State-by-State Reports of the Key Races and Issues

Following are edition-time results of state elections across the country Tuesday. The results have been compiled from Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters and the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service:

ALABAMA

MONTGOMERY--Democratic Sen. Howell Heflin, 69, the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, rolled over Republican challenger Bill Cabaniss to win a third term.

With 86% of the precincts reporting, Heflin had 61% of the votes to Cabaniss’ 39%.

In the governor’s race, incumbent GOP Guy Hunt, a little-known preacher and farmer in 1986 when he won a historic landslide over a divided Democratic Party, narrowly defeated Democrat Paul Hubbert, the executive secretary of the Alabama Education Assn.

Hunt was winning with 51% of the vote to Hubbert’s 49%. He was seeking to become the only person other than George C. Wallace to win two successive terms.

Democrats held on to five of the seven open House seats, with Republicans winning two. Five of the seats were contested.

ALASKA

JUNEAU--Incumbent Republican Ted Stevens won his fifth election to the Senate, defeating Democrat Michael Beasley, a union worker.

In the race for governor, former Gov. and Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel, running as an independent, had a slight lead over Democrat Tony Knowles, the former mayor of Anchorage. Republican Arliss Sturgulewski, also of Anchorage, was trailing by a considerable margin.

Don Young, the incumbent Republican, was far in front in his effort to keep the state’s lone seat in the House.

ARIZONA

TUCSON--Terry Goddard was running ahead of Republican real estate developer Fife Symington in a race for the state’s open governorship.

Democrat Morris K. Udall, who has been in the House since 1961, won what he says will be his last term in Congress. Udall has Parkinson’s disease.

Incumbents won the four other House races, leaving the delegation with three Republicans and two Democrats.

ARKANSAS

LITTLE ROCK--Democratic Gov. Bill Clinton defeated Republican challenger Sheffield Nelson.

Clinton, who ran for President in 1988, appeared to rule out a 1992 presidential bid when he pledged during his reelection campaign to serve out his fifth, non-consecutive term as governor.

In the Senate, Democratic incumbent David Pryor, 56, had no opponent.

In House races, former Democrat Rep. Ray Thornton defeated his Republican opponent, state Rep. Jim Keet, to fill the open 2nd District seat. Three incumbents--two Democrats and a Republican--held onto their congressional seats.

COLORADO

DENVER--Gov. Roy Romer waltzed to a second term, while Republican Rep. Hank Brown was on his way to capturing a Senate seat.

Brown, 50, was leading Democrat Josie Heath, 53, a former Boulder County commissioner, by 54% to 46%. The winner succeeds Republican Sen. Bill Armstrong, who is retiring.

Romer, 62, who first won office in 1986, faced challenger John Andrews, an outside-the-mainstream Republican. Romer had 68% of the vote to Andrews’ 32%.

In congressional races, five incumbents--three Democrats and two Republicans--were reelected.

CONNECTICUT

HARTFORD--Independent Lowell P. Weicker Jr. defeated Republican John G. Rowland and Democrat Bruce A. Morrison to become the state’s first independent governor since 1856.

The 59-year-old former Republican senator was garnering 41% of the votes. Rowland, 33, a three-term Republican congressman from blue-collar Waterbury, was running second with 37% and Morrison, 46, a four-term Democratic congressman from Hamden, tallied 21%. Democratic Gov. William O’Neill is retiring.

Connecticut’s sagging economy dominated the campaign.

Conservative Republican Gary A. Franks became the first black elected to the House since 1935, as former Rep. Toby Moffett fell to a carpetbagger label for moving into the 5th District earlier this year. Connecticut has not elected a black Republican to the House since before the Civil War.

Democrats and Republicans now hold three seats each in Connecticut’s congressional delegation.

DELAWARE

DOVER--Democratic Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., 47, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, easily won reelection over Republican state Atty. Gen. M. Jane Brady, 39.

With 92% of the vote tallied, Biden had received 103,766 votes, or 63%, to Brady’s 59,997, or 37%. The incumbent had endured two life-threatening operations in 1988 to repair brain aneurysms.

