The Failed Presidency.

MINDS MADE UP?
38% of registered voters definitely plan to vote to re-elect President Bush in 2004 and 44% definitely plan to vote against him. The remaining 18% are not committed either way.

POTENTIAL DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGERS.
Yet, when matched against the leading Democratic challengers, President Bush outpaces his rivals with margins that range from 5% to 19%. Latest entrant retired General Wesley Clark trails President Bush by the widest margin among these Democrats.

GOP Lobbyist Barbour Wins Governor's Race

By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer

Washington lobbyist Haley Barbour unseated Mississippi Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove as the GOP swept both governors' races at stake Tuesday and consolidated party gains in the South. Rep. Ernie Fletcher decisively won in Kentucky, ousting Democrats from power after 32 years.

With 84 percent of precincts reporting, Barbour got 53 percent, or 377,508 votes, to Musgrove's 45 percent, or 322,028 votes. Fletcher defeated state Attorney General Ben Chandler, polling 55 percent, or 593,508 votes, to the Democrat's 45 percent, or 484,938 votes.

Houston mayoral candidate Bill White surged into the lead early today and will face former City Councilman Orlando Sanchez in the December runoff, handing state Rep. Sylvester Turner his second defeat in his quest for the office.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, White had 38 percent of the vote to Sanchez's 33 percent and Turner's 29 percent.

"He came from basically unknown against two people who have run for office many, many times," (campaign manager Michael--no, not that one--) Moore said, attributing White's success to seeking "support in every single neighborhood of this city."

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Support for White, a former Texas Democratic Party chairman, included Anglos, Hispanics, African-Americans, Republicans and Democrats.

Sanchez, was the presumed front-runner at the outset of the race. But polls showed his support slipping, with significant chunks of self-identified Republicans and Hispanics turning to White.

As Sanchez dropped in the polls, he launched an increasingly nasty attack against White. He called him a liberal -- considered a dirty word among some of the GOP voters Sanchez was struggling to hold onto; accused him of trying to block U.S. troops from voting; and linked him to unpopular Mayor Lee Brown, from whom all three candidates worked to distance themselves during the race.

Some Republicans overlooked Harris County Republican Party charges that White is a "liberal Democrat" and last-minute recorded phone messages from popular GOP President Bush in favor of Sanchez. Exit polling showed that 27 percent of self-identified Republican voters said they supported White. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans voted for Sanchez, a Republican, and 8 percent for Turner, a Democrat.

By a narrow margin, voters resisted a multimillion-dollar campaign to reject rail expansion and approved Metro's ambitious $7.5 billion regional transit plan.

With all precincts reporting, Metropolitan Transit Authority's proposition was passing 51 percent to 49 percent.

The next step for Metro is to obtain federal matching funds. Otherwise it won't be able to afford to build the rail lines. U.S. Rep. John Culberson and fellow rail critic House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, vowed during the campaign to fight for federal dollars on behalf of Metro if voters endorsed the plan.

And I be more likely to call those two insignificant statehouses, timber, without intending to insult any of the good folk of Kentucky or Mississippi.

Democrats won full control of the New Jersey Legislature yesterday for the first time since 1991, bucking 48 years of election history and a Republican campaign that tried to capitalize on an unpopular Democratic governor.

Democrats picked up at least six seats in the Assembly in yesterday's elections to build a 47-33 advantage, and they gained at least one seat in the Senate to take the majority after two years of sharing power in the upper house.

In the state's most closely watched race, Democrat Ellen Karcher toppled Senate Co-President John Bennett, ending the 24-year Statehouse career of New Jersey's top Republican after relentlessly questioning his ethics.