The winds blowing down ballot

Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory may wish they were in Virginia.

Both candidates for North Carolina governor now have their fates tied to the presidential race. Perdue famously posed with Barack Obama for a mailer and was attacked by the state Republican Party for it. McCrory is holding a fundraiser with George W. Bush, who Democrats argue is on the ballot-by-proxy.

And as in the Democratic primary, the presidential race could throw a monkeywrench into the campaigns' plans for turnout and advertising.

It doesn't necessarily have to be this way. North Carolina is one of only 11 states that hold its gubernatorial election in the same year as the presidential election. Only two others — West Virginia and Delaware — are in the South.

Some gubernatorial candidates are even more divorced from the federal races. Three states — Kentucky, Virginia and Mississippi — even have off-off-year elections, which are held in odd-numbered years when there are no presidential or Congressional campaigns. (Notably, all are in the South.)

Dome could not find any particular rhyme or reason behind the states that do hold joint gubernatorial-presidential elections: Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Washington.

But it's clear that other Southern states are especially not keen on tying their fates to the winds blowing from the top of the ballot.

Correction: The governors of New Hampshire and Vermont serve two-year terms, making half of their elections during presidential years.