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CEDAR CREEK, Texas (AP) -- Thrilled with twin victories this month, Republican governors are looking to lead a party-wide resurgence in 2010 and shape the GOP for years to come.

Republicans boast of a strong crop of gubernatorial candidates who could be future party leaders, $25 million in the bank a year before the elections and a difficult environment for Democrats, particularly in financially ailing swing-voting states like Ohio and Iowa.

"Next year's going to be a good year for Republican governors," predicted Haley Barbour, Mississippi's governor and chairman of the Republican Governors Association. "In states where there are Republican governors, people can see if conservative and Republican ideas, when actually implemented, work."

Yet, Republicans face a Democratic Party that holds more states and is led by a proven fundraiser in President Barack Obama. There's no certainty that the landscape will continue to tilt toward the GOP a year from now or that a party plagued by infighting and lacking a standard-bearer will find a winning message by then.

More than control of statehouses is at stake. Governors elected in 2010 will be instrumental in redrawing congressional and legislative districts. And they will lay the foundation in important states for the 2012 presidential race when Obama is expected to run for re-election.

Republican governors and gubernatorial candidates met this week outside of Austin to plot strategy. On hand were possible presidential candidates like Barbour and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota as well as Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Mitch Daniels of Indiana. Govs.-elect Bob McDonnell of Virginia and Chris Christie of New Jersey attended, as did the GOP's top recruits for 2010 races, including John Kasich, a former congressman, in Ohio and Attorney General Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania.

Mindful of polls showing voters fearful of the economy and angry at Washington for budget-busting spending, Republicans honed a message of fiscal discipline and job creation.

They also dissected victories in Democratic-held New Jersey and Virginia this month. The wins were due in no small part to the flight of independents toward the GOP as well as an emphasis on pocketbook issues and the candidates' aggressive use of the Internet to reach voters.

Republicans hope for big wins in 2010 and also that governors elected next fall will become a collective catalyst for a rebirth after disastrous back-to-back national elections in 2006 and 2008.

There's precedent for governors leading the charge in mending devastated parties, and for governorships being a training ground for a party's next crop of national leaders.

Republicans were wiped out in 1964 when Barry Goldwater carried only Southern states. But two years later, Republicans rebounded. The GOP made its biggest gains in gubernatorial races, picking up eight states in a class of 1966 that included such up-and-comers as Ronald Reagan in California. The GOP was soundly beaten again in 1976 but 1978 saw Republicans gain six states, and after the big Democratic wins in 1992, the GOP picked up 10 states in 1994.

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