2009 United States gubernatorial elections

2009 Virginia gubernatorial election
	County and independent city results
Governor before election; Tim Kaine; Democratic	Elected Governor ; Bob McDonnell; Republican

2009 New Jersey gubernatorial election
	County results
Governor before election; Jon Corzine; Democratic	Elected Governor ; Chris Christie; Republican

2009 United States gubernatorial elections
3 governorships; 2 states; 1 territory
	Map of the results; Republican gain Covenant hold ; No election

United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 3, 2009, in the states of New Jersey and Virginia, as well as in the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on November 7, 2009. Both state governorships were previously held by Democrats elected in 2005, and both were won by Republicans in 2009; the local Covenant Party maintained control of the governorship of the Marianas. These elections formed part of the 2009 United States elections. As of 2024, this is the last election after which the Democratic party held a majority of governorships.

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.This is also the last election in which the democrats held a majority of governorships nationwide.

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


State	PVI	Incumbent^[3]	Last race	IE Oct 26, 2009^[4]	Result
New Jersey	D+4	Jon Corzine	53.5% D	Tossup	Christie 48.5% R (flip)
Virginia	R+2	Tim Kaine (term-limited)	51.7% D	Lean R (flip)	McDonnell 58.6% R (flip)

Race Summary

States

State	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
New Jersey	Jon Corzine	Democratic	2005	Incumbent lost re-election. New member elected. Republican gain.	▌Y Chris Christie (Republican) 48.5% ▌Jon Corzine (Democratic) 44.9% ▌Chris Daggett (Independent) 5.8%
Virginia	Tim Kaine	Democratic	2005	Incumbent term-limited. New member elected. Republican gain.	▌Y Bob McDonnell (Republican) 58.6% ▌Creigh Deeds (Democratic) 41.3%

Territory

Territory	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
Northern Mariana Islands	Benigno Fitial	Covenant	2005	Incumbent re-elected.	▌Y Benigno Fitial (Covenant) 51.4% ▌Heinz Hofschneider (Republican) 48.6%

Closest races

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

Northern Mariana Islands, 2.8%
New Jersey, 4.3%

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

New Jersey

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 Chris Christie was the Republican gubernatorial nominee. Christie defeated former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and veteran General Assemblyman Rick Merkt in the Republican primary on June 2.

Chris Daggett, who was Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection under Governor Thomas Kean and regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Ronald W. Reagan, ran as an independent. Daggett raised enough money to file for public funds and appear in both debates.

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]

New Jersey election^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Chris Christie	1,174,445	48.46
	Democratic	Jon Corzine (incumbent)	1,087,731	44.88
	Independent	Chris Daggett	139,579	5.76
	Libertarian	Kenneth Kaplan	4,830	0.20
	Independent	Gary T. Steele	3,585	0.15
	Independent	Jason Cullen	2,869	0.12
	Independent	David R. Meiswinkle	2,598	0.11
	Independent	Kostas Petris	2,563	0.11
	Socialist	Greg Pason	2,085	0.09
	Independent	Gary Stein	1,625	0.07
	Independent	Joshua Leinsdorf	1,021	0.04
	Independent	Alvin Lindsay	753	0.03
Total votes			2,423,684	100.00
	Republican gain from Democratic

Virginia

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 Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell. This was the sixth consecutive Virginian gubernatorial election where an elected Attorney General has run.^[11]

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]

Virginia election^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bob McDonnell	1,163,651	58.61
	Democratic	Creigh Deeds	818,950	41.25
	Write-in		2,502	0.12
Total votes			1,985,103	100.00
	Republican gain from Democratic

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 Benigno R. Fitial, a member of the local Covenant Party, was eligible to run for a second term and did so. Rep. Heinz Hofschneider won the Republican nomination in June, defeating former Republican Governor Juan N. Babauta, who was defeated in his 2005 re-election by Fitial. Ramon "Kumoi" Guerrero and Juan "Pan" Guerrero, two former members of the Northern Mariana Islands Senate, both ran as independents.

