Republican Governors Among The Most Vulnerable

by Stuart Shapiro

Nate Silver takes a look at next year’s gubernatorial races and the news isn’t good for Republican governors swept into office in the Tea Party elections of 2010.

The two most unpopular governors up for re-election in 2014 are Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, an independent, and Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois, a Democrat. But the remaining eight governors with net negative job approval ratings are Republicans, including four who rode the 2010 Tea Party wave to power in blue and purple states and now appear to be in some danger: Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, Gov. Paul LePage of Maine and Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan.

And while Quinn is a favorite for re-election in deep blue Illinois, most of the Republicans are underdogs heading into their re-election campaigns (Scott trails now-Democrat Charlie Crist by double digits).

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.