Republican Wins Kentucky Governor's Race
 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102204,00.html
WASHINGTON — Rep. Ernie Fletcher easily won the Kentucky governor's race Tuesday, becoming the first Republican to lead the state in 32 years, while the GOP hoped to take another Democratic governor's seat in Mississippi.

With 55 percent of precincts reporting, Fletcher -- who got a big campaign assist from President Bush in the campaign's final days -- led with 54 percent, or 339,688 votes, to Democratic Attorney General Ben Chandler 46 percent, or 285,941 votes.

In both states, candidates tried out slogans and strategies that could well be used in the 2004 presidential race.

In Kentucky, party activists argued that a vote for Chandler would tell the White House its economic policy is a failure. Mississippi Democrats criticized Republican Haley Barbour as a "Washington insider" as Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top GOP officials came to campaign for him.

The governors races in Kentucky and Mississippi are seen by many as being a precursor of the national election result in 2004.

Democrats hold the governor's office in both Kentucky and Mississippi, though voters in both states supported Bush in 2002.

While it remains to be seen if the result of these elections is truly a forecast of what will happen in 2004 it does, in a way, dispell many of the issues the Democratic candidates are attempting to raise on the national level.

Do state elections provide an accurate forecast of national politics?

While state issues were important in both of these races, the economy, etc. plalyed a major role. One of the Democrat governors was not elgible for re-election because of term limits.

Local and state issues don't always follow the national trend. I doubt it means a whole heck of a lot nationally at this point. Maybe I feel that way just because I live in a state with a schizophrenic voting record in both state and national elections.

It is not surprising that fiscally conservative canidates are being elected to state positions given the current conditions.

If they hold to the precepts of fiscal responsibility I'll be happily surprised.

2Wolves

Apparently Republicans won Mississippi as well and I have to change what I said a little bit.

While I don't think this means Bush is a shoe in for 2004 (I think he is at this point, BUT not because of a state election result), it does mean that the public still trusts Republicans. If the public thinks a president is screwing up you can see a backlash in local elections, which obviously didn't happen in this case.