Clinton, Tsongas and Brown Score Victories; Buchanan Runs Strongly : Democrats: Arkansas governor sweeps Georgia. Tsongas captures Maryland and Utah. Former California governor wins tight Colorado primary.

Democratic primary voters handed their presidential candidates another mixed message Tuesday, as Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas each won badly needed victories while former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. scored a surprising win in Colorado.

With 96% of the vote counted in a Colorado race that was close all night, Brown had 30%, Clinton 28% and Tsongas 26%. Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey had 13% and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin 3%. The results are unofficial.

Clinton’s victory came in Georgia, which he carried by a hefty margin. With 99% of the precincts counted in the state, Clinton led Tsongas, 57% to 24%. Brown held third place with 8%, Kerrey had 5% and Harkin 2%.

Tsongas, meanwhile, won Maryland. With 100% of the vote in, Tsongas led Clinton, 41% to 33%. Brown had 8%, while Harkin had 6% and Kerrey 5%.

Tsongas also won in Utah. With 99% of the vote counted, he led Brown, 34% to 28%. Clinton was third with 18%, Kerrey had 11% and Harkin 4%. Turnout was light in Utah--the 99% figure represented only about 32,000 ballots.

In addition to the primaries, Washington, Minnesota, Idaho and American Samoa held Democratic caucuses Tuesday.

In Minnesota, Harkin was the leader in a state party sampling of the caucuses, but he was running barely ahead of an uncommitted slate of delegates.

In Idaho, with 100% of the caucus vote counted, Harkin apparently eked out a victory over Tsongas, 30% to 29%. Clinton had 12%, Kerrey 8% and Brown 5%. An uncommitted slate of delegates had 17%.

In Washington, Tsongas took a lead in early returns mainly from the Seattle area. With 13% of the vote counted, Tsongas had 32%, Brown 20%, Clinton 15%, Harkin 8% and Kerrey 3%, with 20% of the caucus-goers declaring themselves uncommitted.

American Samoa Democrats voted to send an unpledged delegation to the Democratic National Convention.

With 383 delegates at stake, Tuesday’s votes marked the biggest day so far in the party’s presidential race. But the day’s true importance lay in its function as a reality check, a measurement of which of the candidates appear to have the support to strongly compete in the next--and possibly decisive--round of contests that begins with South Carolina, Arizona and Wyoming on Saturday, continues through the 11-state Super Tuesday balloting next week and culminates with votes in Illinois and Michigan on March 17.

By that measure, Tsongas, Clinton and Brown each could find reason for optimism. Clinton got the big win he needed in Georgia to demonstrate that his Southern base remains intact following questions about his personal life that nearly derailed his candidacy in New Hampshire. Tsongas, the New Hampshire winner, gained at least two victories outside New England that will allow him to contest the “regional candidate” label. And with his Colorado win, Brown confounded political experts who had written him off as a fringe candidate.

In statements primary night, both the Clinton and Tsongas camps were quick to declare that contest had become a two-man race.

Clinton, campaigning in Florida, spoke of next Tuesday’s balloting offering a “clear choice” between two Democrats and provided a probable preview of how his campaign will cast the contest with Tsongas. Clinton argued that his economic recovery program “puts people first,” while Tsongas offers “a refined version of ‘80s style trickle-down economics.”

Tsongas, for his part, touted his lead in Maryland, saying the results made him the “breakthrough kid”--a play on Clinton’s claim two weeks ago that coming in second in New Hampshire had made him the “comeback kid.” The Maryland vote proved he had national appeal, Tsongas said.

“I’ve been charged with being a regional candidate,” Tsongas said. The Maryland victory, he predicted, would allow his campaign to “break through that artificial barrier.”

Brown, basking in the Colorado results, insisted he now would fill a “gigantic vacuum” in the Democratic field. An exit poll by television networks showed Brown winning among environmentalists, younger voters and self-described liberals and cutting significantly into Tsongas’ support among college-educated professionals.

“The Democratic race is not solidified by any means,” he said at a rally in Phoenix. “It’s very turbulent.”

By winning more than 20% of the vote in Colorado and Utah, Brown re-qualifies for federal matching funds that he had stood to lose because of his poor showing in earlier primaries. The federal funds are especially crucial to Brown because, as part of his anti-Establishment campaign, he refuses to accept contributions exceeding $100.

