Democrats on defense in 2012 governors’ races

WASHINGTON — Democ­rats are play­ing defense in gov­er­nors’ races in 2012, pro­tect­ing eight seats — some in con­ser­v­a­tive states like North Car­olina and Mon­tana — while Repub­li­cans are safe­guard­ing just four. But one of those is in Wis­con­sin, where a recall effort against incum­bent Scott Walker has emerged as a national test of the con­fronta­tional mea­sures many GOP gov­er­nors have taken to bal­ance state budgets.