2006: Don't forget about Gubernatorial races!

NewDonkey and Donkey Rising point out a WAPO article on the '06 Gubernatorial landscape:

With all the obsession in Washington over (brightening) Democratic prospects for retaking the U.S. Congress, it's good to see the Washington Post taking notice of the other big battleground for 2006: governorships.

In yesterday's WaPo, Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza note that 22 Republican governorships will be up next year, as compared with 14 Dem seats. They cite New York, California, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Arkansas and Colorado and Maryland as Republican-held state chief executive postions potentially vulnerable in 2006, with Massachusetts as an add-on if Mitt Romney decides not to go for another term. For some reason, they miss Alabama and Georgia, where Republican incumbents got a temporary boost from their reaction to Hurricane Katrina, but remain vulnerable. 'Bama's Bob Riley still has to get past Judge Roy Moore, R-Hysteria, and then will probably face Democratic Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, a candidate with almost no negatives. And Georgia's Sonny Perdue remains a shaky pick against Democrats Cathy Cox and Mark Taylor, both of whom were running ahead of the GOPer in pre-Katrina polls.

I'd add to the mix Alaska, where profoundly unpopular incumbent Republican Frank Murkowski's acting like he will run again, at a minimum creating a messy and negative GOP primary. House Democratic leader Ethan Berkowitz (disclosure: a friend of mine) is already in the field, and could be joined by former Gov. Tony Knowles, but anyway you slice it, this is not a safe seat for GOPers.

The WaPo report cites Michigan's Jennifer Granholm, Wisconsin's Jim Doyle, and Illnois' Rod Blagojevich as potentially vulnerable incumbent Dems, with Iowa's open seat (vacated by Tom Vilsack) as another GOP target. But the Dem incumbents have yet to draw any kind of world-beating rivals, and the Iowa situation remains very fluid.

Add it all up, and it looks like the Donkey party is in a great position to regain a majority of governorships (we currently trail 28-22).

http://www.newdonkey.com

http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/donkeyrising/

n/t.

be running for re-election next year.

even before the congressional picture brightened, it seemed that with so few Governors to defend--we could make gains. Right now I think our three best chances of electing a Democratic governor are in New York, Massachusetts and Ohio.

I agree that in Wisconsin, Gov. Doyle is not secure. It's a shame that we have four vulnerable Democratic Governors in the Midwest--IL, WI, IA and MI. I hope that we can hold them or most of them.

You can bank on it.

A lot of Democrats don't really like him, he's pissed off Downstate voters his entire term.

And his approval rating hasn't been above 40% in months.

If fundies can bite their tongues, the moderate Republican Topinka will win.

I think it will be the only state in which we lose an incumbent, but it is still unfortunate.

we would have a very comptetive primary between Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. But Duncan's campaign is struggling to get off the ground. His campaign has made a couple early blunders that are keeping voters (myself included) away from potentially supporting his campaign.

The general election will prove to be a real bloodbath regardless of the democratic cadidate. Ehrlich is firey campaigner and he will be very well funded.

The good news is, right now both demcorats are ahead in the polls by high single digits.

next year that we will win. ;-)