Bush Gets Bittersweet Victories in Key Races : Republicans: He wins in Georgia, Maryland and Colorado. Buchanan’s solid showing points to long fight.

President Bush defeated conservative television commentator Patrick J. Buchanan in the Georgia, Maryland and Colorado Republican primaries Tuesday, but a large Buchanan vote and the anti-Bush attitude of many of his supporters underscored a split in the GOP that threatens to weaken Bush in the general election.

In the Georgia primary, hotly contested by both candidates, Buchanan’s final vote was very close to the 37% he polled against Bush in the New Hampshire primary. Moreover, fully a third of Buchanan’s supporters said they would not vote for Bush in November, according to results of a Times exit poll.

And in Maryland, a Washington Post exit poll indicated that as many as eight out of 10 Republicans who voted for Buchanan would vote for a Democrat over Bush in November.

The results:

In Georgia, with 99% of the precincts reporting, Bush had 64%, compared to 36% for Buchanan. In Colorado, with 88% of the precincts reporting, Bush had 67% and Buchanan had 30%. In Maryland, with 96% of the precincts reporting, Bush had 70% and Buchanan had 30%.

Most analysts expect Buchanan to carry his fight through California’s June 2 primary and the August GOP convention in Houston. And although they give him virtually no chance of defeating the President or forcing his withdrawal, they expect him to be a constant irritant to the Bush campaign and say he could be a potent force at the convention.

“Buchanan’s already won his race by establishing himself for the 1996 election campaign,” said a leading Republican analyst and Bush adviser. “Now he has everything to gain and nothing to lose by staying in the race to the convention. At the convention, he might exercise power by cutting conservative deals on the Republican platform.”

A smiling Buchanan, clenching his fists in a boxer’s pose at a post-election rally in Atlanta Tuesday night, vowed: “We’re going to go all the way.”

He emphasized that his campaign was only 12 weeks old, that he had spent only five days in Georgia and that he lacked Air Force One and other resources available to the President for his campaign. But Buchanan had, as he said, “shaken up the West Wing” of the White House.

By doing as well in Georgia as he had in New Hampshire, he disposed of Bush campaign claims that the President had fared poorly in the first primary because of New Hampshire’s severe economic problems. Georgia has a much more robust economy and a relatively low unemployment rate.

Buchanan’s showing in Maryland may have been even more significant than his Georgia total. He spent virtually no time campaigning in the state. Nor did he campaign in Colorado.

The White House quickly claimed the President’s clean sweep of the primaries represented a major political victory. But the vote totals, as one GOP analyst said, “could hardly warm the cockles of the hearts of those running Bush’s campaign.”

In a statement issued shortly after the polls closed in Georgia, Bush addressed the bittersweet quality of his victory.

While declaring that he was “seven for seven” in the primaries and “another step closer to our goal of winning every primary and caucus,” he acknowledged the substantial votes for Buchanan.

“I hear your concerns and understand your frustration with Washington,” Bush said. “I am committed to regaining your support.”

He promised to continue pushing Congress to enact his “growth initiatives” aimed at fueling the economy.

Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater conceded that Buchanan’s insurgency is hurting.

“If you talk to historians, they’ll tell you it (the challenge) is certainly not helpful,” Fitzwater told reporters in his office. “Republicans should give that some thought. . . . It is not helpful to have discontent sown by members of your own party. . . . If (conservatives) want to have an impact on government, they can do it better with George Bush than with a Democrat.”

Surveys indicated that the results, much like the New Hampshire primary that Bush won with 53% of the vote to Buchanan’s 37%, represented more of a protest against the President than a ground swell for Buchanan.

Half of Buchanan’s supporters in Georgia and Maryland said their vote was a protest; only about a third said they liked him.

In Georgia, where Buchanan outspent Bush 2-to-1 in a duel of hard-hitting negative television ads, the President drew strong support for his leadership in the war against Iraq. Bush used surrogates, including Gen. P. X. Kelley, the former U.S. Marine commandant, to attack Buchanan’s opposition to using force against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. (Buchanan supported the war once it began, however.)

Almost half of the Republican voters in the state said the war was a factor in the way they voted, according to exit polls. And, of those who felt that way, about 19 out of 20 voted for the President.

Buchanan scored heavily among Georgia GOP voters who resented Bush’s decision to support a tax increase in 1990 after his “read my lips” no-new-taxes pledge in the 1988 campaign. About a fourth of the Republican voters said this was a factor for them, and practically all of that group supported Buchanan, who vehemently attacked Bush on the issue.

The President apparently has gotten the message, especially on the tax issue. Campaigning in Atlanta on Monday and then again in Washington on Tuesday, he said several times he had made a mistake in backing away from his pledge not to raise taxes.

Asked by a television reporter in Atlanta if he regretted moving away from his pledge, Bush said: “Anytime you get hammered on something, I guess you want to redo it.”

About two-thirds of the Georgia GOP voters said they believe the nation is “on the wrong track”; that group supported Buchanan over Bush by about 10 percentage points, according to exit polls.

The polls also indicated a wide gender gap, with Bush defeating Buchanan by fewer than 10 percentage points among men, but by 30 points among women.

Overall, Buchanan ran much better in Georgia than Bush strategists had expected. At the White House late Tuesday afternoon, strategists were talking up exit polls they thought showed the President with a wider margin of victory.

But the conservative commentator faces a more daunting challenge Saturday in South Carolina’s primary. Bush’s campaign is much better organized there and is directed by Republican Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr., who is also the President’s national campaign co-chairman.

Even bigger stakes are ahead next week on Super Tuesday when 11 states, including six in the South, hold Republican primaries or caucuses. The President, kept constantly on the defensive by the combative Buchanan, plans to campaign daily until then.

With his aggressive campaigning and slashing attacks on Bush, Buchanan has attracted heavy media attention, and some GOP strategists worry that if that continues, Bush will be seriously undermined in the fall.

What the President really needs now, said a Republican pollster, is for a Democratic candidate to emerge as a clear-cut front-runner or probable winner so the media will start focusing on the general election. Once that happens, Buchanan will no longer be at center stage, he said.

Voter turnout in Georgia on Tuesday was light to moderate, but Republican turnout was heavier than usual. The state’s voters do not register by party and may request either party’s primary ballot. In 1988, 61% of primary voters cast Democratic ballots, while 39% requested Republican ballots. But more voters this year asked for GOP ballots, according to Secretary of State Max Cleland.

Several voters who identified themselves as Democrats said they had requested Republican ballots and voted for Buchanan just to send Bush a message of disapproval.

Times staff writers Sonni Effron in Atlanta and Paul Houston in Washington contributed to this story.