Cashing in on an increasing GOP backlash around the country, Democrats on Tuesday night stood poised to claim a majority of the nation’s governors’ offices for the first time in 12 years, breaking the Republican hold on seats in states including New York, Arkansas, Ohio, Maryland, Colorado and Massachusetts, where a Chicago native became that state’s first African-American governor and only the second ever to be elected in U.S. history.
Dominance among state chief executives holds particular significance in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Governors, with their ready-made political organizations and fundraising operations already on the ground, can play a major role in aiding candidates’ efforts in their states.
To tip the majority away from the Republicans, who had 28 of the 50 governorships, Democrats needed to take a minimum of four seats away from the GOP. Republicans were defending 22 seats, eight of them open due to term limits or retirements. Late on election night, it appeared Democrats had wrested at least six seats from Republicans.
Analysts cited dissatisfaction with the Iraq war, the White House, the Republican leadership of Congress and the direction of the country as fueling Democratic gains in the states as well as at the national level.
“I think this movement we’re seeing is very close to what we saw in the reverse in 1994, which is an attempt at nationalizing the elections,” said Stephen Maynard Caliendo, a political scientist at North Central College in Naperville, referring to the Republican sweep of offices 12 years ago.
“Even to the extent that people psychologically attach Republican candidates to the administration, they could suffer, even though there’s no association with the federal government,” he said.
`Very, very optimistic’
As they waited for late results coming from West Coast races and a particularly close race in Colorado, Democrats were cautious but ready to celebrate.
“We are very, very optimistic. It appears we have gained the majority of the governorships, which was our goal from the beginning of the year,” said Penny Lee, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association.
The party was particularly happy, she said, with its victories in Maryland, where Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley defeated incumbent GOP Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr.; Wisconsin, where incumbent Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle held on to his seat in a hard fight with Rep. Mark Green; and Massachusetts with the election of attorney Deval Patrick.
One of the most closely watched contests was in Massachusetts, where voters were going to elect the state’s first black or first woman governor. In his first bid for elected office, Patrick, who headed the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the Clinton administration, took on Republican Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, a former public safety consultant, for the seat vacated by Gov. Mitt Romney, who is entertaining a 2008 presidential bid.
Another big Democratic win was in New York, where Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer, who had made a name as a white-collar-crime-buster, easily took the seat vacated by Republican Gov. George Pataki over GOP rival John Faso, a former state assemblyman.
Holding off challenges
Aside from seats gained, Democrats held on to the executive offices in a number of key states, including New Hampshire, home of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, where John Lynch won a second 2-year term.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell handily fended off a challenge by Republican Lynn Swann, a former Pittsburgh Steelers player. With Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, Swann was one of two black Republicans seeking governorships; both were defeated. U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland broke a 16-year GOP hold on the governor’s office when he beat Blackwell for Ohio’s open seat.
As expected, Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson was re-elected in New Mexico, as were his fellow incumbent Democrats Phil Bredesen in Tennessee, Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming, Kathleen Sebelius in Kansas, John Lynch in New Hampshire and Janet Napolitano in Arizona.
Republicans also held on to the governor mansions in Georgia, where Sonny Perdue won easy re-election, and Texas, where Rick Perry came out on top of a zany four-way race that included Democrat and former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell, and independent singer-humorist-mystery writer Kinky Friedman. In Florida, state Atty. Gen. Charlie Crist won the seat vacated by term-limited Gov. Jeb Bush, becoming the first Republican in Florida to succeed a Republican governor since Reconstruction.
Early returns indicated that Democrats were poised to enhance their numbers in several statehouses, including a possible majority in the Indiana House, but many races remained too close to call late Tuesday night.
Currently, Democrats and Republicans share a near-even split in state legislatures around the country. Going into Election Day, Republicans controlled both chambers in 20 states, with Democrats controlling both houses in 19.
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lbanderson@tribune.com
