Unofficial results show the former attorney general defeating Creigh (kree) 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.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)—Republican Bob McDonnell took an early lead Tuesday in a closely watched governor's race that has focused on promises of jobs and critiques of President Barack Obama's policies a year after he won the state.

With about 11 percent of precincts reporting, McDonnell had about two-thirds of the vote over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds.

Interviews with voters leaving polling stations in Virginia showed that independents broke heavily for McDonnell, fleeing Deeds. Independents are considered the crown jewel of elections because they often determine outcomes.

The elections of governors in Virginia and New Jersey are viewed by many as the first voter referendums on Obama and on a Democratic Congress heading into the 2010 midterm elections.

"I hope this will kind of send a message to Congress that you better do what we want or we won't re-elect you," said Linda Doland, 60, a nanny in suburban Richmond who voted for McDonnell.

Ali Ganyuma, 39, a physical therapist in Richmond, hoped his vote for Deeds also would send a message to Washington.

"The biggest reason why I voted for Creigh Deeds was in the national politics, not local politics, because the right wing might take these as an ultimatum, a verdict on Obama's administration," he said.

More than four in 10 voters in Virginia said their view of Obama factored into their choice on Tuesday, exit polls show. People who said they disapprove of Obama's job approval voted overwhelmingly Republican, and those who approve of the president favored Deeds, the Democrat.

Deeds had been trailing McDonnell in recent polls. Deeds, a moderate country lawyer and state senator, never energized the party's liberal activists despite campaigning twice with Obama.

McDonnell, a conservative and former state attorney general, downplayed his efforts as a legislator to curb abortion and won support with a pledge to create jobs.

They are running to succeed Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who is barred by Virginia's constitution from running for re-election. Kaine directed $6 million in DNC money into Virginia for Deeds and other Democratic candidates.

Virginians are also choosing a lieutenant governor and attorney general. All 100 seats in the House of Delegates are also up for election, with contested races for 69 seats.

One year ago, Obama became the first Democrat in 44 years to carry Virginia in a presidential race—a political tsunami that swept three of Virginia's 11 U.S. House seats from the GOP and put both U.S. Senate seats in Democratic hands for the first time since 1970.

Republicans were in disarray after the loss, but took advantage of public unease over major Obama initiatives on health care, energy and stimulus spending legislation.

McDonnell, who defeated Deeds in the 2005 attorney general's race by only 360 votes, never trailed in the polls.

Deeds narrowed McDonnell's lead in September after The Washington Post disclosed a graduate thesis McDonnell wrote in 1989, at age 34, that disparaged women, gays and unmarried "cohabitators."

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Associated Press writers Michael Felberbaum and Dena Potter contributed to this report.
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