007).

"In fact in the federal health care bill last night, as you see, both Democrats and Republicans joined to make sure that there was not federal funding for abortion services in the health care bill," McDonnell said. "I think that's the right policy. Across the board, people don't want taxpayer funding to go for those kinds of services. And so I think that ought to be the state policy as well."

McDonnell did say he has concerns about the House-passed health care overhaul, citing "great mandates on businesses, families and the states" and that is will "ultimately increase costs and reduce choices for families."

As to whether his election carried a message for President Obama and congressional Democrats in 2010, McDonnell said, "I'm going to leave that up to a lot of other experts to decide. I will say this. I ran on Virginia issues, the kitchen- table issues that were based on our conservative principles, and I think that's largely what got people to support our campaign."

McDonnell said that despite his name being bandied about for higher office in 2012, " I don't have any aspirations beyond being governor of Virginia at this point. That's my pledge."