Jubilant Democrats saw their victories in Tuesday's gubernatorial elections as a pathway to the presidency in 2008.

"It's extremely significant, the winning of these governors'races, for winning in'08, for congressional redistricting, for shifting the power of policy from the federal government to the states,"said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat who won a second term and is himself exploring a White House run.

"It shows that Democratic governors are viewed as budget balancers (and) problem solvers,"he said."This is why so many of them have been elected in red states. Voters recognize that."

The Democrats reversed GOP dominance that reached back to 1994, seizing a 28-22 edge in governor's mansions and stretching into several states that had been in Republican hands for eight years or longer, many of them rich with swing voters _ Ohio, Colorado and Arkansas among them.

When they take office next year, Democrats will control states with 295 electoral votes, up from the 126 electoral votes in states now held by Democrats. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

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Still, Republicans kept several of the nation's largest states, including California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger easily won re-election; Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry won re-election despite poor approval ratings; and Florida, where attorney general Charlie Crist replaced term-limited Gov. Jeb Bush.

Those states alone represent 116 electoral votes. And the GOP also fought off Democratic challenges in Minnesota, Nevada, Idaho and Alaska.

Some political analysts said the broader reach of the Democrats _ with blue states stretching from the Northeast into the South, and across big chunks of the Midwest and the West _ upends traditional notions of swing states and safe states.

"This result shows me that there are far more winnable states for either party"than previously thought, said Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin. The idea that"Kansas is always a red state or Wyoming is a red state. That's just nottrue. But you have to have candidates who can speak to people there."

That's especially instructive for Democrats, because their heartland support has been perceived as shrinking, he said.

"Now you have more spokespeople here who represent what Bill Clinton represented in 1988 and 1992 _ pragmatic Democratic governors who are willing to make compromises _ some would say too many compromises _ in order to achieve goals,"he said."The challenge for Democrats is how to have that big tent."

Norm Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said the reality is that moderates in both parties are often not heeded.

"Where you have a party that's able to succeed in hostile or unnatural territory, then presumably you'll look for what the lessons are. That doesn't mean the lessons will be followed,"he said.

In that vein, Schwarzenegger could be seen as a model for Republicans, Ornstein said. The California governor moved to the center on the environment, minimum wage and border control.

But"that's not a model George Bush is going to follow,"Ornstein said."He may triangulate a little bit, but not in the same way."

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