Kentucky and Mississippi refused Tuesday to turn their governors’ offices over to different parties, despite the nation’s stubborn economic woes, and Ohio restored full bargaining rights to hundreds of thousands of public employees in a major victory for organized labor.
A Mississippi initiative that would have defined life as beginning at conception went down to defeat, halting supporters’ plans to use it to challenge Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established the right to abortion.
Across the nation, voters’ last major judgments of 2011 were closely watched for any hints about the public’s political mood two months ahead of the first presidential primary and nearly four years into the worst economic slowdown since the Great Depression.
Kentucky’s Democratic governor easily won another term, and Mississippi voters kept their governor’s office in GOP hands — decisions that suggested many Americans were not ready to abandon incumbent parties.
In Ohio, a new law that severely limited the bargaining rights of 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees was repealed. The defeat was a stiff blow to Gov. John Kasich and cast doubt on other Republican governors who have sought union-limiting measures as a way to curb spending.
Kasich congratulated his opponents and said he would consider his next steps carefully.
“I’ve heard their voices. I understand their decision, and frankly, I respect what people have to say in an effort like this. And as a result of that, it requires me to take a deep breath, you know, and to spend some time reflecting on what happened here,” he said.
The outcome will no doubt be studied by presidential candidates as a gauge of the Ohio electorate, which is seen as a bellwether. No Republican has won the White House without Ohio, and only two Democrats have done so in more than a century.
Ohio voters also approved a proposal to prohibit people from being required to buy health insurance as part of the national health care overhaul. The vote was mostly symbolic, but Republicans hoped to use it in a legal challenge.
Governors’ races were closely watched by both major parties as harbingers of the 2012 election cycle.
In Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear was easily re-elected despite high unemployment, budget shortfalls and an onslaught of third-party attack ads. He became the second Democrat to win a governor’s race this year, after West Virginia’s Earl Ray Tomblin.
In Mississippi, voters picked Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant to succeed Haley Barbour, who was term-limited. Bryant beat Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny Dupree, the state’s first black major-party nominee for governor.
The Mississippi measure to define life as beginning at conception would have been the first victory in the country for the so-called personhood movement, which aims to make abortion all but illegal. Similar attempts have failed in Colorado and are underway elsewhere.
In Arizona, state Sen. Russell Pearce, architect of the tough immigration law that put the state at the forefront of the national debate, was ousted after a recall led by a fellow Republican.
Other votes of note:
• San Francisco interim Mayor Ed Lee was leading to become the city’s first elected Asian-American leader, but it could be days before final results are known because the city uses a complicated system in which voters rank their top three candidates.
• Philadelphia Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter trounced little-known Republican challenger Karen Brown, a former math teacher and Democrat who switched parties to challenge the incumbent.
• Comic-turned-politician Robert Farmer lost his bid to become Kentucky’s agriculture commissioner. Farmer told hillbilly jokes that upset some people, and he had no farming experience.
• Washington state voters approved a plan to end the state-run liquor system and allow large stores to sell alcohol. The proposal was bankrolled by giant retailer Costco, which spent more than $22 million, making it the costliest initiative in Washington history.
• Atlanta voters overwhelmingly approved Sunday alcohol sales, clearing the way for shoppers to buy liquor in stores on Sundays as soon as New Year’s Day.
• Oregon held a special primary to replace Democratic Rep. David Wu, who resigned in August after being accused of an unwanted sexual encounter with an 18-year-old woman. Wu was the fourth member of Congress to quit this year in a sex scandal.