For Harkin and Kerrey, the news from voters on Tuesday appeared bleak.

Kerrey had spent much of his severely depleted campaign treasury and his time over the weekend in Colorado, hoping for a good showing in a state bordering his native Nebraska. Instead, it appeared he barely registered with Colorado’s voters.

In Tucson, where he spoke to students at the University of Arizona, Kerrey insisted his campaign would go forward. “There is growing enthusiasm for the campaign--somewhat slower than I would like, but it is growing,” he said.

In fact, however, Kerrey ended the day with little money and fewer prospects for a future victory. Even the candidate admitted that his goal now is simply to “survive beyond Super Tuesday.”

Harkin, whose only victory before Tuesday came in the largely uncontested ballot in his home state’s caucuses, concentrated his efforts on Tuesday’s caucuses in Minnesota, Iowa’s northern neighbor and a state whose caucuses abound with liberal activists. A sample of caucuses by party officials showed Harkin winning 27% of the vote, while an uncommitted slate won 24%. Tsongas had 19% and Clinton 10%, while Brown and Kerrey each had 8%.

The campaign “is really just starting,” Harkin insisted. But his poor showing in most of Tuesday’s contests and his inability to win a primary, rather than a caucus of party activists, offered little encouragement for him.

Only three weeks have passed since Democrats in Iowa’s caucuses cast the first ballots of the nomination process. In that short period, the Democratic race has proved impossible to predict. Clinton, the early favorite among party leaders, fell precipitously in the polls after being hit with unsubstantiated accusations of marital infidelity and questions about his Vietnam-era draft status.

Although Clinton has recovered substantial ground, the Georgia vote marked the one-time front-runner’s first victory.

Tsongas, meanwhile, stumbled badly in two contests just after New Hampshire--the caucuses in Maine, where he ran barely ahead of Brown and where his victory still has not been certified, and the South Dakota primary. Kerrey beat Harkin in South Dakota, with Clinton coming in third and Tsongas fourth. But Kerrey’s hope that the South Dakota results would give him a boost appear to have been dashed.

In recent polls, Tsongas seemed to have a strong lead over Clinton in both Maryland and Colorado, and even seemed capable of threatening him in Georgia. While Clinton attacked Tsongas’ economic policies, Tsongas ran radio advertisements seeking to cut into Clinton’s base of support among black voters. The advertisements criticized Clinton for harsh comments he made about the Rev. Jesse Jackson after hearing an incorrect report that Jackson had endorsed Harkin.

In Tuesday’s voting, that advertisement appeared to have little effect--exit polls of voters showed Clinton carrying the black vote by large margins in Georgia and Maryland. But Clinton’s attacks on Tsongas’ economic policies may have hurt his rival in Maryland, where the margin of victory for the former Massachusetts senator was less than some pre-election polls had indicated.

And Clinton made clear Tuesday those attacks would continue.

Speaking to elderly voters at a retirement community in Deerfield Beach, Fla., Clinton said Tsongas’ advocacy of a capital gains tax cut that would primarily benefit wealthy individuals amounted to an attempt to generate “growth without fairness.”

“We had growth and no fairness in the 1980s,” Clinton said. “What happened? No more fairness and lower growth. It doesn’t work. It’s bad economics.”

Clinton also emphasized his advocacy of long-term health care for the elderly, an important issue in Florida.

Tsongas, in an interview with CNN, called Clinton’s attacks “unfortunate.”

“The end result of that is to reaffirm the position of George Bush and hurt the Democratic Party,” he said. “You don’t make yourself bigger by tearing the other down.”

Tsongas spokesman David Eichenbaum, meanwhile, emphasized the campaign’s argument that Tsongas had demonstrated more national appeal than Clinton. “Bill Clinton is the regional candidate,” he said. “Paul Tsongas has shown he can run competitively in all regions” while Clinton’s only victory so far has been in the South, he noted.

And while both Clinton and Tsongas gained support they needed, the results underlined weaknesses they must still contend with.

As in New Hampshire, Tsongas’ support in Maryland and Georgia remained concentrated among upper-income, white-collar, white professionals. Despite his advertisements over the last few days aimed at black voters in Georgia, Tsongas lost to Clinton among black voters by more than a 6-1 margin, according to exit polling by The Times. In Maryland, the exit polling for the television networks showed Clinton winning black voters 55%-26%.

