Maine
A one-time maverick in his party, Democrat John Baldacci set his sights on Maine's gubernatorial mansion way back when.
While campaigning for his fourth congressional term two years ago, Baldacci was considered to be making the state capital — not the nation's capital — his focus.
Baldacci beat three other candidates Tuesday to succeed independent Gov. Angus King, who was barred from seeking a third term.
The 47-year-old says his experience at various levels of government — Bangor City Council, the state Legislature and Congress — prepared him for the chief executive's job.
Since his election to Congress in 1994, Baldacci has bunked in with other congressmen and spent much of his time heading back home, remaining a familiar presence in the 2nd District.
In his victory speech, Baldacci pledged not to rest "until every single Mainer has quality, affordable health care."
One of eight brothers and sisters, Baldacci is married with one son.
New Hampshire
Political neophyte Craig Benson believes his experience as co-founder of a computer networking company will help him lead New Hampshire fully into the computer age.
The 48-year-old Republican was elected governor Tuesday after a campaign focused on streamlining government, tightly controlling spending and using technology to do more with less.
He proposed integrating the state's computer systems, pointing to the use of carbon paper in at least one state agency as indicative of the state's failure to modernize.
Benson took New Hampshire's traditional pledge to veto general income and sales taxes in a state that has neither. Benson's Democratic opponent, Mark Fernald, advocated an income tax to pay for public schools.
"The people of New Hampshire have spoken today, loud, clear and in record numbers," Benson said. "Let there be no doubt: the people of New Hampshire want families to choose how to spend their own money, not the government."
He will succeed Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who opted to run for Senate and was defeated by Republican John E. Sununu.
Benson co-founded Cabletron Systems Inc. in a garage in Ashland, Mass., in 1983. Within 12 years, the company had more than 7,000 employees and annual sales of $1.6 billion. Benson stepped down as chief executive officer in 1999.
Illinois
On the campaign trail, Rod Blagojevich and his aides would end each day by rating his performance in terms of a boxing match — a nod to the Golden Gloves past he and his opponent shared.
"What would you say, a 10-8? A 10-9?" Blagojevich, a Democratic congressman from Chicago, asked after one marathon day this fall, explaining that 10-10 is a draw, 10-9 a win, 10-8 a decisive win, and so on.
On Tuesday, Blagojevich scored a knockout, defeating Attorney General Jim Ryan to end a quarter-century Republican winning streak in Illinois gubernatorial matches.
"Tonight, ladies and gentleman, Illinois has voted for change," Blagojevich told supporters packed into a Chicago steel plant where the congressman's late father worked.
To detractors, the man with the Kennedy hair was all style and little substance, a novice who had come so far so quickly only through arm-twisting by his father-in-law, Alderman Richard Mell.
The congressman has never denied his father-in-law, a powerful Chicago ward boss, got him into politics. But he promised that he, not Mell, would make the decisions in Springfield.
Tennessee
When Phil Bredesen first ran for governor eight years ago, many Tennesseans saw him as a rich Yankee carpetbagger and big-city mayor.
That didn't play well in this largely rural Southern state. And it didn't help that he spent more than $6 million of his own money. He lost.
This time around, the Democratic candidate visited all 95 counties and sheepishly admitted he was from New York — but added that his hometown was a rural farming community and that he moved to Tennessee "as quick as I could."
On Tuesday, Bredesen defeated Republican Rep. Van Hilleary to win the Tennessee gubernatorial race. Incumbent Republican Don Sundquist was term-limited.
Bredesen, a former Nashville mayor, acknowledged the support he got across party lines during his victory speech.
"I want to thank all the Republicans who voted for me today. We really tried to reach out to everyone in this campaign," he said.
Bredesen grew up in Shortsville, N.Y. He became interested in politics after going to Harvard on an academic scholarship: He ran for the Massachusetts Senate but lost.
Moving to Tennessee in the 1970s, he built HealthAmerica into the nation's second largest HMO manager before selling it.
He then turned his attention back to politics, running unsuccessful campaigns for Nashville mayor and Congress in 1987. In 1991, he tried again for mayor and was elected.
Rhode Island
Republican Don Carcieri, former chief executive of an international conglomerate, is ready for his next big challenge — becoming the CEO of the state of Rhode Island.
Carcieri, a political newcomer, defeated three-time gubernatorial candidate Democrat Myrth York in the race to succeed Gov. Lincoln Almond, who is leaving the post due to term limits.
"Voters have chosen to chart a new course, and a new course they are going to get," Carcieri said in an acceptance speech peppered with talk of adding jobs and diversifying the state economy.
Nearly two decades ago, Carcieri, 59, headed a Catholic Relief Service operation in Jamaica. He said the experience helped shape his views on the importance of ethical government, saying government corruption perpetuated Jamaica's cycle of poverty.
