Voters Cast Ballots in 3 State Primaries : Politics: Key elections are held in Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Washington. Oklahomans also to decide term limit measure for members of Congress.

The son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney was ahead in early primary returns Tuesday for the GOP Senate nomination to challenge Massachusetts Democrat Edward M. Kennedy.

In another race, three little-known Democrats were seeking the right to run against popular GOP Gov. William F. Weld.

In Oklahoma, voters were settling a runoff between Rep. Mike Synar and a little-known challenger, picking a Democratic candidate for governor, and were deciding on a term limit plan. In Washington, voters chose candidates to challenge GOP Sen. Slade Gorton and House Speaker Thomas S. Foley.

In the Massachusetts Senate primary, W. Mitt Romney had 1,641 votes, or 85%, to 294 votes, or 15%, for John Lakian. Both are wealthy venture capitalists. Kennedy had no primary opposition.

In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, state Rep. Mark Roosevelt had 1,671 votes, or 51%; former state Sen. George Bachrach had 907 votes, or 28%, and state Sen. Michael Barrett had 701 votes, or 21%, in very early returns. Roosevelt is a great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and a distant relative of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In Washington, nine Democrats vied for the right to challenge Gorton, who once was defeated for reelection and whose poll standings have never topped 50%.

The front-runners were veteran King County lawmaker Ron Sims and retired television anchorman Mike James, both from the Seattle area. Gorton had token opposition.

In eastern Washington’s 5th District, Foley was the only Democrat on a ballot with four Republicans.

In Oklahoma, Synar was forced into a runoff with retired school principal Virgil Cooper after failing to get a majority of the vote in the Aug. 23 primary. The winner will face Republican Tom Coburn, a Muskogee doctor.

Lt. Gov. Jack Mildren, a former star quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners, took a strong lead in his runoff race with state Sen. Bernice Shedrick for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Mildren had 61% of the vote to 39% for Shedrick in very early returns.

The winner will face Republican Frank Keating, a former Justice Department official, and independent Wes Watkins, a former congressman.

The candidates are seeking to succeed Democrat Gov. David Walters, who chose not to run for reelection after pleading guilty to a campaign law violation.

The term limit plan would hold Oklahoma congressmen to three two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms. In 1990, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt term limits on state legislators. That law took effect in 1991.

Two polls released Tuesday found overwhelming support for term limits for members of Congress: 80% in a survey of 4,809 people conducted by the nonpartisan Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press, and 74% in a poll of 743 people, sponsored by the advocacy group U.S. Term Limits.

The term limit group also found 8 in 10 people prefer a limit of three terms on the lawmakers, rather than a six-term limit.

Term limits are generally more popular with Republicans, who have fewer incumbents, than with Democrats, who have more seats to lose. The Clinton Administration has weighed in against term limits in a case pending before the Supreme Court. The White House is arguing that states have no constitutional right to regulate membership in Congress.