By Chris Sundheim
Associated Press
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Steve Beshear, a former lieutenant governor attempting a political comeback after 20 years out of office, unseated Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher yesterday.

With 86 percent of precincts reporting, Beshear (D) had 59 percent of the vote to while Fletcher had 41 percent.

Fletcher, Kentucky's first Republican governor in more than 30 years, spent much of his tenure battling accusations that he directed the hiring of political allies for jobs protected by the state's merit system. Beshear reminded voters of those accusations at every opportunity.

Beshear also made religion a centerpiece of his campaign, citing his religious upbringing and running television ads showing him in front of a church in western Kentucky.

Voters also headed to the polls yesterday to select a governor in Mississippi, where Gov. Haley Barbour (R) was heavily favored to win, and to elect mayors in five large cities.

Barbour's campaign against Democratic trial lawyer John Arthur Eaves Jr. capitalized on his successful management of the recovery after Hurricane Katrina, stressing job growth and rebuilding along the Gulf Coast.

Mayoral elections were held in San Francisco, Houston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

In the lone congressional race, voters in northwest Ohio chose among five Republicans and two Democrats in a primary for the nomination to fill the seat of Rep. Paul E. Gillmor (R). He died in September from a fall at his Arlington County townhouse. The general election will be held on Dec. 11.

In Louisville, sheriff's deputies and elections officials asked members of the liberal political group MoveOn.org to move back tables they had set up near polling precincts. They were less than the required distance of 300 feet, said Les Fugate of the Kentucky secretary of state's office.