NYT: 2010 not a good year to be incumbent governor

Adam Nagourney of The New York Times has a think piece today about the 2010 gubernatorial races around the country.  Here are the key paragraphs:

“When I start looking at this chart, in some ways I’d sure rather be a Republican than a Democrat next year,” said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks governors’ races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

“There were a bunch of Democratic states I wasn’t looking too seriously at for a while — Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin — that I am taking new looks at because in the past several months, I have seen polling numbers for these governors tank,” Ms. Duffy said. “Let’s face it: Being governor is not the best job in America right now.”

….In addition, governors everywhere are struggling with huge budget deficits that are forcing them to cut services and raise taxes, enmeshing them in bruising battles with state legislatures and constituency groups. That is causing problems for governors like James E. Doyle of Wisconsin and Chet Culver of Iowa, both Democrats who are up for re-election next year; Republicans are tracking polls showing both men as unpopular.