Governor

A statistic that’ll be relevant for about five more days.

“Memes are dank”―(not) Abraham Lincoln.

Missouri's governor is facing invasion of privacy charges related to a sex scandal, but a wholly separate claim about computer tampering will be tricky to get out of.

The state shifted right during the Trump Era, and the gubernatorial race is a toss-up

Eight years after his release from federal prison, Joe Ganim is ready to run.

Ed Gillespie ran a perfect campaign for an election that didn’t happen. Ralph Northam ran a sloppy campaign with the same election in mind. Northam won, no thanks to his own efforts, and will become governor of Virginia in January.

With a week to go before Virginia’s governor’s election, Democrats were wringing their hands.

Virginia and New Jersey—two states with a combined population of about 17 million—are voting today in the largest American elections since November 2016. Both states are choosing new governors and electing numerous state and local officials. So it’s worth asking: Who’s going to win? And what do…

The verdict in the corruption trial of Democratic senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey may come as early as this week. If Menendez is convicted of a felony, Democrats face big trouble.

Mark Herring, Virginia’s attorney general, wanted to run for governor this fall. But Terry McAuliffe, the current governor, thought otherwise. And his endorsement of lieutenant governor Ralph Northam for the Democratic nomination for governor sent a blunt message to Herring: forget it.

Boston

Abingdon, Va.

Boston

Mark Herring, Virginia’s attorney general, wanted to run for governor this fall. But Terry McAuliffe, the current governor, thought otherwise. And his endorsement of lieutenant governor Ralph Northam for the Democratic nomination for governor sent a blunt message to Herring: forget it.

Abingdon, Va.

A Republican-aligned opposition research group is set to accuse Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray of violating the Hatch Act by positioning himself for a run for governor of Ohio while in office.

Alexandria, Va.

The day after Donald Trump refused to say if he would accept the results of the election after making claims of "large-scale voter fraud" and a "rigged" system, more than 20 top Republican elected officials—including governors and secretaries of state—told THE WEEKLY STANDARD they have faith and…

Annapolis

At full tide, 9 of the 17 Republicans running for the 2016 presidential nomination were current or former governors. There was a perfectly good reason so many were in the race: Governors have an advantage with voters. They are executives who make real-life decisions, not just talk about doing so.…

Alabama governor Robert Bentley is refusing to allow Syrian refugees to relocate to Alabama. 

Juneau, Alaska

Fresh off its widely-mocked exclusive on the traffic citations given Marco and Jeannette Rubio – fewer than one per year, combined – the New York Times has an in-depth look at Scott Walker and the wealthy conservatives who backed him throughout his rise to national prominence. It’s a classic of the…

As former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley emerges as perhaps the most significant threat to Hillary Clinton in her quest for the Democratic nomination for president, the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation may be trying to downplay O'Malley's connections to the organization. At the…

Singer-songwriter Steve Earle was recently asked by the Texas Standard if he would ever move back to his home state, and he had a rather revealing answer: 

The Connecticut gubernatorial race is too close to call officially, but Democrat Governor Dan Malloy has declared victory.

It's been one of the evening's closest races, but Republican Charlie Baker is projected to be the next Governor of Massachussetts by both Fox News and ABC. The Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, who acquired the nickname "Chokely" after she lost to Scott Brown in the 2010 Massachussetts special…

Minneapolis

Every election year, it seems, there’s a race that catches the political set in Washington by surprise. It’s possible that we’ve already seen the 2014 version of this with the defeat of House majority leader Eric Cantor, a result few anticipated and fewer still predicted.

The editorial board at the New York Times says it's not endorsing in the Democratic primary for governor of New York. In a lengthy editorial, the Times writes that the sitting governor, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, "broke his most important promise" to root out corruption in the Empire State. The paper…

Gonzales, La.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alan Webber of New Mexico says of his likely political opponent, Republican governor Susana Martinez, that "We need to send her back to wherever she really came from."

Edinburg, Texas

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with staff writer Michael Warren on his recent story "The Next Governor of Texas?"

A 2008 documentary reveals that Terry McAuliffe, who is being sworn in today as governor of Virginia, thinks that members of the Bush family “should all have been put away in jail.”

Morris Plains, N.J.

