Governors

Afghan governors have pledged to pay import duties to the central government after President Hamid Karzai threatened to quit if the governors did not start sending in the funds. Twelve governors signed the deal after three days of talks, presidential spokesman Hajimal Abdi said. Powerful warlords have been keeping most of the customs fees, estimated at $600 million, for themselves.

Gov. George Ryan said he gave $6,000 to his mother-in-law's elderly caretaker as payment for her campaign work, but he could not remember exactly what work she performed or explain why his campaign reports listed the money as a gift. Ryan said the money, given in late 1998, had nothing to do with Nancy J. Smith's care for his late mother-in-law. That might be considered personal use of campaign money, and Ryan would have had to pay income taxes on it.

All of a sudden, the list of Democrats who could challenge Florida's GOP Gov. Jeb Bush next year is growing. At least 10 Democrats are said to be thinking about a candidacy, including former U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno. And former Rep. Pete Peterson said he was resigning as ambassador to Vietnam so he can return to Florida. Reno, who served in the Clinton administration, said last week that she was thinking about a run.

Republican Party activist Don Goldwater announced his candidacy in Sun City West for governor in 2006, sounding some of the conservative themes once heard from his uncle, 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. "The state is headed in the wrong direction," said the 50-year-old candidate. "We must return to the basic principles of limited government, individual liberty and economic freedom."

Gov. Jon Corzine underwent another operation in Camden on the leg that was broken in a highway crash. The hourlong surgery at Cooper University Hospital, performed to clean out the 6-inch wound created when his left femur broke, was "uneventful," said Andrew Poag, a spokesman for the governor. Corzine remained in critical but stable condition. He also broke 12 ribs, his collarbone and chest bone and suffered some other, more minor injuries in Thursday's accident.

Republican Dino Rossi, who lost a close race for governor in 2004, said in Issaquah that he would seek a rematch with Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire next year. Rossi, a former state senator, prevailed in the first two vote counts in the November 2004 election, only to lose in a hand recount by 129 votes. He later lost a court challenge aimed at forcing a fresh election.

A candidate who supports a plan for a new base for thousands of U.S. troops has won a closely watched gubernatorial election in Okinawa, electoral officials announced. Hirokazu Nakaima, 67, a bureaucrat with support from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc, narrowly beat Keiko Itokazu, said local election board official Maiko Tashiro. Itokazu opposed Tokyo's plan to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps airstrip to another site on the island. There are about 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

Mississippi lawmakers in Jackson voted Democrat Ronnie Musgrove into the governor's office in the first gubernatorial race settled in the state House of Representatives. Musgrove was picked, 86 to 36, by the heavily Democratic House, which settled his razor-tight race with Republican Mike Parker. Republican incumbent Kirk Fordice is getting a divorce after 44 years of marriage and has had a very public affair with his childhood sweetheart.

The wife of Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland has been subpoenaed by federal authorities investigating alleged corruption in her husband's administration, according to published reports. The subpoena requires Patricia Rowland to produce documents or records, but it does not compel her to appear before a grand jury, The Hartford Courant and the New Haven Register reported.