Carcieri grew up in East Greenwich, graduated from Brown University and worked as a math teacher before joining Old Stone Bank. After 10 years, he left to work for Catholic Relief.
Carcieri returned to Rhode Island and became CEO of Cookson American, whose sales increased 10 fold during his seven years, to more than $3 billion annually. He retired in 1998.
Wisconsin
Jim Doyle took on polluters, big tobacco and even Miss Cleo's psychic hot line in 12 years as Wisconsin attorney general, building a reputation that helped him defeat Republican incumbent Scott McCallum to become the first Democratic governor in 16 years.
A former district attorney, the 56-year-old Doyle was elected attorney general in 1994 and won re-election in 1998.
Detractors said that, as the state's top lawman, Doyle should have done more to fight crime and less to grab headlines. But the Democrat touted his record on the campaign trail.
"I have tried," he said, "to really be a champion for the people of Wisconsin."
The race was marked by finger-pointing, name-calling and negative TV attacks, with both candidates slinging accusations and counterattacks on the airwaves.
Doyle has played up his role in a settlement Wisconsin and 45 other states reached with tobacco companies. When the state used the money this year to balance its books, Doyle turned that against McCallum.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1967, Doyle and his wife, Jessica, served in the Peace Corps in Africa. When they returned home, he went to Harvard Law School. The couple has two sons in their 20s.
Maryland
With a history of winning big in Democratic districts, Republican Robert Ehrlich was undaunted by the long odds of trying to become the next governor of heavily Democratic Maryland.
The 44-year-old GOP congressman was so optimistic he could break his party's string of eight straight losses in gubernatorial elections — and defeat a Kennedy — that he gave up his safe seat in Congress.
It was a gamble that paid off Tuesday when Ehrlich defeated Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and became the first Republican elected governor since 1966.
"Welcome to history," Ehrlich said. "To Republicans: our time in the desert is over."
With the help of academic scholarships, Ehrlich attended an elite private school in Baltimore and earned his bachelor's degree at Princeton, where he was captain of the football team.
Five years after getting his law degree at Wake Forest, Ehrlich was elected to the state House of Delegates, winning the first of a series of victories in Democratic-dominated districts at the age of 28.
Wyoming
Not many gave Dave Freudenthal a chance in a state where Democrats are somewhat of an endangered species.
But Freudenthal defied expectations Tuesday, becoming Wyoming's first Democratic governor in eight years by defeating business owner Eli Bebout. Gov. Jim Geringer was barred from seeking a third term.
"It's still sinking in," Freudenthal said. "You work and you work and now it's done and now it's still sinking in."
The 52-year-old Freudenthal, a lawyer, has never held public office although he served on a number of state boards and headed the state Democratic Party.
In 1994, he was appointed U.S. attorney, a position he held until May 2001.
The governor's race focused largely on economic development, gun-control measures and how to pay for education under a court order to spend hundreds of millions on school buildings.
Freudenthal grew up on a farm north of Thermopolis, the seventh of eight children. He earned money for college by working construction during the summer. He and his wife, Nancy, have four children and live in Cheyenne.
Michigan
Democrat Jennifer Granholm used energy, charisma and her experience as a crime-fighter and consumer advocate to become Michigan's first female governor.
It was the second big step in as many elections for Granholm, a former federal prosecutor who is the state's attorney general.
Granholm defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus for the post left open when term limits kept GOP Gov. John Engler from running again.
A confident woman whose telegenic looks once got her an appearance on "The Dating Game," Granholm knows how to hone a message that appeals not just to Democrats but to independents and moderate Republican women.
"We won this election for the moms and dads who try to balance the needs of jobs and families," Granholm said.
The 43-year-old mother of three was born in British Columbia and moved to California with her family when she was 4. She became a U.S. citizen at age 21, the same year she decided to give up on a Hollywood acting career and head to college and law school.
Oklahoma
Brad Henry beat the odds in defeating a millionaire businessman in the Democratic gubernatorial runoff.
Now, the 39-year-old state senator has done it again: He scored a razor-thin upset against Republican former congressman and National Football League star Steve Largent.
Henry, who borrowed $300,000 on his father's estate to keep the campaign going, got help from the gridiron. Former University of Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer was one of his most vocal supporters.
Henry said he wanted to await the final vote tally before claiming victory.
"I'm ready to stay up as long as it takes," he said as he stood besides his wife and his three daughters at a downtown Oklahoma City hotel. He said he would put his daughters to bed, then celebrate later.
With an "aw shucks" demeanor, Henry made personal contact with voters a major part of his campaign.
Henry's father, Charles Henry, was a state representative. His cousin, Robert, was attorney general and now sits on the federal bench. Henry's wife, Kim, quit her teaching job to join him on the campaign trail.
Hawaii
Four years after watching the governorship slip away in the final weeks, Republican Linda Lingle made sure history didn't repeat itself — and made history of her own.
