[paudio]

the ONLY Republican to do so in a non southern/western state.

Linda Lingle of HI also won her re-election.

[BillyBoy]

Okay, fair enough, but Lingle is a RINO and would be a Democrat anywhere outside Hawaii.

Now that I look at it, the only CONSERVATIVE Governors to win election outside the south and west were 1) Pawlenty , 2) Caliceri (R.I.), and argueably 3) Palin (Alaska).

Of those three, the only one that has enough gravitas to run nationwide would be Pawlenty.