CARLSBAD — Heading toward a tough election year, Republican governors voiced strong support at their annual meeting for President Bush's stand on the Iraq war and played down the impact on GOP candidates from his lapsed popularity.

With 36 gubernatorial seats up for grabs in 2006 and midterm elections in Congress, Republicans will be stressing efforts to build jobs and improve education, health care and homeland security, said Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the newly installed chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

"That's what we are devoted to, that's what these races are about," Romney told reporters Thursday. "The reason that there are so many Republican governors is that individuals look to the person and to their ideas first, and to their party affiliation second."

In a speech to the governors, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman alluded to the challenges faced by candidates in the current political climate. He recalled that President Reagan was all but written off by critics early in his second term.

The Republican legend answered with results, Mehlman said. The party's challenge, he said, is to "follow in the Ronald Reagan legacy."

Reagan "knew that there were things far more important than domestic politics," Mehlman said. "We cannot be disheartened."

Talking with reporters afterward, Mehlman said races across the country will be decided on local issues and individual candidates, not the rise and fall of presidential polls.

Democrats "are having a more challenging environment," he said.

Democrats are trying to gain ground in Congress and statehouses across the country by turning Bush's troubles into a liability for Republican candidates.

The president's approval ratings in polls have dipped to some of the lowest levels of his presidency, dragged down by the unpopular war in Iraq.