Lingle, 49, defeated Democratic Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono to become the state's first female governor and the first Republican to hold the office since just after Hawaii gained statehood in 1959.
The former Maui mayor avoided a repeat of 1998, when she led incumbent Gov. Ben Cayetano heading into the final weeks only to lose by 1 percentage point. Her loss was attributed to a shutdown of her media campaign in the campaign's last days to avoid exceeding a self-imposed limit on spending.
There was no such shutdown this year, as Lingle campaigned to the end with a war chest more than double that of Hirono. By last count, Lingle had outspent Hirono $4.5 million to $1.65 million.
Throughout the campaign, Lingle touted her connections to the Bush administration. Her campaign also hammered home the idea that the decades of Democratic leadership have left Hawaii in state of economic and educational ruin.
Her plans include dropping taxes on food and medical services, restoring a state food tax credit, creating a cabinet post for tourism, breaking up the state's centralized school system into locally elected boards and auditing all state finances within her first 180 days.
Cayetano was barred by law from seeking a third consecutive term.
Alaska
Frank Murkowski, Alaska's junior senator for more than two decades, became the first Republican governor the state has elected since 1974.
Murkowski, 69, fought off a spirited charge by Democrat Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer after years of dismissing invitations to run. Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles is leaving office because of term limits.
"I think the show of support and enthusiasm of all Alaskans is evidence that our campaign had a message of growing the state," Murkowski said. "It's the right message."
Murkowski leaves the Senate with two significant failures on his record. He was unable to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and failed to win price supports for a natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48 states.
But the pro-development message he advocated struck a chord with Alaskans who have yet to feel the ripples from an economic downturn.
Murkowski first won his Senate seat in 1980, ushering in more than two decades of GOP control of Alaska's congressional delegation. State law allows him to pick his replacement.
Minnesota
Republican Tim Pawlenty counted on his blue-collar roots and budget-conscious ideas to resonate with Minnesotans in his race for governor.
He had planned to run for the Senate until Vice President Dick Cheney called and asked him to back off. The White House wanted former Mayor Norm Coleman to take a crack at Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash on Oct. 25.
Pawlenty didn't complain. "The goal remains to make Minnesota the most wondrous of the 50 states and we're going to do that," Pawlenty said in his acceptance speech.
His run for governor against Democrat Roger Moe and Tim Penny of the Independence Party survived an ethics board ruling that his campaign had improperly coordinated an ad with the GOP.
The youngest of five children in a working South St. Paul family, Pawlenty worked as a lawyer and was elected to the House in 1992 and as majority leader in 1998, building a reputation as a tough negotiator who knows when to loosen up.
Pawlenty campaigned on a pledge to protect schools, transportation and health care for the elderly — the state's biggest expenditures — while making the progressive state's institutions more efficient.
Georgia
The man elected as Georgia's first Republican governor in more than 130 years is not a longtime GOP activist. In fact, he was a top ranking Democratic legislator just four years ago.
Sonny Perdue, 55, whose victory Tuesday denied Gov. Roy Barnes a second term and shattered a Democrat reign dating from Reconstruction, gave up the No. 2 position in the state Senate when he left the Democrats in 1998.
He called it a matter of conscience. "I think there's going to be a battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. I have done my best to hold it in the middle, and I didn't feel that was sustainable anymore," he said at the time.
Perdue was easily re-elected as a Republican, but unable to block Democratic initiatives, he resigned last year.
George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III was born Dec. 20, 1946, and grew up in the middle Georgia community of Bonaire. The nickname "Sonny" was given to distinguish him from his father and grandfather.
After a tour of duty in the Air Force, he returned to middle Georgia and built the area's first grain storage facility, a small business that made him a millionaire.
Pennsylvania
Now that Ed Rendell has won the job he first contemplated 20 years ago, Pennsylvania will get to know a governor whose personal and political style is vastly different from those who came before.
His rumpled, exuberant persona endeared him to Philadelphians when he was their mayor from 1992 to 2000. Known for considerable charm as well as a volcanic temper, he used a common man's touch to help persuade voters around the state a candidate from Philadelphia could understand their needs.
The strategy paid off. Rendell, 58, became the first Philadelphia candidate to be elected governor since 1914, defeating Republican Attorney General Mike Fisher.
"Just like we did in January of 1992, when we inherited a Philadelphia that was bereft of hope, bereft of optimism, bereft of any vitality, we can turn things around all over Pennsylvania," he said. "We're going to be begin doing that tomorrow."
Hailed as "America's mayor" by Vice President Al Gore, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee won a second term in a landslide. But he couldn't solve all the city's problems. The state took over the failing public school system last year; entire city blocks are practically falling down; grinding poverty lingers.
