Bush and Clinton Win in S. Carolina : Politics: But President is again dogged by large protest vote on the Republican side. The Arkansas governor also is a winner in Wyoming caucuses.

President Bush won the the South Carolina Republican primary Saturday, once again having to overcome an apparent protest vote by about a third of those casting ballots, while among the Democrats Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton coasted to any easy victory.

Clinton also won the Democratic caucuses in Wyoming, giving him his first victory outside his native South. Former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. ran a close second in Wyoming.

With 78% of the vote counted in South Carolina’s GOP race, Bush had 67%, conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan had 26% and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, in his first ballot appearance since launching his presidential campaign in December, garnered 7%.

With 75% of the vote counted in the Democratic race, Clinton had 68% while former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas was running a distant second with 16%. Brown had 5%, as did Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.

In the Wyoming Democratic caucuses, Clinton won 28% of the vote, Brown 23%, Harkin 14% and Tsongas 12%. An uncommitted slate of delegates took 22% of the vote.

Arizona Democrats also were voting in caucuses on Saturday. State party officials were predicting a turnout of less than 10% of the eligible Democrats, and that may have been reduced even more by a series of severe midafternoon thunderstorms across much of the state.

Bush, in a statement released last night, said: “We’re 8 and 0 and headed for Super Tuesday.” He was referring to his previous successes against Buchanan so far and to the 11 primaries and caucuses, most of them in the South, coming up next Tuesday.

And in telephoned remarks to a victory rally in Columbia, the President said, “This is a magnificent victory.”

Bush supporters also took heart from the fact that the President appeared on his way to defeating Buchanan by a large margin than he had in New Hampshire or Georgia.

“It’s a good win for us, a good win,” said South Carolina Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr., who committed his prestige and much of his energy to backing the Bush candidacy.

But the glow from Bush’s success was dimmed somewhat because once again roughly one-third of the Republican voters rejected the President, this time by casting their ballots either for Buchanan or Duke.

According to results of an exit poll of voters conducted for the major television networks, Bush got about 65% of those Republican voters who classified themselves as conservatives, while Buchanan took 26% and Duke got the rest.

Resentment of Bush’s decision to break his 1988 campaign pledge not to impose new taxes was a major factor for Buchanan voters, the poll showed, while Duke voters were concerned by abuses of the welfare system.

His low level of support had to disappoint supporters of Duke, whose strong but ultimately unsuccessful bid for the governorship of his native Louisiana vaulted him to national prominence last fall.

Mainstream Republicans had been hoping that South Carolinians would repudiate Duke decisively and rid their party of a major embarrassment. “We’d certainly like to slay the beast,” said Tucker Eskew, Gov. Campbell’s press secretary.

Buchanan and his strategists likely were pleased by Duke’s poor showing, since they regard his candidacy as an unwelcome distraction. Buchanan political director Paul Erickson said the campaign was looking forward to the “discreditation” of Duke, thus clearing the way for “a Bush-Buchanan slugfest all the way to California.”

Among the Democrats, the exit poll showed that Clinton, as he had in the Georgia primary last Tuesday, was once again getting strong biracial support. Nearly 80% of blacks were voting for him, as well as about 55% of whites.

“It will be a nice boost going into Super Tuesday,” Clinton said of his victory. “They came at me hard in South Carolina,” he added, referring to Tsongas and Harkin. Although Tsongas had not put much time or energy into South Carolina, his showing is a bad sign for his campaign heading into Super Tuesday, which includes contests in several other Southern states.

Clinton began his South Carolina campaign with the kind of advantages that helped propel him to victory in last Tuesday’s Georgia primary.

He was backed by virtually the entire Democratic Establishment, including former Gov. Richard W. Riley, as well as most black community religious leaders. Clinton also spent more time campaigning in South Carolina than any other candidate and, as in Georgia, ran hard-hitting ads that portrayed Tsongas’ economic policies as favoring Wall Street and the rich.