Delaware had one at-large House race, pitting incumbent Democrat Rep. Thomas R. Carper, 43, against Republican Ralph O. Williams, 55. With 95% of the vote tallied, Carper was far ahead with 110,228 votes, or 67%, to Williams’ 54,974, or 33%.

FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE--Former Sen. Lawton Chiles, bouncing back from mental illness with an anti-depression drug, regained the Florida governor’s seat for the Democrats in an upset over Republican incumbent Bob Martinez.

Chiles was leading Martinez 55% to 45%, and Martinez conceded the race.

Chiles, 60, citing burnout, did not seek reelection to the Senate in 1988 after serving three terms. He later acknowledged that he was being treated for depression with the prescription drug Prozac.

The National Abortion Rights Action League said the voters had repudiated Martinez, 55, who was only the second Republican governor in Florida since Reconstruction, for his high-profile campaign against abortion.

The Martinez loss was a setback for President Bush, who made three campaign visits to the state in an effort to help his candidacy.

Voters also appeared to be granting overwhelming approval to a number of ballot initiatives, including a three-day waiting period on handgun purchases.

In races for House seats, Democrat Douglas (Pete) Peterson upset U.S. Rep. James W. (Bill) Grant, a recent convert to the GOP who was targeted by the Democratic Party for defeat in north Florida’s 2nd District.

GEORGIA

ATLANTA--Democrat Zell Miller, Georgia’s lieutenant governor for 16 years, rode voter enthusiasm over a state lottery to a victory in the governor’s race.

With 85% of precincts reporting, Miller led 54% to 43% for Republican Johnny Isakson, 45, a prosperous Atlanta real estate company executive and state legislator for 14 years.

The state’s 10 members of the U.S. House, nine Democrats and a Republican, all faced opposition. In the 4th District, with 83% of precincts reporting, Ben Jones, a freshman Democrat who played “Cooter” on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” was leading with 54% of the vote over Republican John Linder, 46, who had 46%.

In a neck-and-neck race in the 6th District with 96% of precincts reporting, incumbent Republican Newt Gingrich, 47, had 74,145 votes to challenger David Worley’s 73,065.

Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, 52, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, ran unopposed for his fourth six-year term.

HAWAII

HONOLULU--Sen. Daniel Akaka beat back a strong challenge from Rep. Patricia Saiki, denying Republicans a longed-for chance to grab a seat in this heavily Democratic state.

With 72% of the precincts reporting, Akaka, 66, had 54% of the vote while Saiki, 61, garnered 45%.

Akaka had been appointed earlier this year to fill the seat of the late Sen. Spark Matsunaga and will serve the four years remaining in that term.

IDAHO

BOISE--Democratic Gov. Cecil D. Andrus earned an unprecedented fourth four-year term, just seven months after he was targeted for defeat by outraged anti-abortion forces.

Andrus, who interrupted his tenure as governor to serve as President Jimmy Carter’s interior secretary, was never really tested in the campaign by Roger Fairchild, a former state Senate Republican floor leader.

He was leading 65% to 35%.

Idaho voters maintained their ticket-splitting tradition, reelecting five-term Republican Rep. Larry E. Craig, 45, who defeated Democratic state Sen. Ron J. Twilegar, 47, for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. James A. McClure. Craig was leading 66% to 34%.

ILLINOIS

CHICAGO--Republican Jim Edgar narrowly defeated Democrat Neil F. Hartigan in Illinois’ first wide-open governor’s race in more than a decade--a race that reversed the usual political wisdom on taxes.

Voters sent Democratic Sen. Paul Simon back to Washington, turning a deaf ear to GOP Rep. Lynn Martin’s anti-tax message and late call for limiting the terms of lawmakers.

Simon was winning 66% of the vote to Martin’s 34%.

INDIANA

INDIANAPOLIS--Dan Coats, appointed to the Senate when Dan Quayle was elected vice president in 1988, won the race to serve the final two years of the term Quayle won in 1986.

Coats, who also followed Quayle to the House when the vice president moved to the Senate in 1980, defeated state Rep. Baron Hill in a tight contest. He must run for reelection in two years.

Seven Democrats and two Republicans were reelected to the House. GOP incumbent John Hiler was locked in a tight race in the other contest.

IOWA

DES MOINES--Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin bucked a spirited challenge from Republican Rep. Tom Tauke to win a second term after a two-year, $11-million campaign that was the most expensive political race in Iowa history.

