Dukakis Garners Majority in Arizona

PHOENIX, Ariz.--Gov. Michael S. Dukakis defeated Jesse Jackson by a 3-2 margin in Arizona's Democratic presidential caucuses and shut out Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. in the race for delegates.

When vote totals from Saturday's vote were completed yesterday, Dukakis had 54 percent, to 38 percent for Jackson and 5 percent for Gore.

Illinois Sen. Paul Simon, who has put his campaign on hold, got 1.2 percent. Political extremist Lyndon LaRouche had under I percent, and 1.7 percent expressed no preference.

Dukakis picked up 22 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta July 18-21. Jackson received 14 delegates, and Gore got none.

Analysts debated whether Dukakis' victory in Arizona will have an impact on tomorrow's New York primary.

"I think it establishes Governor Dukakis as the undisputed frontrunner," said his state campaign director, Jose Villareal. "Governor Dukakis has established a momentum throughout the Western states that is going to carry him to victory in New York."

"He's being called 'El Nuevo Kennedy' in the barrios around Phoenix," added Dukakis' Western states coordinator, Richard Ybarra.

But Jackson state director John Norris insisted, "Basically, it's still a horse race going into New York."

"It's pretty fair to say that we ran a strong second in Arizona," Norris said. "It definitely beat expectations based on the polls," which had given Dukakis a stronger lead.

"I don't think the Arizona primary is going to break someone into frontrunner status," Norris added.

Dukakis state coordinator Renz Jennings acknowledged that the Arizona win might not mean much in New York, where 255 delegates are at stake.

"New Yorkers are as independent as you find," Jennings said. "We did just what we needed to do. We picked up delegates. We beat Gore to the point that he didn't even make the threshold" to win delegates.

Candidates needed at last 15 percent of the vote in any of Arizona's five voting districts to qualify for delegates, and Gore failed to reach the threshold in any area.

Gore spokeswoman Sue Laybe acknowledged, "We tried a grassroots acknowledged, "We tried a grassroots campaign; it didn't work very well. With all the money going to New York there wasn't much we could do."

Local Gore campaign director Burton Drucker had said Gore could win support among conservative Democrats if the campaign had allocated resources to Arizona.

Dukakis was well ahead in four of Arizona's voting regions, while he and Jackson were tied at 47 percent in western Maricopa County, which included south Phoenix and its high minority population.

Jackson also scored well in parts of Pima County, which includes Tucson. He won the rural counties of Apache and Coconino, while Dukakis took the other 11 rural counties.

Party officials said 38,464 of Arizona's 680,000 Democrats voted in the caucuses. The turnout, on a day that saw stormy weather across much of the state, was slightly higher than was predicted.

Dukakis received 20,814 votes to 14,538 for Jackson, 1,972 for Gore, 465 for Simon, 35 for LaRouche and 639 expressing no preference.

Arizona Democrats on Saturday also began the process of choosing the delegates who will actually go to the national convention. Thirty-six are being allocated in proportion to the caucus vote, while another five top party and elected officials are uncommitted delegates.