With just weeks left in the 2013 gubernatorial race in Virginia, Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli has a new TV ad that questions the seriousness of his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe. "What's Terry McAuliffe offering Virginia families?" the voiceover asks. "False, misleading attacks;…

A new poll of likely Virginia voters show Democrat Terry McAuliffe leading Republican Ken Cuccinelli by seven points in this fall's gubernatorial election. Rasmussen Reports found McAuliffe with 45 percent support compared to Cuccinelli's 38 percent. This poll aligns with the Real Clear Politics…

The Boston Herald reports:

A big part of Obamacare is its massive expansion of Medicaid. Fortunately, this expansion can’t happen in most states without Republicans freely choosing to make it happen. Unfortunately, far too many Republican governors seem to be confused about the distinction between repealing Obamacare and…

Austin, Texas 

Republican attorney general Ken Cuccinelli leads Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race by 10 points, according to a poll released Sunday by the Washington Post. Among likely voters in this November's election, 51 percent said they would support Cuccinelli, while 41…

Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe are tied at 38 percent in the latest Quinnipiac poll of the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial race. According to the poll, if Republican lieutenant governor Bill Bolling runs as an independent (as he has suggested he might), McAuliffe would have a…

Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, told the New York Times that his wife offered to stay married to him, if he was planning to run for president. The first couple of Colorado is currently separated.

As an ignorant but unabashed admirer of Xenophon, I was struck by this email from a reader, and thought other readers would enjoy it as well:

Chris Christie received high marks in a new poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University and Public Mind Poll.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has accepted the endorsement of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), according to an announcement from the Republican's reelection campaign. The organization "is one of the largest unions in the state, representing over 20,000 laborers across…

South Carolina governor Nikki Haley tweeted lyrics to an Adele song today. Here's the tweet:

Republican Bill Bolling, the two-term lieutenant governor of Virginia, has dropped out of the race for governor, CNN reports. Bolling was challenging Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for the Republican nomination. Here's more from CNN:

Mark Warner, the Democratic senator from Virginia and governor from 2002 to 2006, has decided not to run for governor next year. The Washington Post's Ben Pershing reports:

This morning, CBS's Bob Schieffer asked a top surrogate for Barack Obama, Maryland Democratic governor Martin O'Malley, whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago: 

Now that—perish the thought—it looks increasingly possible that Barack Obama might lose in November, it's only natural that speculation about Democratic possibilities for 2016 is starting to ramp up. Yes, there's the obvious caveat that the Democratic nomination is probably Hillary Clinton's for…

An encouraging email this morning, from Dan G. from Mequon, Wisconsin:

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has been perhaps the most visible campaign surrogate for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, making the case that Romney is the most electable Republican in the race and pushing hard for the man he endorsed after declaring, once again and finally, that he…

“If we don’t succeed, I probably won’t be re-elected. If I’m not re-elected, you’re not gonna have somebody who does the kinds of things I do, who actually believes in government, and believes in unions at the same time.” — Gov. Dannel Malloy to union leaders on March 4. 

Louisville Kentucky is one of just four states electing governors this year, and the race—pitting Democratic incumbent Steve Beshear against a Republican nominee to be chosen in a primary on May 17—will be colorful and could be close.

So, uh, this happened yesterday. In case you were wondering about how to shut up the confrontational Christie, you might try calling him "hot and sexy":

Having utterly failed to convince the American people to embrace Obamacare, and facing a steadfast House of Representatives that has passed a bill to repeal Obamacare by a margin of 56 votes, the Obama administration — always probing for weakness — is now testing the resolve of Republican…

In this week's New York Times magazine, Matt Bai has a 6500-word profile on New Jersey Governor Christie.

In response to Andrew Ferguson's cover story in this week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour just issued this statement:

Last week, Congressional Republicans wrote a new chapter in government reform, convening a meeting in Washington with 16 newly elected GOP governors. To some, the confab looked like just another photo-op celebrating the party’s historic gains in last month’s midterm elections.

While the biggest election news for Republicans is the party's takeover of the House of Representatives, the GOP had a great showing in governor's and state legislature races. Republicans won a total of 23 governorships on Tuesday, nearly double the number of Democratic wins (the New York Times has…

I had the pleasure of traveling to California last week, a place D.H. Lawrence once described as “crazy sensible” because its people think about “just the moment: hardly as far ahead as carpe diem.”

Tomorrow's GOP primary in Georgia could produce another victory for Republican kingmaker (or queenmaker) Sarah Palin. Last week, Palin endorsed Karen Handel, the Republican secretary of state, for governor over longtime insurance commissioner John Oxendine and former congressman Nathan Deal. The…