Democrats on Offense in Governor's Races

By Aaron Blake, Sean Sullivan, and Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s decision to switch from independent to Democrat effectively handed Democrats their 20th governorship.
It also means they likely have one less seat to contest – at least the way things look now.
The dirty little secret about Chafee’s party switch is that it may not help Chafee much, but it is very likely to help his new party. He’s set to face a primary with state Treasurer Gina Raimondo, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, or both, and assuming someone not named Chafee wins – a strong possibility given the governor’s terrible numbers – Democrats will be heavy favorites to hold the seat.
Because of this, Rhode Island drops off our list of the 15 governor’s seats most likely to change parties, all the way down from No. 2 on the last list.
It also means Democrats are even more on offense than they were before.
Of the top seven seats on the list, six are currently held by Republicans. This, of course, is a reflection of the very good year that Republicans had in 2010 – winning many swing and even a few blue states — but the fact remains that they are very much on defense in 2013 and 2014 because of it.
GOP governors in Florida, Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan and South Carolina all have subpar numbers. Most of these races were expected to be competitive regardless, of course, but the GOP would certainly like to be in better shape in each of these states than it is right now.
 
Read it at the Washington Post here.