Republicans win Virginia, N.J. governorship races

Preliminary results gave Democrat Bill Owens 49 percent to 45 percent for his main challenger Doug Hoffman, who ran on the tiny Conservative Party ballot but received high-profile backing from more conservative Republicans like former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Ahead of the 2010 mid-terms and with Obama bogged down in confrontations over the economy, health care reform and the Afghanistan war, the off-year races were given greater clout.

The Republican Governors Association quickly congratulated McDonnell in Virginia, saying his victory gave the party “tremendous momentum heading into 2010.”

If the races showed that Obama's Democratic machine is not invincible, they also bared rifts in the Republican Party over how to rebuild after last year's drubbing in presidential and congressional elections.

Hoffman's storming run made him a standard bearer for the wing of the Republican Party organizing nationwide “tea party” protests against Obama.

Other Republicans argued for a more centrist stand aimed at attracting independent voters. The official Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, dropped out of the race over the weekend and endorsed Owens over Hoffman.

Voters also chose mayors in major cities including New York, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston and Seattle.

Maine became the latest in a string of states to throw out legislative measures recognizing same-sex marriage, with voters defeating a law granting gay couples the right to marry.

However Washington state voters appeared on the verge of approving the right to civil unions for same-sex couples, with early returns showing a razor-thin margin of 51 percent to 49 percent.

New York's mayor, media tycoon Michael Bloomberg, won a surprisingly tight contest for reelection against Democratic challenger Bill Thompson by 51 percent to 46 percent.

Bloomberg, an independent who ran on the Republican ballot, spent a record amount of his own money during the campaign and had been forecast to win by double digits.

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