Harkin was winning with 54% of the vote to 46% for Tauke.

Harkin, 50, had been a target for the GOP since he ousted Republican Sen. Roger Jepsen in 1984 and emerged as a persistent and vocal Administration critic. Tauke, 40, carved out a reputation as a moderate Republican who represented a heavily Democratic district in Congress for a dozen years.

Both entered the contest saying voters were tired of negative politics and pledging to bring issues back to the campaign trail. But the campaign was marked with a barrage of negative TV commercials as the campaign wound down.

Harkin hammered at Tauke’s staunch anti-abortion stand and worked hard to tie him to GOP policies Harkin said favored the wealthy and powerful.

Tauke portrayed Harkin as part of “the tax-and-spend crowd” in Washington and got three campaign visits from President Bush to help make that point.

In the governor’s race, two-term Gov. Terry E. Branstad, 43, defeated Democratic House Speaker Don Avenson, 46.

Branstad was ahead with 60% of the vote, while Avenson had 40%.

Congressional incumbents held on to five of six open seats. The GOP candidate was leading in the only open race. Three incumbents were uncontested.

KANSAS

TOPEKA--Republican Gov. Mike Hayden, 46, blamed for large property tax increases, was turned out of office after a single term, losing to Democratic state Treasurer Joan Finney, 65, who becomes the state’s first woman governor.

Finney was leading Hayden 54% to 46%. He had been narrowly renominated in the primary by voters who were angered by a property tax overhaul that sent tax bills soaring.

GOP U.S. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum, 58, the daughter of the late Gov. Alf Landon, easily defeated her Democratic challenger, Dick Williams, 56, a college teacher. Kassebaum was winning 73% of the votes.

Four incumbent U.S. House members, two Republicans and two Democrats, were all comfortably ahead.

In the 5th District, Republican Dick Nichols, 64, was leading former Democratic state Rep. George Wingert, 59, by 59% to 41%, thus maintaining the 3-2 GOP advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation.

KENTUCKY

LOUISVILLE--Republican Mitch McConnell, 48, defeated Democrat Harvey I. Sloane, the former mayor of Louisville, to win a second term in the U.S. Senate.

Heading into the election, Sloane did not appear to have benefited much from voter anger against Congress, and McConnell was favored to win a second term. McConnell received 53% of the vote.

Voters retained every incumbent congressman, returning four Democrats and three Republicans to Washington.

LOUISIANA

BATON ROUGE--Voters in New Orleans were poised to send a black Democrat to Washington from the last majority black congressional district in the nation still represented by a white.

In a tight contest, voters in that state’s unusual electoral runoff system were choosing between two black Democratic candidates: state Sen. William Jefferson and Marc Morial, son of the late Mayor Ernest (Dutch) Morial. The seat is being vacated by the retirement of Democratic Rep. Lindy Boggs.

With 85% of the vote tallied, Jefferson led Morial by about 2,500 votes, 51% to 49%.

Incumbents in seven other House districts were assured of reelection, as was Sen. J. Bennett Johnson, who defeated Republican David Duke during the state’s Oct. 6 open primary.

MAINE

AUGUSTA--Republican Gov. John R. McKernan was is a neck-and-neck battle with his Democratic predecessor, U.S. Rep. Joseph E. Brennan, in the culmination of a contentious race.

With 49% of precincts reporting, McKernan had 46% of the votes to Brennan’s 45%.

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Sen. William S. Cohen, 50, won a third term in a race against Democrat Neil Rolde.

No change was expected in the party breakdown of the state’s House delegation, although the two races were tighter than expected.

Voters also were approving a referendum plan to repeal Maine’s “blue laws,” allowing large stores and supermarkets to do business on Sundays throughout the year.

MARYLAND

BALTIMORE--Five-term Rep. Roy Dyson was ousted from office, losing to Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Republican schoolteacher who has never held public office.

A member of the Armed Services Committee, Dyson, 41, had barely survived a challenge by Gilchrest, 44, in 1988 when Dyson was hampered by conflict-of-interest accusations involving defense contractor campaign money. This year, it was disclosed that Dyson had escaped service in the Vietnam War by claiming conscientious objector status--in contrast to his hawkish defense views.

