USA

Democrats notched decisive victories in a pair of gubernatorial elections Tuesday night. In New Jersey, where the race was especially bitter and the candidates spent a record-shattering $70 million, US Sen. Jon Corzine defeated businessman Doug Forrester (R) in their battle to replace acting Democratic Gov. Richard Codey. Codey stepped in last year when a scandal caused Jim McGree-vey's resignation, but declined to seek the office in his own right. In Virginia, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine breezed to victory over former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (R) and will succeed popular Democratic Gov. Mark Warner.

Despite a scandal-plagued first term, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick came from behind to retain office in Detroit with 53 percent of the vote as ballot-counting extended into Wednesday morning. But an FBI investigation of the handling of absentee ballots could cloud the final results of his victory. In other mayoral elections:

• Billionaire Michael Bloom-berg (R) won reelection in New York by a 20-point margin.

• Shirley Franklin (D), Atlanta's first female mayor, easily held onto office against two little-known challengers. But in Cleveland, incumbent Jane Campbell (D), that city's first woman mayor, was edged by popular City Council president Frank Jackson (D).

• City Councilwoman Donna Frye (D) was easily defeated in San Diego by former police chief Jerry Sanders (R).

All four California ballot initiatives put forward by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) in a special election were defeated in a vote widely perceived as a power struggle in which his vision for reform pitted him against Democrats and powerful labor unions. Measures that failed to pass would have capped state spending, stripped legislators of redistricting powers, required teachers to serve longer probations, and required public- employee unions to get members' permission before using dues for political purposes.

Texas voters easily passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, a step taken by 18 other states and viewed as a safeguard against possible future court rulings.

The controversy over introducing "intelligent design" to public school science students as a counterbalance to the study of evolution produced widely divergent results. In Kansas, the state Board of Education voted to redefine "science" more broadly. But in Dover, Pa., voters replaced eight Republican school board members with Democrats who oppose requiring students to be exposed to intelligent design. The town is involved in a high-profile trial on the issue.

Executives of nation's biggest oil companies agreed at a congressional hearing to consider a joint program with the federal government to promote energy conservation.

St. Paul, Minn., truck driver Chai Soua Vang was sentenced Tuesday in Hayward, Wis., to six life terms in prison, one each for the shooting deaths of deer hunters in a nearby woods last November.