Chicago - Voters in 11 states were choosing governors yesterday, some of them in contests where indecision and sharp divisions left the outcomes as much in doubt as the crucial race for the White House.
About the only certainty was that Republicans will still dominate statehouses across the land as they have in recent years. The party currently holds 30 of the 50 seats, and was defending only four of those 30 in this year's voting.
The Democrats hold only 18 governorships. Two others, Maine and Minnesota, are in independent and third-party hands respectively. While Democrats have a shot at turnovers in three states currently held by Republicans - West Virginia, North Dakota and Montana - they could lose ground in other hotly contested states they now control, notably Missouri and perhaps Vermont.