열린우리당
He resigned from the government in early 2006, and ran for the governorship of Gyeonggi Province on the ruling Uri Party ticket. However he lost to Kim Moon-soo, the candidate of Grand National Party, as part of the widespread electoral revolt against the incumbent ruling party. He was however the only candidate to collect more than 30% of the votes by a ruling Uri-party candidate in all of the contests in the whole nation, except Governor Kim Wan-ju of Jeollabukdo.