Republicans won two marquee governors’ races Tuesday as Florida Gov. Jeb Bush turned back a massive Democratic effort to unseat him and the GOP ended Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s bid for Maryland governor.

Democrats, in turn, broke the Republican hold on industrial swing states including Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania as the parties struggled for control of a majority of executive mansions.

The GOP entered Election Day with a 27-21 edge on Democrats but had to defend 23 seats to the Democrats’ 11. The seats of two independent governors were also at stake.

Democrats captured formerly Republican or independent-held offices in Kansas, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

As vote-counting continued into this morning, it was unclear whether those victories solidified Democrats’ hopes of taking more than half the nation’s executive mansions.

The final balance hinged on close races in Oregon, Hawaii, California and elsewhere.

Republicans kept New York, Texas, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and ousted two one-term Southern Democrats Govs. Roy Barnes in Georgia and Jim Hodges in South Carolina.

Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, the third Democrat to buck the GOP’s Southern gains in 1998, was in a very close race with Republican Rep. Bob Riley.

In California, early returns showed Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and Republican Bill Simon in a tight contest.

Gov. Bush in Florida had extensive campaign help from his brother. Early in the night, President Bush called to “congratulate him for a big victory,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Townsend was seeking to become the first member of the Kennedy family to serve as a governor. But she saw a huge lead early in the campaign evaporate as she lost to Republican Rep. Bob Ehrlich.

In Illinois, Democratic Rep. Rod Blagojevich defeated Republican Jim Ryan in a race that linked Ryan to the scandal-tainted single term of GOP Gov. George Ryan no relation who chose not to seek re-election.

The result gives Illinois its first Democratic governor in 25 years.

Pennsylvania Democrat Ed Rendell, former mayor of Philadelphia, defeated GOP Atty. Gen. Mike Fisher.

Republican businessman Mitt Romney beat state Treasurer Shannon O’Brien in heavily Democratic Massachusetts to continue 12 years of GOP control.

New York Gov. George Pataki easily turned back a challenge from Comptroller H. Carl McCall, the only black ever elected to statewide office there.

In New Hampshire, Republican entrepreneur Craig Benson returned the governor’s office to the GOP after six years of Democratic control.