With was winning 57% of the vote to 43% for Dyson.

In the governor’s race, Democrat William Donald Schaefer held on to his job in his battle with William and Lois Shepard, the GOP husband-and-wife team who ran for governor and lieutenant governor.

With 93% of precincts reporting, Schaefer had 61% of the votes to 39% for Shepard.

The seven other incumbent members of Congress--five Democrats and two Republicans--all won reelection.

MASSACHUSETTS

BOSTON--In a battle of political newcomers, Republican William F. Weld upset Democrat John R. Silber in the race to succeed Michael S. Dukakis as governor.

Neither Weld, a former U.S. attorney, nor Silber, the outspoken president of Boston University, had been expected to get past their primaries, but both pulled stunning upsets as voters took out their frustrations on party regulars.

Voters decisively rejected Question 3, which would have reduced taxes by $2.6 billion in fiscal 1992. The measure would have been the nation’s largest voter-initiated state tax cut in history.

Freshman Democrat John Kerry, 46, won his second Senate term, and eight of the state’s 10 Democratic congressmen--including Barney Frank, who was reprimanded by his colleagues in July for improperly using his office to help a male prostitute--and its lone Republican were returned to Capitol Hill. Democratic incumbents were leading in the other two races.

MICHIGAN

LANSING--Republican John Engler, who hit Gov. James J. Blanchard hard on cutting property taxes, was trailing the two-term incumbent by about 19,000 votes. The lead seesawed throughout the night.

Engler had promised to cut property taxes by 20%. In the final days of the race, Engler handed out 5,000 nickels as he campaigned. “That’s how much Jim Blanchard wants to cut your property taxes each week. I think it’s an insult,” Engler said.

Blanchard also received negative publicity over dropping Lt. Gov. Martha Griffiths as his running mate in favor of a younger woman.

In the Senate race, Republican Bill Schuette tried to play up his longstanding opposition to taxes--he has never voted for a tax increase during his six years in the House--but he lost to Sen. Carl Levin, 57% to 43%.

Levin had visited U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf in early September, beaming photo footage back home from the deck of the Wisconsin. Schuette reminded voters in a TV ad filmed in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that Levin voted against reactivating the battleship in 1985.

In the House races, all 10 Democratic and five Republican incumbents were reelected. In the two open contests, the GOP won one race and was leading in the second.

MINNESOTA

ST. PAUL--Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Gov. Rudy Perpich, seeking an unprecedented fourth term, was locked in a tight race with Republican state auditor Arne Carlson despite turmoil and scandal that engulfed the GOP.

Carlson finished second in the GOP primary, but he became his party’s gubernatorial candidate a week ago to replace Jon Grunseth, who withdrew amid allegations by two women who said in sworn statements that when they were 13 and 14 years old, Grunseth tried to get them to take off their bathing suits to join him for a nude swim.

Perpich had 49% of the vote to Carlson’s 51%.

Election officials predicted that results could be delayed several hours because a switch in GOP gubernatorial candidates forced the printing of supplemental ballots, which were counted by hand.

In the Senate race, it was a down-to-the-wire contest, with Republican incumbent Rudy Boschwitz trading leads all evening with liberal Democrat Paul Wellstone, a college professor.

Wellstone had 51% of the vote while Boschwitz had 49%.

Five Minnesota Democratic congressmen and two Republican House members were seeking reelection.

MISSISSIPPI

JACKSON--Democratic incumbents held onto all five House seats in Mississippi, one running unopposed and the four others turning back Republican challengers by wide margins.

In the 5th Congressional District, Sheila Smith, wife of the late GOP Rep. Larkin Smith who died last year in a plane crash, failed in her bid for her husband’s former seat, held by Democrat Gene Taylor. With 98% of precincts reporting, Taylor had 81% of the vote to Smith’s 19%.

No Democrat was willing to take on Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, 52, who was reelected to a third term without opposition.

MISSOURI

JEFFERSON CITY--Republican Rep. Jack Buechner was on the verge of being upset by Democrat Joan Kelly Horn in the 2nd District race, but incumbents of both parties were victorious in the eight other House races. Horn was winning with 51% of the votes that had been counted in the western St. Louis County district.

