The Lieutenant Governors - Bullet Bush
In the past, Governors served for two year terms and the Lieutenant Governor was elected separately from Governor. Along with the four year term has come the combined ticket of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor.
However, 11 of the 36 states that elected Governors in 1998 also elected Lieutenant Governors separately. After the turnout in the Governor's race, the Lieutenant Governor usually comes second. The Lieutenant Governor's race received the second highest number of votes in 5 of the 11 states: Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas and Vermont. The Lieutenant Governor's contest received the third highest vote total in four states. In three states, California, Nevada and South Carolina, the Senate race came second and the Lieutenant Governor third. In Nevada, however, the Senate race received more votes than the Governor's race. In Rhode Island, the Attorney General's race received the second highest vote total after the Governor, and the Lieutenant Governor ran third. The Lieutenant Governor ran fourth in Arkansas, behind the Senate and Attorney General's race, and fourth in Idaho, behind both the House and Senate races. In Idaho, the House race beat the Senate race.
In 1998, 7 Republicans were elected Lieutenant Governor. Five were elected with Republican Governors, but two were elected with Democratic Governors, in Alabama and in South Carolina. The Democrats elected four Lieutenant Governors, with only one, Rhode Island, winning with a Republican Governor. So, in 3 of the 11 states that elected Lieutenant Governors separately, the voters split the two top offices between the two parties.
In these split states, the Lieutenant Governor of a different party than the Governor just managed to squeak to a majority. In Alabama, the Republican Lieutenant Governor received 50.23% of the vote while the Democratic Gubernatorial candidate was sweeping to a substantial victory of 57.6%. In Rhode Island both the Republican Governor and the Democratic Lieutenant Governor received slightly over 50% of the vote, but won their elections by substantial margins because independent candidates received about 6% of the vote. And in South Carolina both the Democratic Governor and the Republican Lieutenant Governor won with respectable 53% and 52% margin respectively.
The Lieutenant Governor is about as important to the Governor as the Vice-President is to the President. In 1994, Arkansas elected a Republican Lieutenant Governor and a Democratic Governor. When Jim Guy Tucker was indicted and forced from office as part of the Whitewater investigation, Republican Lieutenant Governor Huckabee became Governor.
The real fireworks in the Lieutenant Governors races comes in Texas and Vermont, two states where the winning Governor and winning Lieutenant Governor were from the same party. In Vermont, the incumbent Democratic Lieutenant Governor Doug Racine barely managed to keep his seat 48.62% to 48.10%, keeping both the Governor's seat and the Lieutenant Governor position with the Democrats. His close race reflected the fact that he faced the former Lieutenant Governor, Barbara Snelling, who was attempting a come back.
Texas is another state that at first glance looks unexceptionable. Both the Republican Governor and the Republican Lieutenant Governor won. But Governor George W. Bush was winning with 68.2% of the vote in a low turnout election. His running mate just barely managed to win with 50.04% of the vote. For those who are anxious to have Governor George lead the Republican Party in 2000, the Texas voters are giving a clear message that he has no coat tails.
The Lieutenant Governors races generated 18,834,539 votes. Democrats won 9.2 million or 49.2%, Republicans got 8.6 million for 45.75%, and independents fell slightly short of 1 million for 5% of the vote. So, why did the Republicans win 7 of the 11 contests?
Because California alone, which was won by a Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, produced over 8 million votes, or almost 45% of all the votes cast for the office. California alone gave the Democrats a 1 million vote margin. Without California, the numbers more closely resemble the actual results. The Republicans won 51% of the vote and the Democrats won 46.5% with the remaining 2.5% going to independents.
The Lieutenant Governors race is a much overlooked race in political analysis. But as the results from Texas show, you never can tell where the voters will leave a pearl. That's why it's important to look at all the votes cast in every election.
