Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 26, 1992 TAG: 9202260201
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SIOUX FALLS, S.D. LENGTH: Medium
DEMOCRAT KERREY WINS S.D. PRIMARY
Bob Kerrey won the South Dakota primary Tuesday, the latest Democrat to gain a regional victory in a curious presidential campaign still lacking a national front-runner. President Bush, running unopposed, was buffeted by a strong GOP protest vote."I've hit my stride," Kerrey said. He said his showing had catapulted him into the thick of the Democratic race.
Kerrey, from next-door Nebraska, had 40 percent of the vote with 91 percent of the precincts tallied. His farm-state rival, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, had 26 percent while Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton crossed regional lines and ran a respectable third at 19 percent.
Paul Tsongas, unable to take advantage of his New Hampshire victory, was a far-away fourth, and Jerry Brown trailed.
The final GOP totals showed Bush with 69 percent and 31 percent uncommitted. The news had to be sobering for the White House, coming on the heels of Pat Buchanan's 37 percent showing in New Hampshire's GOP primary a week ago.
Stuart Rothenberg, a political analyst, said the large uncommitted showing was bad news for Bush.
"In this case, the uncommited slate represents an anybody-but-Bush ticket," he said. "Pat Buchanan campaigned day and night in New Hampshire and drew 37 percent. And here, a non-existent candidate who didn't campaign drew nearly as much of the vote."
With a string of big delegate contests just around the corner, South Dakota thus extended a trend of regional favoritism among the Democrats, and wrote a new chapter to Bush's political woes in a time of recession.
The Bush campaign conceded it needs to "work harder" to get the president's message out. But, said spokeswoman Torie Clark, "It's not as though we had the full court press going on. It's a little bit of the protest feeling you sense in a place hit hard by recession. We won. We'll take those wins."
Harkin vowed to stay in the race despite a defeat that the pundits predicted would dry up his fund raising. "I'm still in this race. It's a national campaign," he said.
Tsongas offered Kerrey congratulations - but it was tempered. "It's obvious that the negative advertising worked, and we'll take that into consideration," he said. Tsongas got one bit of bright news - an endorsement from Gov. William Donald Schaefer one week ahead of Maryland's primary.
Tsongas, winner in last week's New Hampshire primary, stumbled to a dead heat with Brown in Maine. Harkin won his home-state Iowa caucuses earlier in the month, but finished fourth in New Hampshire and trailed badly in Maine. Clinton has yet to win despite his pre-primary status as front-runner, but primaries in his native South begin next week.
With all the state's 1,010 precincts tallied, this was the Democratic vote:
Kerrey: 23,974 or 40 percent.
Harkin: 15,153 or 25 percent.
Clinton: 11,421 or 19 percent.
Tsongas: 5,756 or 10 percent.
Brown: 2,304 or 4 percent.
Among the Republicans, Bush had 30,948 votes and uncommitted had 13,716.