MONTANA

HELENA--Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, 48, dashed Republican hopes of an upset, gaining a third term over GOP challenger Lt. Gov. Allen C. Kolstad.

State voters were rejecting Constitutional Amendment 55, which would eliminate state income, property and sales taxes, as well as license fees and registration. The funding was to be generated instead by a 1% charge on every $1 business transaction.

In the House races, Republican Rep. Ron Marlenee defeated Democrat Don Burris, and Democratic Rep. Pat Williams beat his Republican opponent, Brad Johnson.

NEVADA

CARSON CITY--Acting Gov. Robert J. Miller was elected to a full term, beating Republican challenger Jim Gallaway.

Miller was winning with 64% of the vote to businessman Gallaway’s 33%. The remaining votes went to other candidates.

In congressional races, Democratic Rep. James Bilbray, 52, defeated publisher Bob Dickinson, 57, in the 1st District race.

In the 2nd District, Rep. Barbara F. Vucanovich beat state Assemblywoman Jane Wisdom. Wisdom had moved to the district to challenge the four-term Republican.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

CONCORD--Republican Rep. Robert C. Smith, 49, easily won the U.S. Senate seat being abandoned by Gordon J. Humphrey, who left Congress to run for the state Legislature.

Smith’s Democratic opponent, John A. Durkin, 54, had based his campaign on charges that Smith was beholden to special interest groups that poured more than $500,000 into his campaign.

Smith was winning 67% of the votes to Durkin’s 33%.

Republican Gov. Judd Gregg easily won a second two-year term, fending off Democrat Joe Grandmaison’s charges he was incompetent to lead the state out of its economic doldrums.

Gregg had 65% of the vote to 35% for Grandmaison.

In congressional races, Republican Rep. Chuck Douglas failed in his bid for a second term, losing to Democrat Dick Swett, an architect.

NEW JERSEY

TRENTON--Sen. Bill Bradley, 47, a Democrat often mentioned as a presidential contender, scratched out a narrow victory over his relatively unknown Republican challenger, Christine Todd Whitman.

With 95% of precincts reporting, Bradley had 52% of the vote to 48% for Whitman, a former president of the state Board of Public Utilities.

Republicans did their best to tar Bradley and his fellow Democrats with the brush of Gov. James J. Florio’s unpopular tax increases. Florio was not on the ballot.

There were two open congressional seats among the state’s total of 14, but neither contested race was expected to alter the political balance of the delegation.

NEW MEXICO

ALBUQUERQUE--Former two-time New Mexico Gov. Bruce King defeated Republican Frank Bond to regain the governor’s seat.

With 79% of the precincts reporting, King had 54% of the vote to Bond’s 46%.

The victory gives King and the party the power to dominate next year’s reapportionment.

Popular incumbent Republican Pete V. Domenici, 58, won a lopsided U.S. Senate race over Democratic challenger Tom Benavides, an Albuquerque state senator. Domenici was getting 72% of the vote.

King and Bond were vying to succeed Republican Garrey E. Carruthers, who was prohibited by law from seeking reelection. However, a change in the state Constitution will allow the winner to seek reelection in four years.

NEW YORK

NEW YORK--Gov. Mario M. Cuomo breezed to a third term over splintered Republican opposition, maintaining his standing as a leader of the Democratic Party and potential presidential candidate for 1992.

Cuomo’s opposition included millionaire economist Pierre Rinfret, the Republican challenger who was an unknown in New York politics six months ago, and Conservative Party nominee Herbert London.

With 92% of precincts reporting, Cuomo had 53% of the vote to 21% for Rinfret and 20% for London.

In the final two months of the campaign, the outspoken, underfunded Rinfret spent almost as much time bashing prominent Republicans as he did attacking Democrat Cuomo.

Of New York’s 34 congressional members, 21 Democrats and 13 Republicans, five ran unopposed and the others were leading with most precincts reporting.

NORTH CAROLINA

RALEIGH--Three-term Republican Sen. Jesse Helms defeated Democratic challenger Harvey Gantt as conflict erupted over broken voting machines and court orders that extended voting hours.

