"Very close, but it looks like a net three for Republicans," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Wednesday as he assessed overnight election results and suggested they were no reflection on Bush or the national Republican Party.
"Obviously the president is a Republican and the president is pleased with Republican victories," Fleischer said. "But when you take a look at this in sum, I think it's fair to say it was a close election throughout the country and it was mostly decided on local issues, local campaigns."
Tuesday's outcome, taken together with special-election results earlier this year, left Republicans with a net gain of three state legislature seats across the country, plus fresh control of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Fleischer said.
He sounded on the verge of saying that Democratic governors-elect Jim McGreevey in New Jersey and Mark Warner in Virginia had good issues on their side. But the presidential spokesman caught himself.
"Clearly the Democrats have some good iss -- uh, uh, wins in Virginia and New Jersey," Fleischer said.
Democrats can rightfully brag about McGreevey's victory, Fleischer added. "Although we do note in Virginia, particularly, the winning candidate basically ran as a Republican. ... The ideas he ran on were rather right of center."
Bush telephoned the Republican gubernatorial losers -- New Jersey's Bret Schundler and Virginia's Mark Earley -- Tuesday night "to offer his condolences about the outcomes of the race," Fleischer said.
The president placed a congratulatory call Wednesday to Republican Michael Bloomberg, winner of the New York City mayoral race.
Asked if the media mogul, only a recent convert to the GOP, basically ran as a Democrat in a heavily Democratic city, Fleischer replied: "Mr. Bloomberg had not been a Republican all his life, and I think people were aware of that, and I think there is something to be said about that."
Bush, who has avoided overt politicking since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, did not hit the campaign trail for any of the Republican candidates, although he did support them with mass mailings and automated phone messages to voters. Some White House aides did volunteer work in the homestretch of Schundler's campaign.
The White House is still considering whether Bush will participate -- as some GOP activists are expecting -- in a Nov. 28 Washington fund-raiser for brother Jeb's Florida gubernatorial re-election campaign. 
Copyright 2001 Associated Press