Governors | featured news

Four governors take their oaths of office Monday, helping usher in a new balance of power in statehouses across the country. Democrats are taking over from Republicans in California and Minnesota, while the GOP is seizing the reins in Wisconsin and Wyoming. One Republican is handing over power to another in Nevada.

The action involving Esteban Nuñez, who had pleaded guilty to participating in the killing of a college student, comes amid a flurry of final-day pardons and appointments by Schwarzenegger.

The rehabilitation of Billy the Kid lies dead in the dust. In one of his last official acts - or non-acts - before leaving office, New Mexico's governor refused to pardon the Old West outlaw Friday for one of the many murders he committed before he was gunned down in 1881.

Could Haley Barbour's comments on race doom his potential 2012 presidential run before it even starts? On Tuesday, the Mississippi governor sought to clarify his remarks to The Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson about growing up at the height of the civil rights movement in Mississippi.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a state of emergency declaration that gives San Diego County additional legal authority to seize and destroy a Escondido-area home that authorities described as a bomb-making factory.

Republicans' consolidation of power in state capitols is likely to expand the number of states that employ a far more limited, free-market-oriented approach to implementing the nation's new health-care law than the robust regulatory model favored by its supporters.

Dannel P. Malloy, the Democrat who is sure he was elected, and Thomas C. Foley, the Republican who feels the same, are both preparing for the job.

The Republican wave crashing across the nation stopped at the California border on Tuesday, as Jerry Brown won the governorship and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer claimed a victory that would send her back to Washington for a fourth term.

Republicans captured Democratic governorships in at least 10 states on Tuesday, including some prime presidential battlegrounds, and hoped for even more statehouse gains.

Republicans are anticipating major gains in governorships across the nation's industrial heartland and in several vital presidential swing states.