Ohio’s Oakar Bounces Back After House Check Scandal : Politics: Her win may gauge attitudes toward incumbents. An Ohio colleague with 166 bad checks barely beat a no-overdraft incumbent.

Rep. Mary Rose Oakar (D-Ohio), branded as one of the worst abusers of check overdrafts on the House bank, eked out a victory Tuesday in a primary that was closely watched for signs of voter disenchantment with incumbents.

Oakar, an eight-term lawmaker who had 213 overdrafts on the now-defunct bank, survived a tough multi-candidate race to win renomination. Final results in her Cleveland-area district showed her winning 39% of the vote to 30% for her closest challenger, county Commissioner Timothy Hagan.

In another Ohio district, a Republican incumbent who had 166 overdrafts narrowly defeated a fellow incumbent who wrote no bad checks. The two wound up in the same district because of reapportionment.

Six-term Rep. Bob McEwen won 1,005 more votes than 13-term Rep. Clarence E. Miller, out of about 66,000 cast. Age appeared to be as much of a factor in the race as McEwen’s check-writing problems; he is 42, Miller is 74.

Unless changed by a recount, Miller will become the tenth House member ousted in 1992 primary battles, an abrupt reversal of the trend throughout the last decade when incumbents won almost automatic renomination.

Only a week ago, veteran Democratic Reps. Bill Alexander of Arkansas and Carroll Hubbard Jr. of Kentucky lost primaries after opponents made an issue of their triple-digit overdrafts at the House bank.

In Alabama, Democratic Sen. Richard C. Shelby easily turned back a primary challenge in which his leading foe was the father of one of the black girls killed in a Sunday school bombing in Birmingham in 1963, an incident that helped galvanize the civil rights movement.

County Commissioner Chris McNair, who was poorly financed, tired to rally support from black voters and women he said were angry over Shelby’s vote to confirm Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court despite allegations of sexual harassment by Oklahoma law professor Anita Faye Hill.

With 96% of the state’s precincts reporting, Shelby had 61% of the vote and McNair 28%, with two other candidates splitting the remainder.

In another Alabama primary race, state Treasurer George Wallace Jr., son of the state’s controversial ex-governor and former presidential contender, was leading a three-way race for the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat. But it appeared he might face a runoff by failing to win more than 50% of the vote.

In North Carolina, meanwhile, Eva Clayton, a black businesswoman, defeated Walter A. Jones Jr., son of a retiring congressman, in a runoff for the Democratic nomination to a House seat. She and fellow Democrat Mel Watt, a congressional candidate in another North Carolina district, seemed likely to become the state’s first black House members in almost a century.

The problems that Oakar faced in her primary included more than her involvement in the House banking scandal. She also has figured in the investigation into the House post office, facing accusations of placing “ghost employees” on its payroll.

In her campaign, Oakar emphasized her record of constituent service, bringing federal dollars to the Cleveland area and keeping government jobs there.

Congressional contests in Iowa featured one bad-check writer in a primary fight. Four-term GOP Rep. Jim Lightfoot, who admitted to 105 overdrafts, defeated political unknown Ronald J. Long.

In New Jersey, Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. survived a challenge from state Assemblyman Bob Smith and two other candidates to win the nomination for a third term in a newly drawn district. Smith had campaigned as an “outsider” challenging a Washington “insider.”

In Montana’s six-way Democratic primary for governor, state Rep. Dorothy Bradley defeated Helena’s Prosecuting Atty. Mike McGrath by 40% to 34%. Atty. Gen. Marc Racicot defeated state Auditor Andrea Bennett by a 2-1 margin among Republicans. The ailing first-term GOP governor, Stan Stephens, is stepping down.

And in the southeastern South Dakota town of Lesterville, voters decided, 70 to 37, to repeal an ordinance banning the nude dancing that’s been going on at a bar for years.

Times wire services contributed to this report.