Former Democrat Wins GOP Race in Michigan : Michigan GOP Rallies to Black Ex-Democrat

Michigan Republicans rallied today around William Lucas, a black former Democrat who won a hard-fought primary for governor, while Democratic Gov. James J. Blanchard said he needs a second term to help “keep our comeback alive.”

Blanchard said he is ready for the fall campaign. The popular first-term governor, who has presided over the state’s economic recovery from near-depression in auto and other industries, said he is best qualified to “build jobs for the future.”

The GOP victor, Wayne County Executive Lucas, picked up support at a unity breakfast from all three candidates he defeated. Richard Chrysler, the businessman who spent $3 million of his own money and gave Lucas the toughest challenge, presented him with three checks of $1,700 each--the legal limit for individual contributions--from himself, his wife and his son.

Lucas also received congratulatory calls from Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) and the Rev. Pat Robertson and said he will ask President Reagan to campaign on his behalf.

Reagan formally welcomed Lucas into the GOP at the White House when he changed over 15 months ago.

In other results from Tuesday’s primaries, Missouri voters pointed Democratic Lt. Gov. Harriett Woods and former Republican Gov. Christopher Bond toward a November clash over the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton. Farm activist Wayne Cryts won the Democratic nomination for the 8th District and will face Republican Rep. Bill Emerson.

Kansas Republicans picked state House Speaker Mike Hayden to challenge Democratic Lt. Gov. Tom Docking for the governor’s mansion, while the state’s Democrats baffled party officials by choosing Guy MacDonald, a former carpet salesman who thinks paid political ads should be banned, to run against Dole.

Michigan had its own surprise, as New Right Republican Rep. Mark D. Siljander became the first congressman upset in a 1986 primary. Fred Upton, a traditional conservative, finished first in the southwestern 4th District, which has not sent a Democrat to Congress in 54 years.

Michigan’s GOP voters also started the process of selecting a 1988 Republican presidential nominee by choosing precinct delegates, after a campaign that attracted Vice President George Bush, New York’s Rep. Kemp and Pat Robertson.

None of their names were on the ballot, delegates are not pledged to any candidate and results may not be known for days. But that didn’t prevent Bush backers from claiming victory based on exit polls, a Kemp spokesman from gloating that Bush did not do as well as expected or Robertson from telling an Iowa news conference, “I frankly am enormously encouraged.”