ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 12, 1996 TAG: 9606120058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
Strom Thurmond easily won nomination for an eighth term against a South Carolina Republican who said the oldest senator ever at 93 was too old for the job.
Three other states also held primaries. Arkansas and Maine were choosing candidates to replace retiring senators. In North Dakota, a ballot issue that would have allowed video gaming machines in restaurants and bars trailed in early returns, 69 percent-31 percent.
With 93 percent of precincts reporting in South Carolina, Thurmond had 61 percent, state Rep. Harold Worley had 30 percent, and college instructor Charles Thompson had 9 percent.
Worley, in mounting the first serious challenge to Thurmond's re-election in decades, spent about $500,000 in six weeks, most of it on ads focusing on Thurmond's age.
But after his primary victory, Thurmond said ``the voters have put to rest'' any question of whether he's too old for the job.
``It is my experience. That is what really counts,'' he said.
Thurmond's Democratic opponent will be political newcomer Elliott Close, who easily beat his lone rival, photographer Cecil Williams. Close had 62 percent, and Williams 38 percent, with 94 percent of precincts reporting.
Close, a businessman and heir to a textile fortune, has said he will not make Thurmond's age a campaign issue. Instead, he says he'll emphasize his ``business sense'' and their differences on how to balance the budget.
Thurmond was elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 1954 and switched to the GOP a decade later. In 1948, he ran for president as the States' Rights Democratic, or ``Dixiecrat,'' party candidate, and for years fought federal civil rights legislation before changing course and courting black voters.
After voting in his hometown of Aiken, S.C., Thurmond departed for Washington, where he presided over Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's departure ceremony.
Some neighbors said Thurmond should follow Dole's lead.
``I think they need some newer people (in Washington),'' said Mary Glover, an office manager who said she voted for Worley because of the incumbent's age.
In Maine, former Gov. Joseph Brennan won the Democratic primary, beating a field of four. Republican Susan Collins won a three-candidate GOP contest for the seat of retiring Sen. William Cohen. With more than half the vote counted, Brennan and Collins each collected about 55 percent of the vote in their primaries.
Collins and Brennan were their parties' nominees in the 1994 gubernatorial race, but lost to independent Angus King. Brennan is a former two-term governor.
In Arkansas, Attorney General Winston Bryant won his eighth consecutive statewide race, against no losses, by beating state Sen. Lu Hardin in the Democratic runoff for the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. David Pryor.
With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Bryant had 54 percent, and Hardin had 46 percent.
Republicans, who have never won a Senate election in Arkansas by popular vote, meet Saturday to pick a nominee to replace Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee, who gave up the Republican nomination so he can succeed Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. Tucker, convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the Whitewater trial, resigns next month.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB