WASHINGTON (Reuters) Democrats won the elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia Tuesday, but the race to pick a successor to Rudolph Giuliani as New
York City’s mayor was too close to call.

Democrats hope taking the two governorships from Republicans will give them some momentum going into next year’s elections, when Congress and many other state
houses will be at stake.

In New Jersey, Jim McGreevey, the Democratic mayor of Woodbridge, was running nearly 20 percentage points ahead of his Republican opponent, Bret Schundler, the
former Republican mayor of Jersey City.

The Democratic candidate in Virginia, venture capitalist Mark Warner, was up by five percentage points over Republican Mark Earley; the former state attorney general conceded defeat.

In addition to the contests for governor, dozens of cities large and small were holding elections for mayor. But by far the most attention was on New York.
Polls closed with Democrat Mark Green and Republican Michael Bloomberg locked in a tight battle to take over the helm of the nation’s largest city at the time of its greatest crisis.

Despite a Democratic 5-1 advantage in voter registration, Green, the city’s public advocate, was in a real New York brawl with political newcomer Bloomberg, billionaire
founder of financial information services company Bloomberg LP.

With the support of Giuliani and $50 million of his own money spent on his campaign, Bloomberg pulled even with Green in the last polls before voting began.

MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR LOSES RE-ELECTION BID

Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, the city’s first black mayor, lost her re-election bid by a two-to-one margin to community activist R.T. Rybak, despite a rare campaign appearance on her behalf by former Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore.

Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken survived a backlash over his handling of the city’s April race riots and was re-elected after surprisingly finishing second in the September primary.

Lee Brown, Houston’s first black mayor, was leading in early returns for a third term but was short of the 50 percent mark that would keep him from a runoff against City Councilman Orlando Sanchez, who got most of his support from Republicans.

Jane Campbell, a county commissioner, became the first woman elected mayor of Cleveland by beating civil rights attorney Raymond Pierce by a two-to-one margin.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Pittsburgh Mayor Thomas Murphy both easily won third terms, beating underfunded challengers by nearly three to one.

Among the other cities holding elections, some of the more interesting races were:

Atlanta — Three candidates were running in a race dominated by ethical questions involving outgoing mayor Bill Campbell.

Detroit — Democrats Gill Hill, City Council president, and Kwame Kilpatrick, minority leader of the state House, were running neck-and-neck to replace Mayor Dennis
Archer after eight years.

Miami — A runoff was expected from a list of 10 candidates, which included the incumbent, two former mayors and two of the lawyers who tried to keep Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez in the United States.

Seattle — Voters were electing a new mayor because the current one, Paul Schell, finished third in a September primary after he was blamed for botching the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings that erupted in riots.