My home state, New Jersey, where I grew up and where I work (even though I no longer live there), has a governor’s race in the fall. The incumbent Democrat, Jon Corzine, has a 40 percent approval rating right now and is in danger of losing to Republican Christopher Christie, formerly the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, assuming Christie wins the Republican nomination against arch-conservative Steve Lonegan next week.

New Jersey’s quadrennial governor’s race comes in the year after the presidential election, and in every election for the past 20 years, the party that wins the governor’s race has been the party that lost the previous year’s presidential race.

1988: George H.W. Bush (R)
1989: Jim Florio (D)

1992, 1996: Bill Clinton (D)
1993, 1997: Christie Whitman (R)

2000: George W. Bush (R)
2001: Jim McGreevey (D)

2004: George W. Bush (R)
2005: Jon Corzine (D)

2008: Barack Obama (D)
2009: ???

Granted, this doesn’t totally hold up, because in 2000 and 2004, New Jersey actually voted for Gore and Kerry, even though the country went the other way. But it’s still weird.