Georgia Race Resolved by Thin Margin : Jordan Loses Senate Bid as Fowler Avoids Runoff

Rep. Wyche Fowler Jr. won Georgia’s Democratic senatorial nomination after a day of suspense Wednesday, avoiding a runoff contest with Carter Administration White House aide Hamilton Jordan by a paper-thin margin.

Fowler, a five-term congressman, a former Atlanta City Council president and attorney, will face incumbent Republican Sen. Mack Mattingly in November in a key contest for both Democrats and Republicans nationally as they vie to dominate the Senate.

With all of the Democratic vote counted, unofficial returns showed Fowler with 311,884 votes or 50.2% of the total. Under Georgia law, a runoff contest would have been required if no candidate had gotten more than 50%.

Jordan, White House chief of staff in the Jimmy Carter Administration, had 193,671 votes or 31.1%; State Rep. John Russell, a nephew of Georgia’s legendary Sen. Richard B. Russell, was third with 101,188 or 16.2%, and Gerald Belsky, an exponent of Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., had 14,311 or 2.3%.

“It is a great victory, it really is,” Fowler said.

In the Democratic primary race for the congressional seat being vacated by Fowler, state Sen. Julian Bond was forced into a runoff against his long-time friend and ally in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, John Lewis.

Heavily Democratic District

Bond led a field of seven candidates with 31,375 votes or 47%, followed by Lewis, a former Atlanta city councilman, with 22,893 or 35%. The winner of the Sept. 2 runoff is virtually assured victory in November against the Republican opponent in the heavily Democratic and largely black 5th Congressional District, which encompasses most of Atlanta.

In other primary election results, Martin Luther King III, son of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., won the Democratic nomination for a seat on the Fulton County Commission. But Ralph David Abernathy III, son of the late King’s top lieutenant, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, failed in his quest for a seat in the Georgia Legislature.

In the Senate race, both Fowler and Jordan refused to call Tuesday’s primary election until early Wednesday evening, after the votes from all but eight precincts in rural Monroe County, just northwest of Macon, had been counted.

Computer Delays Count

Sherri Fasci, a spokeswoman in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, which supervises elections and certifies results, said computer problems in Monroe County were delaying a final count there. But in the county’s six other precincts, Fowler had outpolled Jordan by a total of 243 to 193.

Jordan, in a speech conceding defeat at his campaign headquarters in Atlanta, congratulated Fowler for his victory and pledged his support in the November general election.

“Wyche ran a strong race yesterday, a good race, and showed strength throughout the state,” said Jordan, who had sought to portray Fowler as a Walter Mondale-type liberal in the fiercely contested primary campaign.

GOP Starts Attack

National Republicans lost no time in launching an attack against Fowler, who was first elected to his congressional seat in 1977 and has built up an impressive record in the House, including a seat on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

In a statement issued Wednesday in Washington, GOP National Chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. branded Fowler as a “Tip O’Neill liberal” who is “too liberal for Georgia.”

In Colorado, the other state that held a primary Tuesday, state Senate President Ted Strickland defeated Colorado Springs developer Steve Schuck and state Rep. Bob Kirscht of Pueblo to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination. He will face Democratic state Treasurer Roy Romer in a contest to succeed three-term Democratic Gov. Richard D. Lamm.