2005 United States gubernatorial elections

Election predictions

Several sites and individuals publish predictions of competitive seats. These predictions look at factors such as the strength of the incumbent (if the incumbent is running for re-election), the strength of the candidates, and the partisan leanings of the state (reflected in part by the state's Cook Partisan Voting Index rating). The predictions assign ratings to each state, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that seat.

Most election predictors use:

• "tossup": no advantage
• "tilt" (used by some predictors): advantage that is not quite as strong as "lean"
• "lean": slight advantage
• "likely": significant, but surmountable, advantage
• "safe" or "solid": near-certain chance of victory

In many cases, the incumbent has yet to say their intention of running for another term. If an incumbent intends to retire then place " (retiring)" after the incumbent's name.

See Template: USRaceRating for how to apply a rating.

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Race summary

States

Territory

Closest races

States where the margin of victory was under 1%:

1. Northern Mariana Islands, 0.6%

States where the margin of victory was under 10%:

1. Virginia, 5.7%

Virginia

Main article: 2005 Virginia gubernatorial election

Kaine:
Kilgore:

The 2005 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2005 to elect the governor of Virginia. The Democratic nominee, Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine, the son-in-law to Linwood Holton, won the election. Virginia is the only state in the United States to prohibit governors from serving successive terms, meaning that the popular incumbent, Mark Warner, could not run for reelection.

While the previous Democratic governor, Mark Warner, was credited with doing especially well for a Democrat in rural areas of the commonwealth, Kaine's win featured surprising triumphs in traditionally Republican areas such as Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and the Northern Virginia suburbs of Prince William County and Loudoun County, as well as impressive showings in Democratic strongholds such as Richmond and Norfolk. This is the most recent election in which a Virginia governor and lieutenant governor of opposite parties were elected.

New Jersey

Main article: 2005 New Jersey gubernatorial election

Corzine:
Forrester:

The 2005 New Jersey gubernatorial election was a race to determine the governor of New Jersey. It was held on November 8, 2005. Democratic governor Richard Codey, who replaced Governor Jim McGreevey in 2004 after his resignation, did not run for election for a full term of office.

The primary election was held on June 7, 2005. U.S. senator Jon Corzine won the Democratic nomination without serious opposition. Former West Windsor Mayor Doug Forrester received the Republican nomination with a plurality of 36%. Corzine defeated Forrester in the general election. New Jersey is reliably Democratic at the federal level, but this was the first time since 1977 in which Democrats won more than one consecutive gubernatorial election in the state. This was the first time since 1965 that a Democrat won a gubernatorial race without Ocean County, and the first since 1961 that they did so without Monmouth County.

The 2005 general election also saw a public referendum question on the ballot for the voters to decide whether to create a position of lieutenant governor, alter the state's order of succession, and whether the state's first lieutenant governor would be chosen in the subsequent gubernatorial election held in 2009. The question passed by a tally of 836,134 votes (56.1%) to 655,333 (43.9%). As of 2022, this is the most recent time that Salem County voted for the Democratic candidate in a gubernatorial race.

Territories

Northern Marina Islands

Notes

References

References

1. Parentheses around an incumbent's name indicates that the incumbent is retiring, possibly due to term limits.
2. "The 2005 Off-Off-Year Elections: Hardfast Harbinger or Harmless Happenstance?{{!}} Sabato's Crystal Ball".
3. Virginia Department of Elections. (2016). "Registration/Turnout Statistics". The Commonwealth of Virginia.
4. Shear, Michael D. (October 18, 2005). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701638.html?sub=AR "Kaine Sounds Slow-Growth Note in Exurbs"]. ''Washington Post''.
5. Mansnerus, Laura. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E2DE153FF934A15750C0A9639C8B63 "On Politics: The Advantage of Having A Lieutenant Governor"] in ''The New York Times'' (March 27, 2005). Retrieved August 30, 2013.
6. New Jersey State Legislature. [http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2004/Bills/SCR/2_R1.PDF Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 2 (SCR2): "A Concurrent Resolution proposing to amend Articles II, IV, V, and XI of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey"] {{Webarchive. link. (2013-09-21 (2004) and [http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2004/Bills/ACR/100_I1.PDF Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 100 (ACR100): "A Concurrent Resolution proposing to amend Articles II, IV, V and XI of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey"] {{Webarchive). link. (2013-09-21 (2005). Retrieved 30 August 2013. Note that The New Jersey State Legislature doesn't provide distinct web addresses for its transactions on specific bills, however, at [http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp] {{Webarchive). link. (2013-09-13 click on "Bills 2004–2005" and search for ACR100 and SCR2 for these bills, vote tallies and historical information regarding their passage.)
7. New Jersey Division of Elections (New Jersey Department of State). [http://www.njelections.org/election-results/2005_Official_public_questions_tallies.pdf "Official List Ballot Questions Tally For November 2005 General Election"] {{Webarchive. link. (2013-11-12 (certified 16 December 2005). Retrieved 30 August 2013.)