Ky. statehouse goes to Democratic challenger

— -- Kentucky voters rejected scandal-plagued Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher's bid for a second term, electing a Democrat who last held office two decades ago in one of two governor's races decided Tuesday.

In the other, Mississippi's Republican Gov. Haley Barbour easily won a second term over Democrat John Eaves. The two gubernatorial races were the biggest stakes in an off-year election devoid of more glamorous names and races.

Elsewhere, voters decided ballot measures and mayoral posts in several big cities.

Among the measures was a referendum in New Jersey where voters were asked to pass one of the nation's most ambitious public efforts to fund stem cell research. New Jersey voters rejected the measure, which would have had the state borrow $450 million over 10 years to finance the research.

The measure was placed on the ballot by the Legislature with strong backing from Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, who said it would make the state a center for the discovery of possible cures to disease.

It drew opposition from anti-abortion groups and the Catholic Church, which consider the destruction of human embryos that is part of the research as ending a life for scientific experiments.

"It's a reinforcement of our values and a rebuke to the governor," said Steve Lonegan, a conservative Republican who led opposition to the question. "The taxpayers are saying enough is enough."

The race in Kentucky saw Steve Beshear, a lawyer who served a term as Kentucky's lieutenant governor in the 1980s, easily defeat Fletcher. Fletcher's term was marred by an indictment on charges he rewarded political friends with state jobs, and his grant of pardons to officials in his administration.

Beshear made ethics a key issue in the governor's race and avoided questions raised late in the campaign by Republicans about his own ethics as a lawyer.

"The voters made up their minds, and I accept that," Fletcher said in conceding. "Kentuckians want to focus on the work itself and not the many distractions that I helped to create."