2009 United States gubernatorial elections

2009 United States gubernatorial elections

← 2008 November 3 and 7, 2009 2010 →
3 governorships 2 states; 1 territory
Majority party Minority party   Party Democratic Republican Seats before 28[a] 22 Seats after 26 24 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 1,906,681 2,338,096 Percentage 43.25% 53.03% Seats up 2 0 Seats won 0 2
Map of the results      Republican gain      Covenant hold      No election

United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 3, 2009, in the states of

Due to the passage of Senate Legislative Initiative 16–11, this was the last year in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in which a gubernatorial election occurred on a pre-midterm, off-year election year, as the next gubernatorial election would be in 2014.^[1][2]

The Democrats held 28 governorships, while the Republicans held 22. In this election, both U.S. governorships up for election were held by Democrats, while the governorship of the Northern Mariana Islands was held by the Covenant Party.

Election predictions

Several sites and individuals publish predictions of competitive seats. These predictions look at factors such as the strength of the incumbent (if the incumbent is running for re-election), the strength of the candidates, and the partisan leanings of the state (reflected in part by the state's Cook Partisan Voting Index rating). The predictions assign ratings to each state, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that seat.

Most election predictors use:

• "tossup": no advantage
• "tilt" (used by some predictors): advantage that is not quite as strong as "lean"
• "lean": slight advantage
• "likely": significant, but surmountable, advantage
• "safe" or "solid": near-certain chance of victory

Race Summary

States

Territory

Closest races

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

1. Northern Mariana Islands, 2.8%
2. New Jersey, 4.3%

Red denotes states won by Republicans. Green denotes states won by Covenants.

New Jersey

2009 New Jersey gubernatorial election

← 2005 November 3, 2009 2014 →

Nominee Chris Christie Jon Corzine Chris Daggett Party Republican Democratic Independent Running mate Kim Guadagno Loretta Weinberg Frank J. Esposito Popular vote 1,174,445 1,087,731 139,579 Percentage 48.5% 44.9% 5.8%

County results

Governor before election Jon Corzine Democratic Elected Governor Chris Christie Republican

Democratic Governor Jon Corzine was eligible to run for a second term and did so. He was considered vulnerable given a number of recent scandals and low approval ratings.^[5] Former Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson, failed 2008 congressional candidate Roger Bacon, and failed 2008 Senate candidate Jeff Boss also sought the Democratic nomination. Corzine won the Democratic primary on June 2.

U.S. Attorney

On November 3, 2009, Republican Christie unseated Democratic incumbent Governor Corzine. His margin of victory was 49% to 45%. Daggett's role as a "spoiler candidate" (some polls had him taking 10 percent of the vote) never materialized.[6]

Virginia

2009 Virginia gubernatorial election

← 2005 November 3, 2009 2013 →

Nominee Bob McDonnell Creigh Deeds Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,163,651 818,950 Percentage 58.6% 41.2%

County and independent city results

Governor before election Tim Kaine Democratic Elected Governor Bob McDonnell Republican

Virginia's term limits law allows governors to run for more than one term; however, the terms cannot be consecutive. Thus, incumbent Governor Tim Kaine could not stand for re-election.

Candidates for the Democratic nomination included Terry McAuliffe, former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager; State Senator Creigh Deeds;^[8] and State Delegate Brian Moran.^[9] Deeds won the Democratic primary on June 9, 2009, with approximately 49% of the vote, beating out Terry McAliffe with 26% and Brian Moran with 23%.^[10]

The Republican nominee was

On November 3, 2009, Bob McDonnell defeated Creigh Deeds to become Governor-elect of Virginia. His margin of victory was a landslide 59% to 41%.^[6]

Territory

Northern Mariana Islands

2009 Northern Mariana Islands gubernatorial election

←  2005 November 7, 2009 (general) November 23, 2009 (runoff) 2014 →

Nominee Benigno Fitial Heinz Hofschneider Party Covenant Republican First round 4,892 36.2% 4,900 36.3% Runoff 6,610 51.4% 6,240 48.6%   Candidate Juan Pan Guerrero Ramon Deleon Guerrero Party Independent Independent First round 2,613 19.3% 1,075 8.0% Runoff Eliminated Eliminated

Results by voting district: Benigno Fitial:      50–55%      55–60%      65–70% Heinz Hofschneider:      50–55%

Governor before election Benigno Fitial Covenant Elected Governor Benigno Fitial Covenant

Governor

The CNMI election was held on Saturday, November 7, 2009.[13] No candidate received a majority, so Governor Fital and Rep. Hofschneider advanced to a runoff election on November 23. Fital won with a 370-vote margin.^[14]

Notes