Goode Leads in Philadelphia; Wilkinson Elected Gov. in Ky.

Democrat Wallace Wilkinson easily won election as Kentucky's governor yesterday night while fellow Democrat Ray Mabus held a steady lead over Republican Jack Reed in Mississippi's statehouse race in off-year elections.

In a bitter city hall contest, Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode held a slim lead over former Mayor Frank Rizzo in his bid for a second term. With 92 percent of the ballots counted, Goode was gaining 51 percent of the vote to 49 percent for Rizzo, a former two-term Democrat who switched to the GOP.

Wilkinson, a 45-year-old college dropout who made millions as a businessman, won his race in Kentucky with 499,632 votes or 65 percent to 271,187 votes or 35 percent for GOP state Rep. John Harper, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

No Republican has been elected governor of Kentucky in 20 years, and voters appeared to be granting Wilkinson's wish for more than 62.8 percent of the vote and the greatest victory margin in state history. Wilkinson asked for the margin to increase his clout with the legislature.

"I think we have a sufficient mandate tonight to get those programs done," he said after campaigning against higher taxes but in favor of a statewide lottery to increase state revenues.

With 26 percent of the vote counted in Mississippi, Mabus, the state's 39-year-old auditor, had 95,431, or 55 percent, compared with 78,392 or 45 percent for Reed, bidding to become the first GOP governor since Reconstruction.

Philadelphia's mayoral contest was the most closely watched municipal election, a costly, racially tinged campaign in which Goode, a Black, sought to hold off a comeback by former Democratic mayor-turned-Republican Rizzo. The bitter campaign cost an estimated $3.7 million, as each candidate called the other a liar in their quest to govern the "City of Brotherly Love."

In other mayoral contests, Kathy Whitmire of Houston, was elected to her fourth term and Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut, a Republican, also won his fourth term.

In Miami, Mayor Xavier Suarez appeared headed for a runoff against the man he ousted two years ago. Former Mayor Maurice Ferre was in second place, with Black Republican attorney Arthus Teele Jr., in third.

Other victors included Kurt Schmoke, a Democratic prosecutor who became the first Black elected mayor in Baltimore, and Democratic state legislator Carrie Saxon Perry, 56, winner in Hartford's city hall race and the first Black woman chosen to lead a major Northeastern city.

Gary, Ind., Democrat Thomas Barnes, who ousted veteran Mayor Richard Hatcher in a Democratic primary, won election easily.

In voting on propositions, Virginians approved a statewide lottery, while Washington, D.C., residents rejected a plan to require deposits on bottles. A Maine proposal to shut down the state's only nuclear power plant was trailing late into the night.