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Wednesday, November 26, 2003
GOP governors predict gains in 2004
By Jason White, Staff Writer
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Fresh off a year in which they won three of four gubernatorial races, Republican governors are confident an improving economy, President Bush's clout and a glittery new campaign weapon -- Arnold Schwarzenegger's star power -- will add another state or two to their majority next year.
"We're very hopeful that we can expand and grow our numbers from the 28-out-of-50 states we now hold," said Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA). Taft commented at the RGA's annual meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., where Republican governors, lobbyists and political operatives gathered last weekend to talk politics and plot strategy for the year ahead.
Next year's election is a major one: President Bush is up for re-election, while 11 states elect governors, 44 elect legislators and the nation will choose 33 U.S. senators and all 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the gubernatorial level, Republicans will defend five states: Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Utah and Vermont. Democrats will defend six: Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Washington and West Virginia. Taft said Missouri, Washington and West Virginia are ripe for Republican picking.
Democrats, meantime, are targeting Montana, Utah and Vermont, according to B.J. Thornberry, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association. She predicts economic issues will dominate the elections.
"Jobs have superceded education as the No. 1 priority across the country," Thornberry told Stateline.org.
A not-so-secret new weapon in the Republican arsenal is Schwarzenegger, the champion bodybuilder and movie star elected governor of the nation's most populous state last month after Californians ousted Democrat Gray Davis in a recall vote. Schwarzenegger's political muscle is matched only by his star power, and Republicans hope to make use of both next year.
"Let me put the invitation out there," said North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, who is up for re-election next year and would welcome personal support from the charismatic Austrian-born celebrity.
"Anytime we can get Arnold to Utah, we'll take him," agreed Utah Gov. Olene Walker. "He'd be a great attraction." Walker, a former lieutenant governor who moved-up when Bush tapped Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt to run the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, hasn't decided whether she's going to run for re-election next year.
"It's great to be in a position where I don't have to run to complete my political career," she told Stateline.org.
Republicans ran strong in this year's elections, winning the gubernatorial contests in Kentucky and Mississippi and the recall election in California. Their lone loss was in Louisiana, where political wunderkind Bobby Jindal was defeated by Kathleen Blanco, the state's Democratic lieutenant governor.
Mississippi Gov.-elect Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said GOP successes in this year's elections quieted some Democrats.
"I assure you, if (Kentucky Gov.-elect) Ernie Fletcher or I or both of us had lost, Terry McAuliffe (chairman of the Democratic National Committee) would have been standing on top of the Capitol and saying, 'Gollee, ain't Bush in bad shape,'" Barbour told Stateline.org.
Bush campaigned for both Barbour and Fletcher, and the RGA said the president will campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidates next year, too.
Fletcher, who will become Kentucky's first Republican governor in 32 years, credited his victory to the improving economy and scandals involving outgoing Democratic Gov. Paul Patton.
"It was a referendum on the good old boy Kentucky political system, on the worn out politics of a bygone era," Fletcher told Stateline.org. "My opponent made the economy and President Bush the issue. He called it the Bush-Fletcher economy. Unfortunately, when the GDP (U.S. gross domestic product) increased 7 percent, he issued no press release giving me credit for that."
When asked whether Fletcher's campaign issued a press release of its own to take credit for the improving economy, Fletcher demurred.
"No, we weren't going to be so presumptuous," he said.
Contact Jason White at jwhite@stateline.org
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