Posted on 11/07/2006 5:31:54 PM PST by alchemist54
A Democrat won the Ohio governorship for the first time since 1986 as Rep. Ted Strickland easily defeated Republican Ken Blackwell in one of 36 races for states' top elected office.
With 10 new governors guaranteed to come out of Tuesday's elections, state governments were in for their biggest shake-up in years _ one that had a chance of being even more tumultuous if Democrats managed to reverse years of Republican dominance.
Strickland's win in Ohio was based on a statistical analysis of the vote from voter interviews conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.
Blackwell had hoped to become the state's first black governor, filling the seat left open by term-limited Republican Gov. Bob Taft.
Elsewhere, very early returns in Florida showed Republican Charlie Crist, the state attorney general, leading Democratic Rep. Jim Davis in the contest to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Jeb Bush.
Also, very early returns showed sitting Republican governors in Georgia and South Carolina ahead. Neither of those races were closely contested.
Ten states had open seats because of retirements, term limits and primary defeat. Five other states were so competitive that incumbent governors were fighting hard to avoid being unseated.
The biggest names were in some of the least competitive races.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California was safely ahead in pre-election surveys, while Democrat Eliot Spitzer _ an attorney general famous for pushing for Wall Street and corporate reform _ was far ahead in New York, and polls showed Democrat Deval Patrick on track to become Massachusetts' first black governor. He would be only the second elected black governor ever nationwide. GOP Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was a favorite to beat back a Democrat challenger and two independents, including musician and comic Kinky Friedman.
Election Results Reporting
The United States District Court has issued an order requiring the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to extend the hours of voting to 9 p.m. E.S.T at polling places designated in the court order. As a result of the court's order, ALL 88 county Boards of Elections have been directed not to report any election results to the public or the Ohio Secretary of State's office until 9 p.m.; therefore, the Ohio Secretary of State's office Web site will not report results until 9 p.m.
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/Results/RaceSummary.aspx
Sure.
Sorry, I'll feel bad when there are actual votes counted. And I mean all of them.
Sounds like the media's exit polling from 2004.
November 7th is now April 1st?
sounds like another reason to laugh at them in the morning.
AAC has it. It's just another name for exit polls.
As a native Ohian, I am DISGUSTED!!! Ohio is PITIFUL.
The polls were still open--it's "exit polling" dressed up in a suit and given the term "statistical."
Bullsh.
so much for media promises not to call races before polls closed.
Ohio pollls aree open until 9pm tonight.
I was just watching over on CNN and the board behind Blitzer had Kean leading Menendez and then it switched to them CALLING IT FOR MENENDEZ! I hope someone tivo'd that.
Oh, wait... it's only racism when a black democrat looses.
They called OH for Brown already.
they are going to be very surprised when DeWine wins.
I worked the polls in another city today in a very small precinct. Mostly seniors & very heavy on the union side, most came in with sample ballots from the unions. When we closed the polls it didn't look good for any Republican but there were an enormous amount of under votes We had no one out there passing literature, no politician greeting people, it was sad really. Almost like they gave up on that precinct
Lets pray thats the case
Agreed.
For what it's worth, Channel 3 (www.wkyc.com) reported at 9pm that Blackwell already called Strickland & conceded.
That's Channel 3 in Cleveland - FYI.
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