US: In a major boost for President Bush's re-election prospects, Republican candidates won two governorships in the American South in elections held on Tuesday, ousting Mississippi's Democratic incumbent and taking control of Kentucky for the first time in 32 years.
At the same time Democratic front-runner Howard Dean found himself facing the first serious setback of his campaign, over a call for Democrats to seek support from southerners who display the Confederate flag.
In scattered elections across the country, Democrats found solace in holding on to the mayor's office in Philadelphia and taking control of the New Jersey legislature.
And in New York, Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg failed to persuade voters to adopt a measure instituting non-partisan elections in the largely Democratic city.
However, counting actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in the California recall election, Republicans have taken control of three key states in advance of the 2004 presidential election and now hold 29 governorships nationwide, giving the Grand Old Party the edge in rallying voters for the presidential election.
Republican lobbyist Haley Barbour unseated one-term Democratic Governor Ronnie Musgrove in Mississippi with 53 per cent of the vote, and in Kentucky, Congressman Ernie Fletcher got 55 per cent of the vote to defeat Democratic Attorney General Ben Chandler.
Significantly their campaigns were helped by visits from President Bush, who by touring the country in 2002 helped deliver both the Senate and House to the Republican Party in Congressional elections.
Democrats in Kentucky had fought the election on opposition to Bush's economic policies, leading GOP national chairman Ed Gillespie to comment that if they wanted a referendum on Mr Bush's policies, "they got their answer." In Philadelphia, Democratic Mayor John Street easily defeated Republican businessman Sam Katz after an FBI probe of his office rallied supporters who saw it as a ploy to discredit Street and help his foe.
The growing desperation of Democrats to recapture the Deep South clearly prompted Howard Dean to say in a recent interview that the party must court Southerners who display the symbol of the Confederacy in their pick-up trucks, often taken as a sign of racist attitudes towards African Americans.
The former Vermont Governor refused to recant at a Democratic presidential debate for youth in Boston on Tuesday evening, saying: "It's a racist symbol but I also think the Democratic Party has to be a big tent - poor white people need to vote their economic interest."
Yesterday, however, Mr Dean admitted that he "started this discussion in a clumsy way," adding, "I regret the pain that I may have caused either to African-Americans or Southern white voters." He spoke after a warning from Democratic Party heavyweight, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico ,that he "needs to be more careful" and that the affair "has put a little bit of a dent in his front-runner status."
A questioner at the debate had told Mr Dean he was "extremely offended" by the comment, to which the candidate replied that the Rev Martin Luther King wanted to bring together the sons of slave holders and the sons of slaves.
Dean's African-American rival, the Rev Al Sharpton, retorted that, "You can't bring a Confederate flag to the table of brotherhood."
Asked whether they had ever used marijuana, Governor Dean, Senator John Edwards and Senator John Kerry said they had, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Gen Wesley Clark, the Rev Al Sharpton and Senator Joseph Lieberman said they had not. Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun declined to answer.