With just under six weeks to go until Election Day, it seems time to do a little house cleaning on Governors' ratings. There are several races that held various degrees of potential to become competitive, but for equally varied reasons spirited contests have not emerged.
In some cases, the opposing party nominated the less viable candidate, while the poor political climate for Republicans is to blame in others. It would take a very significant event to change the trajectory of any of these races and with 39 days to go, the odds of such course-altering events have diminished greatly.
KS GOV: When Democrat Kathleen Sebelius won the open Governor's seat in 2002, the conventional wisdom was that Republicans lost it more than Sebelius won it and the GOP promised that she would be a one-term Governor.
There has long been a feud within the state Republican Party between the moderate and conservative wings. Conservatives, though, had the upper hand in the 2002 primary when the moderate frontrunner dropped out just weeks before the filing deadline, leaving one conservative
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The Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Governors and President as well as American political trends.
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