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Democrats win governors' races

Democrats took both governors' races Tuesday, with Sen. Jon Corzine easily winning New Jersey and Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine taking Virginia despite a last-minute campaign push for his opponent from President Bush.

Elsewhere, Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage, GOP Mayor Michael Bloomberg easily clinched a second term in heavily Democratic New York, and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was trailing in his re-election bid.

In California, several government-overhaul measures on the ballot were seen as a referendum on GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who campaigned hard for them.

Kaine had 995,290 votes, or 51.5 percent, to Jerry Kilgore's 894,609 votes, or 46.3 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

In New Jersey, Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine trounced Doug Forrester, with 1,071,905 votes, or 53.5 percent, to 865,485 votes, or 43.2 percent, for the Republican, with 91 percent of precincts reporting.

Both governors' races were marked by record-breaking spending and nasty personal attacks.

Most voters said President Bush was not a factor in their choices Tuesday, according to the survey conducted Tuesday by the AP and its polling partner, Ipsos.

Of the 20 percent who said they voted in part to show opposition to the president, the most disaffected were young voters, women, blacks and low-income voters. The president's job approval among New Jersey voters was 35 percent, slightly lower than an AP-Ipsos national poll last week.

Both races were sure to be closely scrutinized for clues about the mood of the electorate a year before the 2006 elections that will decide control of Congress and the governorships of 36 states.

The travails of the Bush administration can't be discounted, said Norm Ornstein at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, with opposition to the Iraq war, the mishandled response to Hurricane Katrina, and the indictment of a top White House aide.

"It's been an awful time for Republicans."

New York GOP Mayor Michael Bloomberg trounced former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and was on track to beat his 2001 spending record of $74-million.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was trailing challenger Freman Hendrix, a deputy mayor under Kilpatrick's predecessor. Kilpatrick stood to become the first Detroit mayor since 1961 to be defeated in a re-election bid.

In San Diego, surf-shop owner Donna Frye, a maverick Democratic council member who nearly won the mayor's race in a write-in bid last year, faced Republican Jerry Sanders, a former police chief backed by the city's business establishment.

[Last modified November 9, 2005, 00:41:02]