Helms, 69, a leading spokesman for the American right, argued that government is too large and intrusive and needs to be cut back. He sounded his familiar themes, attacking affirmative action programs as unfair to whites and decrying pornography and homosexuality as signs of declining moral values.

Gantt, 47, an architect who served two terms as the first black mayor of Charlotte, campaigned as an unabashed liberal. His attempt to unseat Helms was the most-closely watched, and most expensive, national race.

The national attention for the Senate race overshadowed the state’s House races, where 10 of 11 incumbents were reelected.

In the 11th District, incumbent Democratic Rep. James McClure Clarke was trailing Republican Charles H. Taylor with 81% of the vote tallied. Taylor, who had come within 1,529 votes of unseating Clarke in 1988, led with 51% of the vote.

NORTH DAKOTA

BISMARCK--Five-term Democratic Rep. Byron L. Dorgan, 48, won reealection handily over Republican challenger Edward T. Schafer, 44.

With 84% of the vote tallied, Dorgan had 123,780 votes or 66%, to Schafer’s 65,160, or 34%.

Dorgan turned around perceived negatives and focused on the need to improve rural health care, expand trade opportunities and assure the survival of the family farm.

OHIO

COLUMBUS--Former Cleveland Mayor George V. Voinovich swept to victory over Democrat Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr., regaining control of the governor’s office for the Republicans.

Voinovich was winning 55% of the vote compared to 45% for Celebrezze, the state’s attorney general. Celebrezze was a strong opponent of abortion until he switched positions in December, drawing the enmity of his former allies and earning a flip-flopper’s tag that he never overcame.

Democratic Gov. Richard Celeste was prevented by law from seeking a third consecutive term.

In House races, each party captured 10 seats, with one undecided. Previously, the Democrats held an 11-10 edge.

Voters also were deciding whether to change the state Constitution to permit casino gambling. At issue was whether residents of Lorain should be permitted to decide in a later election whether to allow construction of a casino.

OKLAHOMA

OKLAHOMA CITY--Businessman David Walters recaptured the governor’s mansion for Oklahoma Democrats, winning a bitter and expensive campaign against Republican Bill Price, a former federal prosecutor.

Walters, 38, outspent Price, 42, and independent Thomas Ledgerwood in his bid to succeed Republican Henry Bellmon, who is retiring. Bellmon had defeated Walters in 1986.

Democratic Sen. David L. Boren, 49, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, breezed to a third term, winning over Republican Stephen Jones.

Oklahoma Democrats were expected to maintain their 4-2 edge in congressional seats.

OREGON

PORTLAND--Sen. Mark O. Hatfield was leading in his battle for a fifth term against a strong challenge from Democrat Harry Lonsdale, a businessman who campaigned as a political outsider.

But Republican Rep. Denny Smith, tarnished by links to the savings and loan scandal, lost his bid for a sixth term from the state’s 5th District, falling to Democrat Mike Kopetski in a rematch of their race two years ago. Incumbents won the state’s other House races.

In the race for governor, Democratic Secretary of State Barbara Roberts was expected to defeat Republican Atty. Gen. Dave Frohnmayer, according to exit polls. Incumbent Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, a Democrat, did not seek reelection.

Voters also faced 11 statewide ballot issues. Polls showed voters closely divided on a measure that would shut down the state’s only nuclear power plant, the Trojan plant in northwestern Oregon.

PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA--Democratic Gov. Robert P. Casey, who signed tough abortion controls and avoided tax increases in his first term, breezed to a second term, defeating Republican Barbara Hafer.

Casey, 58, put $4 million in television commercials on the air beginning Sept. 19 while Hafer had to settle for about $275,000 worth of ads in the last two weeks.

With 91% of precincts reporting, Casey had 68% of the votes to 32% for Hafer, a former public health nurse and county commissioner from the Pittsburgh area.

Hafer favored abortion rights and counted on pro-choice advocates to help with the race. But Casey never mentioned abortion unless asked, and it never caught on as an issue.

Democrats held a 12-11 edge in the congressional delegation. Six incumbents were unopposed.

RHODE ISLAND

PROVIDENCE--Republican Gov. Edward DiPrete succumbed to the region’s economic woes and Democrat Bruce G. Sundlun.

With most precincts in the state reporting, Sundlun had 75% of the vote to DiPrete’s 25%.

