GOP Wins Key Governorships, Breaks Ethnic and Gender Barriers

With all eyes on the newly flipped House and barely Democratic Senate, Republicans made perhaps their most impressive gains in the state capitals by taking back at least 10 governorships.

Victories came in such 2012 presidential battlegrounds as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio as well as Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming, giving the GOP an edge in congressional redistricting that will last a decade. With Republicans also making gains in state legislatures, up to 190 Congressional districts could be redrawn to their advantage.

Oh yes, and in the process of the 2010 red sweep, Republicans smashed three glass ceilings by electing Nikki Haley in South Carolina, Susana Martinez in New Mexico, and Mary Fallin in Oklahoma, and added another dash of diversity with Latino Brian Sandoval's Nevada win.

Democrats did manage a few victories of their own: Andrew Cuomo in New York; Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, Martin O'Malley in Maryland, John Hickenlooper in Colorado and Jerry Brown in California.

Four races--in Illinois, Florida, Minnesota and Oregon--remained too close to call early Wednesday.

With a record 37 states in play, the current partisan lineup -- 26 Democrats, 23 Republicans and one latter-day independent (Florida's Charlie Crist left the party for a losing Senate run) -- will end up being far more lopsided when the cliffhangers are decided. That process could take weeks.

Well before polls opened on Tuesday, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who heads the Republican Governors Association, called the anticipated results a "repudiation" of President Obama, not voter infatuation with Barbour's party.

Governors will be key players in 2012 presidential jockeying, lending their prestige and campaign machines to assorted White House hopefuls. But perhaps more importantly for the long haul, they can flex their partisan muscle as state legislatures redraw U.S. House districts based on the 2010 census (Florida and Texas are among states to gain seats, while Ohio, Michigan and Iowa are set to lose one or more). Those boundaries, advantageous to the GOP, would remain in place until after the 2020 census. Governors will also play a crucial role in implementing -- or impeding -- President Obama's health care plan. Nearly two-thirds of this year's new governors will be non-incumbents, meaning a whole crop of new faces in state capitals.

Here are some of the key races:

South Carolina State Rep. Haley, 38, a Sarah Palin anointee who beat three GOP primary foes, defeated State Sen. Vincent Sheehan, 39, a moderate Democrat. Having survived Republican allegations of adultery and a racial slur about her Sikh heritage, she is the first female Indian-American governor in the country, and the first woman to lead her state.

In other firsts for GOP women, New Mexico elected Martinez, a former 13-year Dona Ana County prosecutor who was also endorsed by Palin. She defeated two-term Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.

Oklahoma also elected its first female governor, when former two-term Rep. Mary Fallin defeated another woman, Democratic Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.

Nevada's Republican Attorney General, Brian Sandoval, whose resume includes stints as a federal judge and chief gaming officer, buried Clark County Commission chair Rory Reid, better known as the son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to become the state's first Latino governor.

In a bitter Maryland rematch, incumbent O'Malley beat back former GOP Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. O'Malley won this race by almost twice his 2006 margin in the overwhelmingly Democratic state.

Cuomo, New York's attorney general, easily won the job held by his father, Mario Cuomo, some three decades earlier. The former prosecutor knocked off Republican Carl Paladino, a Buffalo millionaire who couldn't seem to keep his foot out of his mouth, as well as several fringe candidates. One big question: Will Cuomo finally marry his longtime, live-in girlfriend -- cooking diva Sandra Lee of the "Semi-Homemade" book and cable TV empire?

Republican political novice Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, bid an eye-popping $150 million of her own money for the chance to run seriously bankrupt California. But the prize went to Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown, reprising the job he held from 1975 to 1983. At 72, he becomes the nation's oldest governor.

In Colorado, Denver Mayor Hickenlooper handily defeated Tom Tancredo, a former Republican presidential candidate and House member. Tancredo ran hard against illegal immigration on the American Constitution Party ticket. Republican novice Dan Maes finished a distant third.

Rick Perry, the Texas governor with tea party cred who once threatened that the state might secede from the U.S., defeated Bill White, Houston's Democratic mayor. The victory will make Perry the state's longest-serving governor.

In Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, a close Obama ally and the first African-American to lead the Bay State, prevailed against two tough opponents: Republican hospital executive Charles Baker and independent Charles Cahill, the former Democratic state treasurer. whose third party run may have enabled Patrick to win.

Florida will either get its first woman governor in Democrat Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer, or wealthy health care executive Rick Scott, a Republican who pumped $60 million of family money into a nasty post-primary race. Before entering politics, he was forced out as CEO of Columbia/HCA and, in two separate settlements, the firm pleaded guilty to 14 fraud felonies and paid $600 million in fines.

In Ohio -- that great electoral bellwether and vital for any White House hopeful -- former nine-term Republican Rep. John Kasich narrowly defeated Gov. Ted Strickland, a 12-year House veteran, who had trouble catching up to Kasich's early lead.

Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who inherited the top job and what today is a gaping $12 billion budget deficit after the corruption indictment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, holds a razor-thin margin over conservative GOP State Sen. Bill Brady, who refused to concede until all votes have been counted. Team Obama went all out for Quinn.

And in Oregon, former two-term Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who left office in 2003, sought a comeback against former NBA center and Republican political novice Chris Dudley. The race remains very close.

In Minnesota, wealthy department store heir and one-term Democratic Sen. Mark Dayton -- dubbed by Time as one of the five worst senators of 2006 -- remains in a very tight, undecided race with Republican State Rep. Tom Emmer and public relations executive Tom Horner, an independent. A recount is almost guaranteed.

Rhode Island's three-way race, which Democrats hoped to win, went to former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee. The campaign took a crudely candid turn last month when Democratic state treasurer Frank Caprio suggested Obama "shove it" for failing to endorse him as a favor to Chafee for his 2008 support. Democrats were miffed by the snub to Caprio, who finished third behind Republican John Robitaille, a p.r. consultant.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer -- who spent Election Day in a San Francisco federal appeals courtroom during arguments over the legaIity of the state's tough immigration law -- handily defeated Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard.

In Georgia former Republican Rep. Nathan Deal easily kept former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes from reclaiming his old job.