In Georgia, among white voters, The Times poll showed Tsongas winning among those earning more than $60,000 annually, while Clinton won among those earning less.

A similar economic split fueled Tsongas’ victory in Maryland, where voters tend to be more affluent than in Georgia. Tsongas beat Clinton among whites in Maryland 46% to 27%, the network exit polling indicated.

But while those demographics helped Tsongas in Maryland, they could severely hurt him in some later primaries and in the general election, where blacks and lower-income voters make up the bulk of the Democratic constituency.

“If Tsongas is limited to whites in the $60,000-and-up crowd among Democrats, that’s a pretty small population--investment bankers, lawyers and a few doctors,” said Emory University political scientist Merle Black.

Asked in The Times exit poll what characteristics led them to pick the candidate for whom they voted, Georgia voters backing Clinton cited compassion, experience and leadership. Those who chose Tsongas picked ethics and strength of convictions.

Tuesday’s balloting ranged from coast to coast and beyond, from Maryland to Washington to Pago Pago, where Democrats from throughout the islands of American Samoa flew to a party caucus at the Rainmaker Hotel to cast their ballots. Those voters chose only six delegates who will share three votes at the Democratic convention in July.

Stakes were far higher in Minnesota, with 78 voting delegates to be chosen; Georgia, with 76; Washington with 71; Maryland with 67; Colorado with 47; Utah with 23, and Idaho with 18.

In addition to those delegates, party leaders and elected Democratic officials from each of those states have guaranteed convention votes as unpledged “super delegates.”

Entering Tuesday’s voting, Clinton had acquired the most delegates in the race to amass the 2,144 needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press delegate tally. The tally showed Clinton with 96, Harkin with 75.25, Kerrey with 22.5, Tsongas with 21, Brown with 8.25 and uncommitted with 213.75. Super delegates, however, made up most of that Clinton strength, and unlike delegates chosen in primaries, they are free to switch to another candidate if they wish.

Democratic party rules require delegates to be distributed roughly in proportion to the vote each candidate receives in a primary, but a candidate must get at least 15% of the vote to receive any delegates.

Times staff writers Cathleen Decker in Deerfield Beach, Fla.; Sonni Efron in Atlanta; Alan Miller in Phoenix; Jonathan Petersen in Tucson; Paul Richter in New York, and Marilyn Yaquinto in Washington contributed to this story.

Tuesday’s Results

Here are the latest results from Tuesday’s presidential contests. PRIMARIES

Georgia

DEMOCRATS

99% of precincts reporting

Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 258,008 57 54 Paul E. Tsongas 108,132 24 22 Bob Kerrey 21,937 5 0 Tom Harkin 9,909 2 0 Jerry Brown 36,801 8 0 Uncommitted 16,948 4 0 REPUBLICANS 99% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 289,052 64 52 Patrick Buchanan 160,512 36 0 Maryland DEMOCRATS 100% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 185,759 33 29 Paul E. Tsongas 226,105 41 38 Bob Kerrey 26,317 5 0 Tom Harkin 32,760 6 0 Jerry Brown 45,747 8 0 Uncommitted 34,934 6 0 REPUBLICANS 100% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 168,741 70 42 Patrick Buchanan 72,595 30 0 Colorado DEMOCRATS 96% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 61,480 28 14 Paul E. Tsongas 58,189 26 15 Bob Kerrey 27,691 13 0 Tom Harkin 5,548 3 0 Jerry Brown 66,009 30 18 Uncommitted 1,200 1 0 REPUBLICANS 100% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 132,049 67 26 Patrick Buchanan 58,730 30 11 Utah DEMOCRATS 99% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 5,763 18 5 Paul E. Tsongas 10,671 34 9 Bob Kerrey 3,342 11 0 Tom Harkin 1,267 4 0 Jerry Brown 8,972 28 09 Uncommitted 726 2 0 CAUCUS Idaho DEMOCRATS 100% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 43 12 1 Paul E. Tsongas 107 29 5 Bob Kerrey 30 8 0 Tom Harkin 110 30 6 Jerry Brown 17 5 0 Uncommitted 65 17 2

Note: Utah Republicans will choose their delegates in an April 27 caucus.

No detailed returns from the Minnesota and Washington caucuses are available . The events are precinct caucuses, with no county-level returns reported. UNEXPECTED WINNER: Brown’s surprising victory helps make him the anti-Establishment alternative. A10

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