2005 United States gubernatorial elections

For related races, see 2005 United States elections.

2005 United States gubernatorial elections

November 8, 2005
3 governorships 2 states; 1 territory
Majority party Minority party   Leader Kenny Guinn Bill Richardson Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat Nevada New Mexico Last election 31 governorships (28 states) 25 governorships (22 states) Seats before 31 (28 states) 25 (22 states) Seats after 31 (28 states) 25 (22 states) Seat change Popular vote 1,897,598 2,250,493 Percentage 45.75% 54.25%
Map of the results      Democratic hold      Covenant gain      No election

The 2005 United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 8, 2005 in the states of New Jersey and Virginia as well as in the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

National effect

Shortly before election day, U.S. President George W. Bush returned from a trip to Latin America to provide last-minute campaigning for Virginian gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore. After the defeat of Kilgore and Doug Forrester in New Jersey, Democrats ascribed these victories to the President's decreasing popularity. Republicans then tried to downplay these Democratic triumphs as victories exclusive to those states and their candidates. Some speculate that these two elections were harbingers of the positive momentum around the Democratic party, and it could be said that they had some positive effect on the landmark victories in the 2006 midterm elections and the 2008 presidential election for the party. Republicans, however, maintain that the Democrats' advantage in 2005 was due simply to the fact that they were the incumbent party.

Election results

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing candidates
New Jersey	Richard Codey	Democratic	Retired, Democratic victory	Jon Corzine (Democratic) 52.87% Doug Forrester (Republican) 43.17% Hector Castillo (Independent) 1.29% Jeffrey Pawlowski (Libertarian) 0.67% Matt Thieke (Green) 0.54% Richard Codey (as write-in) 0.43% Edward Forchion (Marijuana) 0.41% Michael Latigona (Independent) 0.23% Wesley Bell (Independent) 0.18% Angela Lariscy (Socialist Workers) 0.11% Constantino Rozzo (Socialist) 0.09%
Northern Mariana Islands	Juan Babauta	Republican	Defeated, 26.6%	Benigno Fitial (Covenant) 28.1% Heinz Hofschneider (Independent) 27.3% Froilan Tenorio (Democratic) 18%
Virginia	Mark Warner	Democratic	Term-limited, Democratic victory	Tim Kaine (Democratic) 51.72% Jerry Kilgore (Republican) 45.99% Russ Potts (Independent) 2.22%

External links

• Official NJ general election results