Bob Mcdonnell

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Bob McDonnell is launching a campaign to promote the adoption of children in foster care in Virginia. The governor plans to kick off the campaign at an event next week at the Executive Mansion in Richmond. Officials say the initiative aims to match more than 1,000 children in foster care in Virginia with 1,000 adoptive families. McDonnell recorded a video message to encourage Virginians to participate in the campaign. He also issued a proclamation...

RICHMOND, Va. — Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli cited a conflict of interest Wednesday in recusing his office from representing Gov. Bob McDonnell and hiring private lawyers to handle matters arising from a politically explosive criminal case pending against a former chef at Virginia's Executive Mansion. Democratic former Virginia Attorney General Anthony F. Troy will lead four attorneys from the Eckert Seamans firm in Richmond providing counsel to McDonnell in his official capacity and...

Bob McDonnell doesn't live in Washington, but any hope he had of moving here when his term is up took a serious beating this past week. The Virginia governor was always a long shot to win the presidency in 2016, but he had a chance at the vice presidency and was a good bet for a Cabinet post or a career in the Senate. Now, though, McDonnell has to reassure voters that he can handle the job he already has in the face of FBI questions about the relationship between the governor, his wife and a major...

RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell's approval rating has slipped to its lowest level in two years, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. Forty-nine percent of voters approve of the job McDonnell (R) is doing, down from 53 percent in a March 27 survey, according to the Quinnipiac survey. The governor's job approval is the lowest since Quinnipiac began polling Virginia voters on state matters two years ago, and it is the first time his approval rating has dipped below 50...

ON MORE THAN one occasion, Robert F. McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, has offered a soporific description of his graduate school dissertation as a "thesis on welfare policy. " This is false. In fact, Mr. McDonnell's study, written in 1989 at age 34 in support of his master's degree in public policy and degree in law, is a full-throated attack on liberals, modernity, the Great Society and inheritance taxes, among other supposed ills, which he linked to and blamed for homosexuality, declining morality and the...

I am a Democrat. This year I have endorsed the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell. I have done so because in an election focused on jobs and the economy, I believe Bob is uniquely suited to provide the leadership we need here in the commonwealth. Unemployment in Virginia is at a 25-year high. The global economic crisis has hit home. As a businesswoman who employs nearly 100 Virginians, I see it every day. That is why, before this gubernatorial election, I resolved to do my homework.

RICHMOND — Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, who took a dim view of "cohabitators, homosexuals [and] fornicators" in his master's thesis, supports repealing an old law that makes it illegal for unmarried couples to live together in Virginia. The Republican said in a radio interview Tuesday that he agrees with a bill to scrap a 19th-century law against cohabitation. "It's an antiquated law, and it shouldn't be subject to criminal penalties," McDonnell said on WTOP's "Ask the Governor" program.

If I were Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, I would feel more than a little resentful at getting a mere 10 minutes of cable-only television exposure at the Republican convention in Tampa. I mean, McDonnell can boast of a stronger record of conservative accomplishments than the evening's big star, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the keynote speaker. McDonnell was workmanlike in the second-biggest speech of his career, after his 2010 response to President Obama's State of the Union.

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell is stepping up efforts to eliminate what he calls a budgeting "gimmick" that has forced Virginia merchants to remit sales taxes early. McDonnell (R) said Tuesday that he will propose eliminating the "accelerated sales tax" for half of the businesses paying it by fiscal 2014. He will include that plan among the budget amendments he presents to the General Assembly's money committees on Monday. McDonnell will include $20.8 million in the budget to speed up...

In their civil but pointed rivalry for cross-Potomac bragging rights, Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley scored a nearly complete victory over his Virginia counterpart, Republican Bob McDonnell, in Tuesday's election. O'Malley led his party to triumphs on four statewide ballot questions. He also used a new, gerrymandered electoral map to swipe a U.S. congressional seat from the GOP. On two of the ballot questions, O'Malley helped win advances for Latinos and gay and lesbian voters.

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Bob McDonnell has dipped to his the lowest job-approval rating in two years in a statewide poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University, but he appears unharmed by his ties to the top executive of a troubled nutritional supplements maker who lavished gifts on McDonnell and his family. Forty-nine percent of the 1,286 registered voters interviewed from May 8-13 approved of the governor's performance while 28 percent disapproved and 23 percent didn't know.

RICHMOND, Va. — When he was hired in 2010 as chef at Virginia's historic Executive Mansion, Todd Schneider came with celebrity cachet, claiming connections to cooking world stars such as Martha Stewart and Paula Deen. And when a cable channel toured the governor's mansion, Schneider was cast as co-star to first lady Maureen McDonnell, showing off the gardens he tended and the kitchen he ran. Schneider served a platter of oatmeal, raisin and granola cookies to the...

RICHMOND, Va. — A third shareholder has filed a federal lawsuit against Star Scientific Inc., the Virginia company at the center of a federal investigation whose ties to top Republicans are being examined. Marty Cole filed the lawsuit this week in federal court in Richmond. Two others were filed in March in Virginia and Massachusetts. Each claim the company misled investors. The latest lawsuit was first reported Friday by the Richmond Times-Dispatch...

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Bob McDonnell is launching a campaign to promote the adoption of children in foster care in Virginia. The governor plans to kick off the campaign at an event next week at the Executive Mansion in Richmond. Officials say the initiative aims to match more than 1,000 children in foster care in Virginia with 1,000 adoptive families. McDonnell recorded a video message to encourage Virginians to participate in the campaign. He also issued a...

RICHMOND, Va. — The former top aide behind Gov. Bob McDonnell's unsuccessful effort to privatize Virginia state-owned liquor stores faces seven misdemeanor charges stemming from confrontations with a former girlfriend. Eric Finkbeiner (FEENK-bye-nuhr) was in Chesterfield General District court Thursday over three assault charges and four charges of violating a protective order, arising from what his lawyer calls a "tumultuous relationship. " He's due back in court on June 20. ...

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Bob McDonnell says 11 projects throughout Virginia are sharing nearly $250,000 in funds aimed at strengthening the state's agriculture and forestry industries. The grants are part of the Governor's Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund to help improve local economic development efforts relating to agribusiness. Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore says flexibility was given to applicants to pursue the type of project that...

Eight of Virginia's Division I men's basketball teams will compete in a holiday tournament in Richmond under a plan Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) is set to announce Wednesday, according to three people with direct knowledge of the event. The tournament, which will be called the Governor's Holiday Hoops Classic, will be held in the 2012 and 2013 seasons with the hope that it will become an annual event. In December 2012, George Mason will play Richmond in the first game of the doubleheader; Virginia will...

RICHMOND, Va. — Don't look for Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling at this month's Virginia Republican Convention, the party's statewide nominating process that he last year vehemently opposed and led him to abandon his gubernatorial quest. The two-term outgoing lieutenant governor said he felt his disagreement with a nomination method he believes excludes too many people and caters to the most ideologically extreme precludes his involvement along with his inability to endorse presumptive nominee Ken...

Bob McDonnell doesn't live in Washington, but any hope he had of moving here when his term is up took a serious beating this past week. The Virginia governor was always a long shot to win the presidency in 2016, but he had a chance at the vice presidency and was a good bet for a Cabinet post or a career in the Senate. Now, though, McDonnell has to reassure voters that he can handle the job he already has in the face of FBI questions about the relationship between the governor, his wife...