Clinton, Bush Win Pennsylvania Vote : Primary: The Democratic front-runner moves closer to nomination, routing Brown, 56%-26%. The President sweeps to victory, 77%-23%, over Buchanan.

Pennsylvania Democrats nudged Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton ever closer to his party’s presidential nomination Tuesday, while President Bush scored a victory that effectively clinched his renomination in the Republican race.

Clinton, who spent almost all of his time during the relatively placid Pennsylvania campaign targeting Bush, defeated former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. by a commanding margin. With 90% of the vote counted, he led Brown 56% to 26%.

Former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, who suspended his presidential campaign in March but remains on the ballot in many states, had 13%.

Among Republicans, Bush held a 77%-23% lead over former television commentator Patrick J. Buchanan.

At a Republican Party fund-raiser Tuesday night in Washington, the President saluted supporters and signaled--as Clinton recently has sought to do--that the general election campaign had been joined.

“This has been a long election process and we’re only halfway through the journey, halfway to the goal,” Bush said.

Clinton, speaking to supporters in Boston, said Tuesday’s vote proved he could do well when he can get his message out.

“We were able to run the most positive, issue-oriented, change-oriented campaign that I’ve had the honor of running,” Clinton said. “I was able to talk about my life. . . . I was able to talk about my record as governor.”

One of Clinton’s major goals in Pennsylvania had been to shift the campaign focus away from questions about his character, which have dogged him ever since unsubstantiated allegations of adultery surfaced against him in late January.

Brown, campaigning in Indiana, where voters go to the polls next Tuesday, insisted that he would stay in the primary race, despite running far behind Clinton in the hunt for convention delegates.

“We intend to fight all the way” through to California’s June 2 primary, he declared. “We have real tough decisions to make in this country and they’re not going to be made by shutting the primary door.”

Brown, who in recent days has made clear his intention to lead what he calls “a cause” long after his campaign is effectively over, added: “What we’re about here is a lot more than my campaign in Indiana or my campaign in California.”

Turnout in Pennsylvania was described by state officials as low. And much of the credit for attracting those voters who did show up was given to the heated battle for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Lynn Yeakel, a political neophyte and a virtual unknown just weeks ago, defeated Mark S. Singel, the state’s lieutenant governor and the race’s early favorite. In November, she will take on two-term incumbent Republican Arlen Specter. Specter easily brushed back a challenge by state Rep. Stephen Freind, best known as the author of Pennsylvania’s restrictive abortion law, which is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.

As buoyed as he was by his victory, Clinton was doubly delighted at another result of the Pennsylvania vote: More than 60% of the Democratic voters surveyed in exit polls conducted for the major television networks believed he has the honesty and integrity to be President.

Past polls have shown the honesty issue to be Clinton’s big liability. Although he won New York’s April 7 primary, for example, 49% of those surveyed as they voted doubted his integrity. A Times Poll of California registered voters this last weekend found that 48% said he lacks the honesty and integrity needed to serve as President.

And despite the greater degree of trust Pennsylvania Democrats expressed in him, 53% of them said they would like to see someone else enter the race. Also, nearly a quarter in both parties said they would vote for Ross Perot if the Texas billionaire were on the ballot in November.

Perot, who is expected to announce in June whether he will mount an independent run for the presidency, has dominated political discussion lately. But his looming presence did not stop Clinton from targeting Bush in the primary, nor did it stop Bush on Tuesday from leveling a few salvos in Clinton’s direction.

During a visit with campaign workers, Bush said: “When the campaign rolls around and we get the gloves off and we can get into the arena with these people, we can conduct ourselves with a certain sense of honor, a certain sense of dignity, a certain compassion and a certain caring.

“But I’ll be damned if I’m going to roll over for these outrageous charges that are coming out of the opposition, day in and day out. We don’t have to take that.”

With his sweeping victory, Bush will win the bulk of the 91 Pennsylvania delegates, enough to assure him the nomination when other delegates legally promised but not yet formally delivered to him are counted later this week.

As of Tuesday morning, Bush had 1,020 delegates awarded and another 34 legally pledged. According to GOP rules, 1,105 delegates are needed for the nomination. His Pennsylvania victory gave him 1,092 delegates.

Buchanan, who essentially conceded the nomination to Bush following the President’s big victories in the March 17 Michigan and Illinois primaries, spent only one day in Pennsylvania. He instead is focusing on North Carolina, which holds its primary next Tuesday, and California.

Buchanan is expected to use the rest of the primary campaign to hammer away at Bush for straying from the conservative agenda and, in the process, lay the groundwork for a 1996 presidential campaign.

Clinton’s Pennsylvania victory boosted his delegate tally to 1,498, with 2,145 needed for the nomination. Brown’s showing in the state increased his delegate count to 322.

The election capped a low-key bout of Democratic campaigning here, as Clinton sought to ignore Brown and turn his attention to an anticipated fall campaign against Bush. Brown initially adopted a somewhat parallel strategy, concentrating on his call for massive reforms of a political system that he charges is complacent and corrupt. But his message seemed to generate little attention, and he resuscitated his attacks on Clinton as a flawed candidate who he said would not be able to win in November.

Clinton used the Pennsylvania campaign as a forum for two major addresses--one on the economy, the other on the environment. He pushed for a more activist government role on both fronts, stressing the need for a detailed national strategy to revive the economy and aggressive efforts to protect the environment. In these speeches and on a host of other topics, he continued to sharpen distinctions between himself and Bush.

It was the absence of controversy in Pennsylvania--a startling contrast to the heated atmosphere that surrounded New York’s primary--that allowed Clinton to begin to repair some of the damage done to his reputation during the grueling primary season, political analysts said.

But Clinton also leaves behind a lingering feud with Democratic Gov. Robert P. Casey, who during the week before Tuesday’s vote repeatedly suggested that the party consider other candidates at its July convention.

Casey, whose opposition to abortion rights puts him at odds with Clinton, said the presumptive nominee had only a “flyspeck” of support among voters. Among Clinton supporters, there were worries that Casey’s remarks could feed continuing national concerns about the Arkansas governor’s long-range chances against Bush.

It was indicative of Brown’s invisible status in the state that Casey did not feel compelled to address him.

Brown visited nearly every corner of Pennsylvania, but his campaign failed to catch fire even in the depressed former steel towns where his anger would have seemed to have its most incendiary potential.

“Brown’s campaign just simply fell through the floorboards,” said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Millersville State College in Lancaster.

Repeated polling by the center before Tuesday’s vote showed Brown’s favorability rating among voters dropping even as Clinton ignored him, suggesting that the problem lay with Brown’s message. For instance, the former California governor rarely detailed how he would go about rectifying any of the nation’s problems.

The Vote in Pennsylvania

DEMOCRATS

90% of precincts reporting

Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 631,060 56 112 Jerry Brown 288,281 26 50 Paul Tsongas 140,426 13 7

REPUBLICANS

93% of precincts reporting

Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 677,774 77 72 Patrick Buchanan 205,900 23 0

The Delegate Tally

The delegate count according to the Associated Press, all contests to date.

DEMOCRATS (2,145 needed to win nomination): Delegates Bill Clinton: 1,498 *Paul E. Tsongas: 535 Jerry Brown: 322 Uncommitted: 569 *Tsongas has suspended his campaign. His delegates remain committed to him until the convention, at which time they become available to other candidates.

REPUBLICANS (1,105 needed to win nomination): Delegates George Bush: 1,092 Patrick J. Buchanan: 56 Uncommitted: 2