The State of the States in Late 2012

I am posting this with very little commentary...except that I find it very interesting that 60% of the states with highest performing economies are headed by Republican administrations.

Please note that the data used below comes from individual state websites, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as Wikipedia.

High Rankings	State	Unemployment Rate	Governor	Political Party
36	WASHINGTON	8.5	Christine O'Grady Gregoire	Democrat
38	OREGON	8.7	John Kitzhaber	Democrat
39	FLORIDA	8.8	Richard Scott	Republican
40	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	8.9	Vincent Gray	Democrat
40	ILLINOIS	8.9	Pat Quinn	Democrat
42	MICHIGAN	9.0	Rick Snyder	Republican
43	MISSISSIPPI	9.1	Phil Bryant	Republican
43	NEW YORK	9.1	Andrew Cuomo	Democrat
45	GEORGIA	9.3	Nathan Deal	Republican
46	NORTH CAROLINA	9.6	Bev Perdue	Democrat
46	SOUTH CAROLINA	9.6	Nikki Haley	Republican
48	NEW JERSEY	9.8	Chris Christie	Republican
49	CALIFORNIA	10.7	Jerry Brown	Democrat
50	RHODE ISLAND	10.8	Lincoln Chafee	Independent
51	NEVADA	12.0	Brian Sandoval	Republican

Low Rankings	State	Unemployment Rate	Governor	Political Party
1	NORTH DAKOTA	3.0	Jack Dalrymple	Republican
2	NEBRASKA	4.0	Dave Heineman	Republican
3	SOUTH DAKOTA	4.4	Dennis Daugaard	Republican
4	OKLAHOMA	4.9	Mary Fallin	Republican
5	VERMONT	5.0	Peter Shumlin	Democrat
6	IOWA	5.3	Terry Branstad	Republican
7	NEW HAMPSHIRE	5.4	John Lynch	Democrat
8	WYOMING	5.6	Matt Mead	Republican
9	MINNESOTA	5.8	Mark Dayton	Democrat
10	VIRGINIA	5.9	Bob McDonnell	Republican
11	UTAH	6.0	Gary Herbert	Republican
12	MASSACHUSETTS	6.1	Deval Patrick	Democrat
13	KANSAS	6.3	Sam Brownback	Republican
14	HAWAII	6.4	Neil Abercombie	Democrat
15	MONTANA	6.4	Brian Schweitzer	Democrat

Data compiled by Karl Erickson.