Bad news for Moonbeam - 2010 may be best GOP gubernatorial year in decades

The national headwinds are not in Moonbeam's favor:

A Smart Politics analysis of nearly 1,800 gubernatorial elections since the beginning of the 20th Century finds that Republicans are poised to win more gubernatorial seats in 2010 than they have in any election cycle over the past 90 years.


The 24 seats won by the GOP during the Republican Revolution of 1994 was the most by the party since 1966, when Republicans won 24 of 35 contests during the mid-term pullback after the 1964 Democratic landslide. (The GOP also picked up 47 U.S. House seats in 1966).

Republicans had also previously notched 24 victories out of 35 gubernatorial contests during the presidential election year of 1928.

But Republican gubernatorial candidates are looking even stronger in 2010 than in 1928, 1966, or 1994, and could rival their best ever gubernatorial election cycle during the 20th and 21st Centuries: 1920.

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