Virginia’s First lady says McDonnell is right man for the job

In these austere times, Maureen McDonnell knows her husband is the man for the job.

She knows it because he gave her a sewing machine as her wedding present.

Because they passed over china, silver and crystal on their wedding registry in favor of dur able Corelle plates.

And when Bob McDonnell was to report for Army duty, he plunked clippers in front of her and asked for a haircut.

“Bob has always been a very frugal partner,“ she said of Virginia’s 71st governor.

Her husband still is operating on a budget—now it’s just a multibillion-dollar state fiscal plan—and Maureen has all the china, silver and crystal she could want.

The animated wife and mother of five is in her third week as first lady of Virginia, trying to find a comfortable place for herself, her husband and her children.

It’s not just her family in the Executive Mansion when the first lady goes to sleep at night and when she wakes in the morning. The warm, spontaneous woman is increasingly scripted and managed.

In her first formal interview since her husband’s Jan. 16 inauguration, she described juggling a developing schedule of official duties and her determination to keep life as normal as possible for her children, particularly their twin boys who are in their senior year at Henrico County’s Deep Run High School.

The McDonnells also have three daughters, and the family is keeping its house in Henrico while trying to work out a routine. Weekends at the mansion already sometimes include visits from friends of the boys, who last weekend came armed with snow gear.

Leave it to teenagers to spot the hill in front of the Capitol as prime sledding ground. Then again, Maureen said, “Bob was, like, the first one out and the first one throwing snowballs, and the last one in.“

When they sought shelter from the cold, they walked back into the nation’s oldest continuously inhabited governor’s mansion.

Former Virginia first lady Susan Allen has known Maureen McDonnell since Bob McDonnell was a delegate from Virginia Beach.

Allen says the private family quarters are like “the apartment above the store. It is a public building which you’re so proud to be a part of and live in. But at the same time, it’s not like having your very own front yard, where you walk in the front door and you might leave your shoes or umbrella at the front door.

“You have to put your stuff away,“ she said.

The new first lady’s chief of staff, Mary-Shea Sutherland, who served in the administrations of Govs. George Allen and Jim Gilmore, is helping Maureen familiarize herself with a place that she had only visited briefly for social gatherings.

“I’d always be on the Capitol grounds looking in the windows,“ she said. Now, “I just stand at the windows and I’m looking out thinking . . . I feel like I’m supposed to be going home.“

“It doesn’t feel like this really happened and I haven’t gotten past that point. Because through all the election all I did was look at November 3rd. I had one goal, to make it to November 3rd and get a good sleep,“ she said, referring to Election Day. “I didn’t have any agenda going past that . . . because it wouldn’t be right. Why plan for something that was unknown?“

As it turned out, her husband led a GOP sweep and Maureen got a megaphone to broadcast her own personal message. It’s a work in progress, she says, but she wants to support military families and encourage health, wellness and preventive care, starting with her husband, whom she gives vitamins.

Attention to military families is natural for the first lady—her father, husband, oldest daughter, brother and sister all served this country.

One of nine children, she developed a focus on health while in high school. In her senior year, she had a breast tumor that was benign and learned that she’s predisposed to breast cancer.

“I made a commitment that I was not going to allow that to thrive in my body,“ she said.

Her work on children’s health issues already has begun, including a high-profile visit with the nation’s first lady to spotlight efforts to fight childhood obesity.

At the event in Alexandria last week, Michelle Obama approached Maureen with a hug. “Hopefully we’ll do some stuff together and we talked about that.“

Maureen is considering tackling other issues but is waiting until spring. By then she’ll know which switch turns on which light in the mansion. She seems a quick study—her husband made it through that haircut with the clippers way back when with only one nick to the ear. And she used the sewing machine to make and sell custom drapes.

Looking back to those years, Maureen said she never could have envisioned this part of their journey.

“I think he’s the best man in Virginia right now for this job, and I know he’s had me on a spending moratorium and budget,“ she said with a laugh.

“We’ve always struggled with budget. A big family, you always have to budget, but he’s been a great provider in our family and I think he’ll help Virginia out of a lot of the struggles we’re challenged by right now.“

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or