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]

Northern Mariana Islands election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Heinz Hofschneider	4,900	36.27
	Covenant	Benigno Fitial (incumbent)	4,892	36.21
	Independent	Juan Pan Guerrero	2,613	19.34
	Independent	Ramon Deleon Guerrero	1,075	7.96
Total votes			13,480	100.00

Northern Mariana Islands runoff election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Covenant	Benigno Fitial (incumbent)	6,610	51.44
	Republican	Heinz Hofschneider	6,240	48.56
Total votes			12,850	100.00
	Covenant hold

Notes

^ Republican governor of Arizona Jan Brewer assumed office after Democratic governor Janet Napolitano resigned to become Secretary of Homeland Security.

References

^ Eugenio, Haidee V. (2009-11-23). "CNMI holds first runoff election". Saipan Tribune. Archived from the original on 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
^ Casas, Gemma (2009-11-17). "Northern Marianas' election race heats up". Radio Australia. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
^ Parentheses around an incumbent's name indicates that the incumbent is retiring, possibly due to term limits.
^ "Gubernatorial Ratings | Inside Elections". www.insideelections.com.
^ [1] Archived June 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b [2] Archived November 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
^ [3]^{[dead link]}
^ "Deeds Weighs In On Recount Process". Charlottesvillenewsplex.tv. Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
^ [4]^{[dead link]}
^ "2009 June Democratic Primary Unofficial Results". Archived from the original on June 18, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2009.
^ "Attorney General Bob McDonnell hopes VA will elect a Republican governor – WDBJ7 Roanoke News and Weather NRV Lynchburg Danville |". Wdbj7.com. 2008-11-07. Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
^ "November 2009 General Election Official Results". Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
^ Casas, Gemma Q. (2009-10-13). "Registered voters up by 15%". Marianas Variety. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
^ Eugenio, Haidee V. (2009-12-08). "Fitial seals victory with 370 lead". Saipan Tribune. Archived from the original on 2011-08-14. Retrieved 2009-12-20.

[1] Republican governor of Arizona Jan Brewer assumed office after Democratic governor Janet Napolitano resigned to become Secretary of Homeland Security.

[saipantribune6-2] Eugenio, Haidee V. (2009-11-23). "CNMI holds first runoff election". Saipan Tribune. Archived from the original on 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2009-11-23.

[abcradio-3] Casas, Gemma (2009-11-17). "Northern Marianas' election race heats up". Radio Australia. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2009-11-23.

[4] Parentheses around an incumbent's name indicates that the incumbent is retiring, possibly due to term limits.

[5] "Gubernatorial Ratings | Inside Elections". www.insideelections.com.

[6] [1] Archived June 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine

[foxnews.com-7] [2] Archived November 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

[8] [3]^{[dead link]}

[9] "Deeds Weighs In On Recount Process". Charlottesvillenewsplex.tv. Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2010-04-27.

[10] [4]^{[dead link]}

[11] "2009 June Democratic Primary Unofficial Results". Archived from the original on June 18, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2009.

[12] "Attorney General Bob McDonnell hopes VA will elect a Republican governor – WDBJ7 Roanoke News and Weather NRV Lynchburg Danville |". Wdbj7.com. 2008-11-07. Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2010-04-27.

[13] "November 2009 General Election Official Results". Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2011.

[mvarietyOct13-14] Casas, Gemma Q. (2009-10-13). "Registered voters up by 15%". Marianas Variety. Retrieved 2009-10-12.

[15] Eugenio, Haidee V. (2009-12-08). "Fitial seals victory with 370 lead". Saipan Tribune. Archived from the original on 2011-08-14. Retrieved 2009-12-20.

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2009 United States gubernatorial elections

Election predictions

Race Summary

States

Territory

Closest races

New Jersey

Virginia

Territory

Northern Mariana Islands

Notes

References

Crash Course (web series)

Mehdi Ben Barka

Homoseksualitas di Yunani Kuno

Peringkat Akademik Universitas Dunia

الدوري المنغولي لكرة القدم 1996

Gilbert Baumet

أوردو سبور

Monopsone

Dragonfly

1950

Films américains sortis en 1909

Sri Wahyuni (politikus)

Burnden Park

Omar Sharif

Riccardo De Corato

Unity Labour Party

Politik Korea Utara

Airbus A320

Collared pika

List of ambassadors of the United States to Argentina