Tsongas visited the state for only half a day, and the Tsongas camp Saturday estimated they were outspent by Clinton 8 to 1 in the state.

“This was a major problem for us, because Bill Clinton is well known here,” said Tsongas’ South Carolina campaign manager, Julian Cave. “He’s been here a number of times, both socially and politically, and Paul Tsongas is a real unknown.”

Harkin, hoping for a second-place showing that would allow his faltering campaign to continue, barnstormed across the state Friday in a last-ditch appeal to liberal Democrats, textile workers who have fallen on tough times, and black voters.

Harkin attacked Clinton for racial “insensitivity” for appearing in a newspaper photograph that showed him and Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn conversing in front of a group of mostly black inmates who stood in military-like formation at a correctional facility in Georgia.

Brown, whose campaign was virtually nonexistent in South Carolina, had initially made an issue of the picture, charging during a candidate debate in Dallas Thursday night that Clinton and Nunn looked like “colonial masters” and sent a message of racial bias.

In South Carolina, the Harkin campaign printed a last-minute flyer that juxtaposed the photo with one of Harkin and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who accompanied the Iowa senator on campaign stops last Monday in the state.

But Harkin’s effort to raise questions about Clinton’s commitment to civil rights apparently came too late to penetrate, as most voters at an inner-city precinct in Columbia Saturday said they had not heard about or seen the photograph. Some said they had not even heard of Harkin.

None of the candidates spent Saturday in South Carolina and among the Democrats the campaign day was marked by an escalation of verbal warfare between Tsongas and Clinton.

Tsongas, who in his toughest remarks of the campaign on Friday accused Clinton of uttering “code words” regarding Tsongas’ Greek background, said he would continue to attack his rival for making “a sea of malignant comments” about him.

“I’m one Greek who fights back,” Tsongas said in a clear reference to 1988 Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis, who was ridiculed even by fellow party members for failing to effectively respond to attacks from his Republican foe, George Bush.

Clinton, meanwhile, accused Tsongas of changing some of his economic positions in the South to curry favor with voters. “He’s a very carefully calculating politician,” Clinton said.

Bush spent the day in the Florida and Alabama, wrapping up a four-day tour of the South. In Pensacola, Fla., he attacked Democratic proposals to cut the 1993 defense budget beyond the reductions he has already recommended, and then spent the afternoon fishing in an annual tournament in Pintlala, Ala.

Asked in Alabama about the outcome in South Carolina, Bush called out to reporters from a boat on a private lake, “Can’t do any better than this.”

Buchanan sought to appeal to Gulf Coast conservatives, barnstorming by bus from New Orleans to Biloxi, Miss. Outside Biloxi, at what once was the home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, he laid a wreath at the grave of an unknown Confederate soldier.

Times staff writers Cathleen Decker, Paul Feldman, James Gerstenzang, Douglas Jehl and Paul Richter contributed to this report.

Vote Results

Here are the latest results from Saturday’s presidential contests. PRIMARY

South Carolina

DEMOCRATS

75% of precincts reporting

Vote % Delegates Jerry Brown 4,447 5 0 Bill Clinton 56,951 68 38 Tom Harkin 4,538 5 0 Paul E. Tsongas 13,149 16 5 Uncommitted 2,581 3 0

REPUBLICANS

78% of precincts reporting

Vote % Delegates George Bush 73,414 67 36 Patrick Buchanan 28,652 26 0 David Duke 7,754 7 0

CAUCUSES

Arizona

DEMOCRATS

0% of precincts reporting

Vote % Delegates Jerry Brown 0 0 0 Bill Clinton 0 0 0 Tom Harkin 0 0 0 Paul E. Tsongas 0 0 0 Uncommitted 0 0 0

Wyoming

DEMOCRATS

100% of precincts reporting

Vote % Delegates Jerry Brown 23 3 Bill Clinton 28 4 Tom Harkin 14 0 Paul E. Tsongas 12 0 Uncommitted 22 2

Some percentages may not total 100 because of small numbers of votes for several other candidates.