2001 United States gubernatorial election
The 2001 United States gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2001. The states of New Jersey and Virginia were elected . In both cases, that of standing Republican Party asked the governor not seek re-election; each time there was a change of power to the Democratic Party .
In New Jersey, Republican Christine Todd Whitman , who had previously been elected governor twice , resigned in January 2001 to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency . At the time of the election, Donald DiFrancesco , President of the New Jersey Senate , held the highest office in the state. Originally, he had also planned to run for a term of his own, but refrained from doing so in April after critical media reports about his practices as a businessman. He subsequently supported former Congressman Bob Franks , who lost to Bret Schundler , Mayor of Jersey City , in the Republican Primary .
As they had done four years earlier, the Democrats nominated Jim McGreevey , who was slightly defeated at the time , a former member of the State Senate and Mayor of Woodbridge Township . This time he clearly won the election with 56.4 percent of the vote; Schundler had a share of 41.7 percent. Third place went to Republican State Senator William E. Schluter , who ran as an independent candidate, with 1.1 percent of the vote, followed by six other applicants. Between election day and McGreevey's inauguration, three other people held the post of governor on a provisional basis, as DiFrancesco's tenure as Senate President had expired earlier. In John J. Farmer followed John Bennett and Richard Codey .
After four years, Republican Jim Gilmore was constitutionally forced to resign as governor of Virginia . For his successor, Mark Earley applied , until June 2001 Attorney General of the state, who left his post to concentrate on the election campaign. Although he was nominated by the Republicans, he then lost the election with a share of 47 percent of the vote against the Democrat Mark Warner , for whom 52.2 percent of the voters voted. The third candidate, Bill Redpath from the Libertarian Party, achieved 0.8 percent .
