Wrong-party governors?

[Nym90]

Pretty amazing, when you think about it, that the Dems held onto the Utah governorship in 1980 even though they lost the presidential race in Utah 73-21 percent that year!

[Nym90]

And John Ashcroft in Missouri, after losing his Senate race in 2000.
Yeah, it is kind of ironic in a way that losing an election can actually make you more powerful. Bush probably wouldn't have chosen Ashcroft or Abraham for his cabinet if they had won reelection, especially Ashcroft since Missouri has a Dem governor so he would've been handing the seat to the Dems. Likewise Clinton probably wouldn't have appointed Moseley-Braun since with a GOP governor he'd be giving away a Senate seat as well.

[Nym90]

Likewise Clinton probably wouldn't have appointed Moseley-Braun since with a GOP governor he'd be giving away a Senate seat as well.

Well, Clinton did do it with Lloyd Bentsen, giving away a Senate seat to the Republicans.

No, because Texas had a Democratic Governor at the time who appointed a Democrat to the seat. The GOP did go on to win the Special Election for the seat, but Clinton had no way of knowing at the time that they would.