McDonnell: I'll focus on economic issues

The biggest Republican winner in Tuesday's elections took a victory lap on the Sunday morning shows today.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday and CNN's State of the Union, Virginia Governor-elect Bob McDonnell credited a focus on fiscal conservatism for his 18% victory over Creigh Deeds and promised to focus on the economy--rather than social issues--when he moves into the governor's mansion.

"I'm going to put the priorities that I outlined during the course of the campaign as the first order of business," he told Fox News.

"With our high unemployment rate and our budget deficits, the fiscal issues, Chris, have got to be the first order of business."

But McDonnell did acknowledge that he'll push for at least two socially conservative priorities: barring Planned Parenthood from receiving state funds and making accomplices in homicides eligible for the death penalty.

While national Republicans eager to portray the Virginia victory as a rebuke of President Obama and congressional Democrats, McDonnell said he won largely by focusing on state issues.

"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," he said.

 But McDonnell said GOP candidates can take at least a few lessons from his campaign: run a positive campaign and focus on the economy.

"It was jobs, the economy, economic development, transportation, the things that the citizens overwhelmingly said they wanted government to fix," he said.

With Republicans still glowing from McDonnell's commanding victory, the conservative Virginian disavowed any aspirations for higher office. He pledged to serve a full term as governor, meaning he could not run on a GOP ticket as Vice President in 2012.

---