| Ab. Lt. Gv. 98 | Windom (R) | Freeman (D) | Write-in | Lt. Gov. 98 | |||||||||||
| 652,465 | 644,818 | 1,556 | 1,298,839 | ||||||||||||
| 50.2345% | 49.6457% | 0.1198% | Ind. total | 1,556 | |||||||||||
| Ark. Lt. G 1998 | Rockefeller (R) | Dilday (D) | Lt. Gov. 98 | ||||||||||||
| 461,430 | 230,730 | 692,160 | |||||||||||||
| 66.6652% | 33.3348% | Ind. total | 1.46936793852786E-39 | ||||||||||||
| Cal. Lt. Gov.98 | Leslie (R) | Bustamante (D) | Tryon (Lib) | McCoy (AI) | Gomez (P&F) | Amir (Grn) | Mangia (Ref) | Green (WI) | Lt. Gov. 1998 | ||||||
| 3,159,789 | 4,288,899 | 167,457 | 92,293 | 109,826 | 247,702 | 74,148 | 17 | 0 | 8,140,131 | (477,518) | |||||
| 38.8174% | 52.6883% | 2.0572% | 1.1338% | 1.3492% | 3.0430% | 0.9109% | 0.0002% | 0.0000% | Ind. Total | 691,443 | |||||
| Ga. Lt. Gov. 98 | Skandalakis (R) | Taylor (D) | Russell (Lib) | Novosel (Ref) | Lt. Gov. 98 | ||||||||||
| 676,358 | 990,496 | 79,174 | 11,705 | 1,757,733 | |||||||||||
| 38.4790% | 56.3508% | 4.5043% | 0.6659% | 90,879 | |||||||||||
| Id. Lt. Gov. 98 | Otter (R) | Sue Reents (D) | Alan Stroud (Amh) | Lt. Gov. 98 | |||||||||||
| 225,704 | 133,688 | 15,769 | 386,720 | 375,161 | (11,559) | ||||||||||
| 60.1619% | 35.6348% | 4.2033% | Ind. total | 15,769 | |||||||||||
| Nv Lt. Gov. 98 | Hunt (R) | Rose James (D) | Savage (L) | Hansen (IA) | None of These | Voting 1998 | Lt. Governor 98 | ||||||||
| 214,781 | 166,716 | 12,235 | 17,085 | 16,096 | 440,042 | 410,817 | (29,225) | ||||||||
| 50.3103% | 39.0515% | 2.8659% | 4.0020% | 3.7703% | Ind. total | 29,320 | |||||||||
| Ok. Lt. Gov. 98 | Mary Fallen (R) | Jack Morgan (D) | Lt. Governor 98 | ||||||||||||
| 585,712 | 281,379 | 867,091 | |||||||||||||
| 67.5491% | 32.4509% | ||||||||||||||
| RI Lt. Gov. 98 | Jackvony (R) | Fogarty (D) | Johnson (G) | Carlevale (Ref) | Write-in | Lt. Governor 98 | |||||||||
| 130,384 | 149,533 | 9,033 | 8,804 | 102 | 297,856 | ||||||||||
| 43.7742% | 50.2031% | 3.0327% | 2.9558% | 0.0342% | Ind. total | 17,939 | |||||||||
| SC Lt. Gov. 98 | Bob Peeler (R) | Theodore (D) | O'Neal (Lib) | Write-in | Lt. Gov. 98 | ||||||||||
| 555,214 | 494,021 | 13,794 | 360 | 1,098,484 | 1,063,389 | (35,095) | |||||||||
| 52.2117% | 46.4572% | 1.2972% | 0.0339% | Ind. total | 14,154 | ||||||||||
| Tx. Lt. Gov. 98 | Rick Perry (R) | John Sharp (D) | Garcia (L) | Lt. Gov. 1998 | |||||||||||
| 1,859,008 | 1,790,272 | 65,152 | 0 | 3,714,432 | |||||||||||
| 50.0482% | 48.1977% | 1.7540% | 0.0000% | 65,152 | |||||||||||
| Vt. Lt. Gov. 98 | Snelling (R) | Racine (D) | Silver (L) | Newton (LU) | Coleman (VG) | Write-in | Lt. Gov. 1998 | ||||||||
| R to D | 104,351 | 105,480 | 1,310 | 1,721 | 3,913 | 155 | 0 | 216,930 | -4061 | ||||||
| 48.1035% | 48.6240% | 0.6039% | 0.7933% | 1.8038% | 0.0715% | 0.0000% | Ind. total | 7,099 | |||||||
| 8,625,196 | 9,276,032 | 365,480 | 131,968 | 129,937 | 247,857 | 74,148 | 17 | 0 | 18,834,539 | ||||||
| Independents | 949,407 |
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