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Subject: Fowler Forced Into Runoff For Senate Seat in Georgia;Coverdell Ads Focused on
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 05:01:45 EST
Message-ID: <54.1992Nov5.050145@AmeriCast.com>

Fowler Forced Into Runoff For Senate Seat in Georgia;Coverdell
Ads Focused on House Bank<By Eric Pianin=Washington Post Staff
Writer=

Sen. Wyche Fowler Jr. (D-Ga.) has been forced into a Nov. 24 run-
off election by Republican challenger Paul Coverdell, who pep-
pered the state with hard-hitting attack ads that sought to link
Fowler to the House Bank scandal and that portrayed him as too
liberal for the state.

With 99 percent of precincts counted, Fowler had 1,097,764 of the
votes cast Tuesday, or 49 percent, Coverdell had 1,066,149, or 48
percent, and Libertarian Jim Hudson had 69,802, or 3 percent.

Under state law, Fowler needed at least 50 percent of the vote to
avoid a runoff. He was elected to his first term in 1986 with 51
percent of the vote.

Fowler, a 10-year veteran of the House, saw a 10-point lead in
the polls evaporate in recent weeks, after Coverdell began run-
ning TV ads of a singing grandmother from southwestern Georgia
whose catchy jingle urged voters to boot Fowler out of office.

Fowler struck back with ads questioning Coverdell's conduct and
travel during his tenure as director of the Peace Corps.

Some analysts suggested yesterday that Fowler may have also been
hurt by a Christian coalition that turned out a large number of
voters opposed to a state lottery initiative that was narrowly
approved. Opponents of the lottery mailed out fliers contrasting
Fowler's liberal views on prayer in school, abortion, term lim-
its, capital punishment and other issues with those of the con-
servative Coverdell, a former state senator.

Fowler told a mid-morning news conference yesterday that he he
could not explain why the race was so close, the Associated Press
reported.

"There were a lot of crosscurrents," Fowler said.  "I don't know
what the (Ross) Perot factor was, what the lottery factor was."
Coverdell spokesman Bill Crane said, "We're very heartened by
what happened last night, considering Paul started with 7 percent
name identification a year ago."

"A lot of peope were saying no to status quo last night," Crane
said.  Fowler received more troubling news yesterday, after Unit-
ed We Stand, an organization associated with Perot's independent
presidential campaign, and Hudson, the libertarian, announced
their support for Coverdell in the runoff.  Perot ran well in the
state, garnering about 14 percent of the vote, and the support of
his backers could be crucial to Coverdell's chances.<02:45 11-
05C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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