
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 18, 1990                   TAG: 9007180263
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

TWO FACE RUNOFF IN GA. PRIMARY

Lt. Gov Zell Miller finished first in Georgia's five-way Democratic primary for governor Tuesday and will compete in a runoff with Andrew Young, who seeks to become the state's first black chief executive.

With 54 percent of 2,446 precincts reporting, Miller had 210,698 votes or 41 percent; Young had 140,557 votes or 27 percent; state Sen. Roy Barnes had 108,266 votes or 21 percent; state Rep. Lauren "Bubba" McDonald had 39,656 votes or 8 percent; and former Gov. Lester Maddox, the one-time arch segregationist, had 17,113 votes or 3 percent.

Georgia law provides for an Aug. 7 runoff between the top two candidates, unless one wins a majority in the primary.

Young had trailed Barnes at some points early in the evening, when most of the returns came from rural, mostly white counties. He surged ahead to stay as the heavily black, urban counties reported.

The Republican primary was won by state Rep. Johnny Isakson, 45, a real-estate executive from the north Atlanta suburbs who was piling up 71 percent of the vote against three challengers.

"The question is no longer whether a Republican can be elected governor of Georgia," the well-financed, conservative Isakson declared. "We tonight have laid that question to rest."

He said Georgians will choose him instead of "a liberal who fights to preserve the ways and failures of the past."

Young, a one-time aide to Martin Luther King Jr. who went on to be a congressman, ambassador to the United Nations and mayor of Atlanta, hopes to follow in the footsteps of Douglas Wilder of Virginia. Wilder last year became the nation's first elected black governor.

The campaign was notably genteel, free of the mudslinging and negative advertising that have marked many recent high-profile political contests. Race was mentioned far less than such issues as abortion, legalized gambling and the economy.

by CNB