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Republicans - still reeling from Barack Obama's historic victory - hope today's off-year elections will launch a right-wing effort to retake Congress and the White House.

Although there are only a handful of races, fierce contests for governor in both Virginia and New Jersey and a bizarre congressional battle along the Canadian border in upstate New York have turned the voting into a bellwether of sorts.

Both major parties could be licking their wounds by the time the ballots are counted.

In Virginia, where Mr. Obama won handily last year, the President's party looks set to get spanked.

In New Jersey, a Democrat stronghold, Mr. Obama and other party luminaries have been pressed into frantic last-minute flesh pressing to avoid what would be an embarrassing defeat for incumbent Democrat Governor Jon Corzine.

The latest polls show Mr. Corzine, 62, battling for his political life against Republican Chris Christie, 47.

"We will not lose this election if all of you are as committed as you were last year," the President told a crowd of Democrat faithful who chanted, "Yes we can."

Whether they will vote in numbers sufficient to save the embattled Mr. Corzine remains uncertain.

The fight has been ugly, including TV ads by Mr. Corzine suggesting - but not quite saying - his Republican challenger is too overweight to be governor. Meanwhile, a strong, third-party run by Independent Chris Daggett may tip the balance, depending on which of the mainstream candidates he hurts most.

Democrats seem resigned to losing Virginia, where term limits bar Democratic incumbent Governor Tim Kaine from running again. Despite Mr. Obama making a couple of forays across the Potomac to try to shore up the sagging campaign of Democrat Creigh Deeds, 51, the latest polls show Republican Bob McDonnell with a double-digit lead.

William Galston, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton and long-time Democrat strategist, says off-year elections are often harbingers.

"They are modest leading indicators" of the political climate, he said. "Losers always say the results revolved around purely local issues," said Mr. Galston, now at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Similarly, winners will triumphantly say voters were passing judgment on the current administration.

In New Jersey, hard hit by the recession, a Democrat loss could spark Republican hopes for big gains at the midterm elections in 2010.

But Republicans have already suffered the ignominy of losing in New York's 23rd district, where the party's candidate tossed in the towel last weekend after a bitter and unseemly intra-party fight. Dede Scozzafava, hand-picked by local party bosses, was eclipsed by Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, who was endorsed by Sarah Palin, the outspoken champion of the party's far right. He has emerged as the real rival to Democrat Bill Owens.

Should the Democrats lose in all three races, Republicans will assert voter backlash against Mr. Obama's profligate spending and controversial plans to change health care.

Democrats, meanwhile, delight in the evident split within the Republican party that is playing out in an embarrassingly public fashion in the New York race.

"Ronald Reagan's big tent just collapsed in upstate New York," exulted James Carville, a Democratic strategist, referring to the broad coalition that backed the popular Republican president. Mr. Carville says conservatives, led by populists such as Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, are seizing control of the party.

The White House, meanwhile, was already discounting today's results, which will be decided by moderates in the middle and independent voters who cast their ballots overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama a year ago.

"I don't think that these elections will portend a lot for what happens in 2010," said Robert Gibbs, Mr. Obama's spokesman.

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Other votes to watch

These are a few of the other interesting votes in today's elections:

MAYORS

In Atlanta, six candidates are seeking to succeed term-limited Mayor Shirley Franklin in an election that is expected to lead to a December run-off. The top contenders include councilwoman Mary Norwood, who is trying to become the city's first white mayor in a generation.

BALLOT MEASURES

Voters in Maine have the opportunity to make it the first state to approve gay marriage at the ballot box with a referendum on whether to accept or reject a same-sex marriage law approved by legislators.

In Washington, voters will be deciding whether to keep a legislature-approved "everything but marriage" domestic partnerships law, which grants registered partners the same legal rights as married couples.

Ohio voters will decide whether to bring casinos to the state.

Associated Press