DiPrete, first elected in 1984, enjoyed huge popularity during New England’s technology-driven boom years, but he lost support when the bottom fell out of the state’s economy in the past couple of years.

Sen. Claiborne Pell, 71, a Democrat, won a sixth term after a quixotic challenge by Rep. Claudine Schneider. Pell heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Schneider, a liberal Republican who often broke with the Reagan and Bush administrations during her 10 years in Washington, ended with ads saying that she and Pell were alike--but it was time for a change.

SOUTH CAROLINA

COLUMBIA--Republican Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. easily defeated Democrat Theo Mitchell, who had sought to become South Carolina’s first black governor.

Campbell was leading with 71% of the votes while Mitchell had 29%.

Republican U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, 87, turned back token opposition from Democrat Robert Cunningham, 70, an ex-CIA agent who apparently made no effort to campaign. Thurmond, the nation’s oldest and longest-serving member of Congress, won a seventh term.

Thurmond was winning with 67% of the vote to Cunningham’s 33%.

South Carolina’s U.S. House delegation, with four Democrats and two Republicans, all sought reelection. Four had opposition but none of the challengers appeared to pose a threat to the incumbents.

SOUTH DAKOTA

PIERRE--Voters chose incumbents in all three major statewide races.

Republican Larry Pressler topped challenger Ted Muenster as he sought his third term in the Senate. Democrat Tim Johnson defeated former state Sen. Don Frankenfeld in the race for the state’s only House seat.

Republican Gov. George S. Mickelson won reelection by defeating Democratic rival Bob Samuelson.

TENNESSEE

NASHVILLE--Democratic Gov. Ned McWherter and U.S. Sen. Al Gore buried weak Republican opposition in bids for second terms.

Nine incumbent congressmen also were returned to office.

McWherter beat Republican Dwight Henry, a freshman state legislator. Gore, who was a 1988 presidential hopeful, outdistanced Republican William R. Hawkins, 41, a Knoxville economist and free-lance writer who conducted almost no campaigning.

McWherter had 62% of the vote to 38% for Henry. Gore, 42, had 70% to Hawkins’ 30%.

TEXAS

AUSTIN--Democrat Ann Richards pulled off a stunning upset to grab the Texas governorship away from the Republicans on Tuesday, defeating gaffe-prone millionaire oilman Clayton Williams after a contest that set records for spending and mudslinging.

Outspent by nearly a 2-1 margin in a campaign that cost more than $30 million, Richards, 57, nonetheless closed the gap with Williams, 58, in the campaign’s final days, helped by his admission that he had paid no taxes in 1986.

Richards had 52% of the vote to 48% for Williams.

Texas voters gave Republican Phil Gramm a second term in the U.S. Senate. Gramm, 48, is best-known for his co-authorship of the Gramm-Rudmann legislation that threatens automatic budget cuts if Congress fails to meet specified deficit-reduction targets. Gramm was winning with 61% of the vote to 39% for his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Hugh Parmer, 51, of Ft. Worth.

With Democrats holding 19 of the state’s 27 seats in the U.S. House, the GOP concentrated on unseating Democratic Rep. Bill Sarpalius, 42, of Amarillo. However, with 81% of precincts reporting, Sarpalius held a lead of 63,936 votes to 46,146 for state Rep. Dick Waterfield, 51.

UTAH

SALT LAKE CITY--Democrats won two of three House seats in Utah, normally a GOP stronghold.

Democrat Bill Orton defeated Republican Karl Snow in the race for the 3rd District seat vacated by GOP Rep. Howard Nielson. Republican incumbent James Hansen fended off challenger Kenley Brunsdale to hold his 1st District seat, and Democratic incumbent Wayne Owens held his 2nd District seat against Genevieve Atwood.

VERMONT

MONTPELIER--Bernard Sanders became the first socialist elected to the House in more than four decades, winning a rematch with incumbent Republican Rep. Peter Smith.

Former Republican Gov. Richard A. Snelling won a return to the job he held for four terms, defeating former Democratic state Sen. Peter Welch and two other candidates. Incumbent Gov. Madeleine Kunin, a Democrat, did not run.

