Alabama: Republican Gov. Robert Bentley won this open seat in 2010 with 58 percent of the vote after surviving a crowded primary and subsequent run-off election. By comparison, Bentley’s bid for a second term will be a lot easier. He faces former Democratic U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith in the general election. Parker was elected to the House as a Democrat in 2008. In 2009, he switched to the Republican Party in the hope of boosting his re-election prospects in 2010, but he was soundly defeated in the GOP primary. He subsequently rejoined the Democratic Party. Griffith doesn’t pose much of a threat to Bentley. The race is in the Solid Republican column.
California: This is the first gubernatorial election under the state’s new primary system in which all candidates run on a single ballot and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, move on to the general election. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is running for a second term (he was also Governor from 1974 until 1982). In the 2010, Brown defeated millionaire businesswoman Meg Whitman, who spent at least $150
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