Democrats Winning Kentucky, Mississippi Governorships : Goode Beats Rizzo in Philadelphia Race

Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode beat back a tougher-than-expected challenge from former Mayor Frank L. Rizzo Tuesday to win reelection after a bitter, racially charged campaign.

“We have won this election, and I am mayor for four more years,” Goode told his campaign workers.

Rizzo refused to concede Tuesday night, saying: “I’m sure that there was fraud.”

In other off-year elections around the country, Democrat Wallace Wilkinson easily won the race for the Kentucky governorship, and fellow Democrat Ray Mabus held a steady lead over Republican Jack Reed in Mississippi’s gubernatorial race.

Mayors Reelected

Other big-city mayors winning new terms included Ray Flynn in Boston, Kathy Whitmire in Houston and William Hudnut in Indianapolis.

The Philadelphia contest was the most closely watched municipal election. With 99.2% of the vote counted, unofficial returns showed Democrat Goode with 51.1% of the vote to 48.9% for Rizzo, a former Democrat who switched to the GOP in order to challenge Goode.

Each man called the other a liar in the course of the campaign, and each had to contend with what had happened during his administration. Rizzo, mayor for two terms in the 1970s, was widely accused of fostering racial polarization and tolerating police brutality; Goode was criticized over the 1985 firebombing of the headquarters of a radical group called MOVE in which 11 people were killed and the ensuing fire destroyed a city block and left 250 residents homeless.

In Kentucky, Wilkinson, a college dropout who made millions as a businessman, received 65% of the vote to 35% for GOP state Rep. John Harper, based on nearly complete returns.

Record Victory Margin

No Republican has been elected governor of Kentucky in 20 years, and voters appeared to be granting Wilkinson’s wish for the greatest victory margin in state history. The previous record was 62.8% of the vote. Wilkinson sought the landslide as a means of increasing his clout with the Legislature.

“I think we have a sufficient mandate tonight to get those programs done,” he said after campaigning against higher taxes but in favor of a statewide lottery to increase revenues.

With 26% of the vote counted in Mississippi, Mabus, the state’s auditor, had 55% to 45% for Reed, who was attempting to become the state’s first GOP governor since Reconstruction.

In other elections:

--In Miami, Mayor Xavier Suarez was forced into a runoff against the man he ousted two years ago, Maurice Ferre. Unofficial final results showed Suarez with 43% of the vote, Ferre with 32% and attorney Arthur Teele Jr. with 23%.

--In Baltimore, Kurt Schmoke, a Democratic prosecutor, became the first black elected mayor of the city by defeating Republican Samuel Culotta, 62.

Black Woman Mayor

--In Hartford, Conn., Democratic state legislator Carrie Saxon Perry, 56, was elected mayor. She will be the first black woman to serve as chief executive of a major Northeastern city. She defeated Republican Philip L. Steele, 43.

--In Gary, Ind., Democrat Thomas Barnes, who had ousted veteran Mayor Richard G. Hatcher in the Democratic primary, won election easily.

--In Indianapolis, Hudnut, a Republican, easily defeated two opponents to win an unprecedented fourth term, less than a week after admitting that he had applied for academic jobs in case he lost.

--In Boston, Flynn coasted to reelection, turning back a challenge from City Councilor Joseph Tierney by a ratio of approximately 2 to 1. --In Houston, Whitmire won a fourth two-year term over six politically unknown and underfunded challengers. Early returns showed her receiving more than 70% of the votes.

Virginia OKs Lottery

In many states, the primary Election Day focus was on ballot propositions. In Virginia, residents approved a statewide lottery, but Washington, D.C., residents rejected a plan to require deposits on bottles.

Maine voters, for the third time this decade, rejected a proposal to close Maine Yankee, the state’s only nuclear power plant. The 840-megawatt plant supplies one-fourth of Maine’s electricity.

In Texas, a proposal to allow pari-mutuel betting on horse racing appeared headed for approval. Texas is the most populous state to prohibit such betting, and supporters of the proposal argued that the state was losing millions of dollars because residents bet at race tracks in neighboring states.

Little National Interest

Generally, the final off-year elections of the Ronald Reagan era focused on local issues and drew little national attention.

In contrast to 1985, when both national political parties sought to bolster their standing by pouring resources into races in Virginia and New Jersey, the contestants in this year’s states were generally left on their own.

President Reagan did little, except to invite Harper, of Kentucky, and Reed, of Mississippi, to the White House for picture-taking sessions.

Vice President George Bush traveled to Mississippi in late October to stump for Reed, as the party sought to help him in the final days of his campaign.