Snelling had decided to run when it still appeared that Kunin would seek reelection. He said he entered the race because he felt the state’s fiscal affairs were a mess.

VIRGINIA

RICHMOND--Republican U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, 63, won reelection to a third term in a bid that was virtually unopposed.

His only challenger was independent Nancy Spannaus, an associate of fringe political figure Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.

With 97% of the precincts reporting, Warner had 82% of the vote to 18% for Spannaus.

Among the 10 House races, Democrat James P. Moran, the mayor of Alexandria, won a raucous campaign to turn Rep. Stanford E. Parris out of his House seat after six terms from the 8th District. Moran had accused Parris of being more interested in the governorship than in serving his constituents.

WASHINGTON

OLYMPIA--By 3-to-1, voters were soundly rejecting Measure 547, or “Little Green,” a proposal to protect open space, force communities to plan for growth and put some distance between growth issues and elected officials.

Democratic incumbent Rep. Jolene Unsoeld, 58, who has been on the GOP’s hit list since her 618-vote victory in 1988 and criticized for her liberal stands on taxes and the environment, faced off against Republican challenger Bob Williams, 48, a former state legislator and evangelical Christian. No winner had been declared in that congressional race or three others.

Four incumbents--one Republican and three Democrats--won reelection to the House in other contests.

WEST VIRGINIA

CHARLESTON--Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, 53, a millionare-Democrat, captured a second term against financially outgunned Republican John Yoder.

Rockefeller was winning 73% of the vote to Yoder’s 27%.

Rockefeller, a former two-term governer, drew criticism for setting spending records in previous campaigns for governor and Senate. He cut back on campaign spending this year.

But Rockefeller still reported raising $2.7 million and spending $1.4 million, compared with the $19,000 Yoder spent.

West Virginia’s four congressmen, all Democrats, retained their seats.

WISCONSIN

MADISON--Democratic Rep. Robert W. Kastenmeier, a veteran of 32 years in Congress, was upset by Republican Scott L. Klug, a former television news reporter who called Kastenmeier “torn, worn and outdated.”

Incumbents won win the eight other races for congressional seats.

In the governor’s race, Republican incumbent Tommy G. Thompson, buoyed by a strong state economy and a commanding popularity rating in public opinion polls, was reelected by a decisive margin.

Thompson, 48, was winning 58% of the vote to 42% for Democratic challenger Tom Loftus.

Thompson, 48, served two decades in the Legislature before being elected governor in 1986.

The race was seen as a referendum on Thompson’s welfare reforms, including a program that reduces payments to people who don’t keep their teen-agers in school.

WYOMING

CHEYENNE--Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan, benefiting from a slowly reviving economy, easily gained reelection over Republican Mary Mead.

Republican U.S. Sen. Alan K. Simpson, 59, coasted to a third term over challenger Kathy Helling, a Democrat. The Senate minority whip’s margin was 63% to 37%.

Recovering coal, trona and oil industries as well as vibrant tourism and improving agriculture helped Sullivan, who campaigned on an economic development platform four years ago. He was winning 66% of the vote.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

WASHINGTON--Voters denied scandal-scarred Marion Barry an at-large City Council seat, and replaced him in the mayor’s office with Democrat Sharon Pratt Dixon, a 46-year-old political novice.

Jesse Jackson, meanwhile, defeated 10 other candidates for his first elected office--an unpaid, non-voting “shadow” Senate seat from which he will attempt to win statehood for the district.

Dixon became the first black woman elected to lead a major American city. She was defeating former Police Chief Maurice T. Turner, the Republican, by the largest winning share of any mayoral candidate in the district’s modern political history, 86% to 12%.

Barry, who faces a six-month jail term for cocaine possession, trailed Democrat Linda Cropp and incumbent Hilda H. M. Mason of the D.C. Statehood Party in the race for two at-large council seats. Barry served three terms as mayor.

Civil rights activist Eleanor Holmes Norton was elected non-voting House delegate, defeating Republican Harry Singleton, 59% to 30%, despite revelations that she and her husband had paid no local taxes for seven years.

By a narrow margin, voters opposed a referendum that would restore a comprehensive overnight shelter law requiring the city to provide refuge to any homeless person who demanded it. The City Council gutted the law earlier this year, citing high costs.