New Mexico
; It's a rare gubernatorial candidate who touts his candidacy by saying he's negotiated face-to-face with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
But Democrat Bill Richardson, 54, ran hard on his resume to defeat Republican John Sanchez in the race for New Mexico governor.
In one campaign commercial, Richardson was shown shaking hands with Saddam and sitting in a chair next to the Iraqi leader. The ad stressed Richardson's successes as a diplomatic troubleshooter, including negotiating the release of Americans from Iraq in 1995.
Richardson emphasized his background over and over on the campaign trail: as a longtime congressman (1983-1997), former ambassador to the United Nations (1997-98), former Energy Department secretary (1998-2000) and a roving international Mr. Fix-it for the Clinton administration while serving in Congress.
"I believe I have the negotiating ability, the contacts nationally and internationally to bring jobs to New Mexico," he said in one debate.
Richardson was born in Pasadena, Calif., and spent much of his childhood in Mexico City. His father was a banker from Boston and his mother was Mexican.
Massachusetts
Republican Mitt Romney returned to Massachusetts on a wave of Olympic glory, but his campaign for governor nearly ended before it even got going.
Romney, the son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney, led all candidates in the polls after his successful oversight of the Winter Olympic games in Salt Lake City. Democrats then filed a lawsuit claiming he didn't meet Massachusetts' residency requirement because of the time he lived in Utah. The challenge was rejected in June.
On Tuesday, Romney, 55, defeated Democrat Shannon O'Brien in the race to replace acting Gov. Jane Swift. His victory continued 12 years of Republican control of the governor's office in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly three to one.
"I'm asking you to join me in forging a new era in Massachusetts, an era of inclusion where Republicans and Democrats and Greens and independents and people of all backgrounds and ethnic groups work together," Romney said.
Romney ran on a pledge to "Clean up the mess on Beacon Hill," tapping into a vein of anti-government sentiment spawned by cuts in state services and a $1 billion tax hike. Romney's only previous political experience was an unsuccessful 1994 bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.
His father ran for president in 1968, and his mother Lenore ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate from Michigan in 1970.
South Dakota
Mike Rounds sat on the sidelines while his two Republican gubernatorial primary opponents beat each other up with seemingly endless television ads. There was little for him to do after that, either.
Rounds, an insurance agent and son of a longtime oil lobbyist, easily defeated Democrat Jim Abbott on Tuesday.
Rounds said people appreciated the civil tone of the campaign. Both he and Abbott avoided negative attacks during the race. Term limits prevented GOP Gov. Bill Janklow from running for re-election.
"You can have a good, positive campaign. Politics can be fun," Rounds said. "Politics should not have a bad name."
The oldest of 10 children in the capital city of Pierre, Rounds graduated from South Dakota State University and became a partner in an insurance and real estate company. He ran for the state Senate in 1990, rising to majority leader and serving a decade until term limits kept him from running again.
Soft-spoken with boyish good looks, Rounds' campaign against Abbott focused almost entirely on bread-and-butter political issues, such as the economy, education and leadership abilities.
South Carolina
Mark Sanford had several obstacles to overcome to become governor of South Carolina: a sometimes bitter seven-way primary, slow-growing campaign funds and an incumbent with no major black marks.
In deciding whether to challenge freshman Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges, the former three-term GOP congressman consulted with Sen. George Allen of Virginia and former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska — both former governors.
"The consensus was if you really want to make a difference in politics, the executive branch is the place to be," Sanford said.
The decision paid off Tuesday when Sanford, 42, defeated Hodges. Sanford said he was "humbled by the size of the accomplishment that has taken place tonight."
In the crowded June 11 primary, Sanford surprised observers by drawing more votes than Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler, who had been the favorite. Sanford then went on to easily win a runoff against Peeler.
But the nomination battle depleted Sanford's campaign funds. Hodges launched a series of ads about Sanford's House voting record, and Sanford could not immediately counter them. He finally closed the money gap with help from President Bush.
Kansas
Born into one political family and married into another, Democrat Kathleen Sebelius showed she'd learned enough from both to build a big, early lead in the Kansas governor's race.
Even some opponents admired a drive that allowed her to raise a record $4 million in a state with a strong Republican heritage.
The state's insurance commissioner, she actively wooed Republicans worried that GOP nominee Tim Shallenburger wouldn't do enough to protect public schools from the state's budget problems.
The tactic worked, and Sebelius on Tuesday defeated Shallenburger, the state's treasurer, to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Bill Graves.
In her victory speech, Sebelius warned solving the state's financial problems won't be quick or easy.
"It's going to take discipline and resolve and patience," she said. "That's always what it takes to make a fresh start."
Sebelius, 54, projected a cool, businesslike image through most of her campaign, brushing aside GOP attacks on her as a liberal. She is the daughter of former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, a Democrat, and the daughter-in-law of the late Republican Rep. Keith Sebelius.