More Gloom for Bush After Election Defeats

Republicans were licking their wounds yesterday after a series of chastening reversals in elections across the country that cast further gloom over the Bush administration.

Two Democratic governors were elected by surprisingly large margins, in New Jersey and Virginia, the latter despite the last-minute intervention of President Bush. In California voters rejected proposals by the Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to reform the state's government. It is the first time Mr Schwarzenegger has been defeated in an election, leading to speculation that his political career is nearing its end.

The only bright spots for Republicans were in two mayoral races, including that of Michael Bloomberg, who won an expected second term in New York City.

"There is no question the country has turned dramatically negative about President Bush and the Republican party, and there is an albatross around the neck of every Republican candidate at every level of government," Democratic pollster Mark Mellman told the Los Angeles Times.

Republicans rejected that conclusion, arguing that the elections had been decided by local not national issues.

"From the beginning we have viewed these as not national but state races," said the party chairman, Ken Mehlman. "History is consistent with that, and the results tonight are consistent with that."

Former presidential candidate and Democratic party chairman Howard Dean said: "I believe national Republican politics ... really had an effect in Virginia and California." Voters, he said, "don't like the abuse of power, they don't like the culture of corruption. They want the nation to go in a different way."

The campaigns in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and California did have one thing in common: money. The two candidates to succeed New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, who resigned over a homosexual affair, spent $72m (£41.3m) on the race. In Virginia the candidates spent almost $40m, and mayor Bloomberg spent just under $67m on his campaign, while the Californian election cost an estimated $300m.