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Mm n 1 1 Vol. 81, No. 56 In 1XOB. United Press International WASHINGTON' - President Nixon, a classic political "loser" just a decade ago, won re-election Tuesday night by overwhelming Sen. George S. McGovern in one of the most lopsided presidential elections in American history. McGovern, speaking before a crowd of supporters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, announced that he was sending his congratulations to President Nixon shortly after 1 1 :30 p.m. McGovern told his supporters to stand as the "loyal opposition," and called for continued support of the ideals that he presented during his campaign. Nixon won the greatest GOP victory ever scored in the South and even captured McGovern's home state of South Dakota. He also took New York state and was leading in New York City where the last Republican presidential nominee to win was Calvin Coolidge in 1924. The President, shattering the old Democratic coalition that has prevailed since 1932 except for the two Eisenhower administrations surpassed the required 270 electoral votes at 9:25 p.m. when he won Maryland's 10 electoral votes. Less than two hours later, he had captured 35 states with 387 electoral votes, leaving.. McGovern with only three votes from the District of Columbia and 14 from Massachusetts. With 38 percent of the nation's precincts reporting, the unofficial vote was: Nixon, 19,762,270 (63 percent); McGovern: 1 1,282,058 (36 percent). With 34 percent of the North Carolina precincts reporting, Nixon held 69 percent of the votes with a total of 312,674. McGovern held 30 percent with 133,595 and American party candidate John Schmitz trailed with one percent, 8,094 votes. Nixon, who led McGovern by 2-to-l throughout the early evening, captured blue collar and surburban support in the populous industrial states of the North and Midwest. The Nixon sweep included the entire Weather TODAY: Cloudy; high in the low 60s, low around 40; probability of precipitation 30 per cent today, near zero tonight. Voting at the East V Landslide - . u t- - I . ,.. Ml j V . ... vs I - 1 w 4 ?V r f 1 1 , I . . ' -M I rr ' ' 1 -- -'- "f f . l.JMfc-L, 1 L r-iT--- nr, - yrrr eiKDl South - an unprecedented reversal of voting patterns going back almost a century. Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, whose campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination was cut short when he was wounded in an assassination attempt, said in a television interview that the Democrats sealed their doom by nominating McGovern. If the Democrats "had offered the platform they should have offered ... it could have been a close race and they could have won," said Wallace. But while Nixon piled up GOP victories in states unmatched since Eisenhoser's glory years, his coattaih. apparently proved too thin to give Republicans control of the 93rd hits M Holshouser ahead G over nor race United Press International RALEIGH - Youthful Jim Holshouser, riding President Nixon's coattails and a wave of urban support, forged ahead Tuesday night in his bid to become North Carolina's first Republican governor of the 20th Century. In the lieutenant governor's race, meanwhile, Democrat Jim Hunt, a 35-year-old Wilson attorney making his first bid for elective office, scored an easy victory, outpolling his Republican opponent Johnny Walker, 49-year-old North Wilkesboro business executive, by more than 10 percent. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hargrove "Skipper" Bowles took an early lead of as much as 5,000 votes as the election returns began coming in Tuesday night. But, with almost 20 percent of the precincts counted, Holshouser pushed ahead, le- ding Bowles by almost 2,000 votes. F.2 showed surprising strength in the state's urban counties, including Mecklenburg, where at one point he led by 8,000 votes. He railed in the east, but led in many western counties, including some where Bowles had been weak in the primary. Bowles, a 52-year-old Greensboro millionaire and former state senator, hinged his campaign on an ambitious program to expand career education and a promise for new taxes, but Holshouser, a 38-year-old attorney from Boone with Franklin precinct Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Wednesday. November 8, 1972 .HelinnLS cGovern Congress. The GOP was headed for some gains in the Senate, but not enough for the net pickup of five seats needed for control. By mid-evening, Nixon had taken Maryland, West Virginia, Texas and Pennsylvania - all of which had not gone Republican since Eisenhower won his second term over Adlai E. Stevenson in 1956. West Virginia was one of the only two states the other was Massachusetts which Nixon's campaign managers figured he might lose in their predicted landslide. Nixon's campaign director. Clark MacGregor, predicted the President would break Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 record of capturing 61.1 percent of the Please turn to page 2, column 3 four terms experience in the state Legislature, cut into the Bowles lead in the last few weeks of the primary by hitting the career education plan and promising he would cut at least one tax. Neither American party gubernatorial candidate Arlis Pettyjohn, a 35-year-old textile firm supervisor from Boonville, nor lieutenant governor candidate Benjamin McLendon, 46, a free-lance artist from Charlotte, claimed more than 1 percent of the vote. Hunt, a serious young man who rose through Democratic party ranks to state young Democrats chairman and the head of a Democratic party reform commission, waited in Raleigh to see if he A smile on by Amy O'Neill Staff Writer RALEIGH - Republican Jesse Helms' victory over Democrat Nick Galifianakis in the U.S. Senate race Tuesday night ended one of the tightest races in North Carolina political history and put smiles on Republican faces that had been glum for 80 years. The race see-sawed for three hours before Helms pulled substantially in front. In their greatest display of enthusiasm during the evening, the crowd at the Raleigh Hilton Inn roared once when Helms started pulling ahead and then again when Helms made his victory entrance into the hall to give the traditional "bless-your-hearts" speech. Exercising caution, Helms said, "So far it's a glorious night. During the campaign it was rumored that Jesse Helms was conservative and I'm being just a little conservative tonight. We need a few more precincts to determine a victory." Only the Presidential race was decided Ora ost M Orange County voters went to the polls in unusually heavy numbers to solidly support Democratic candidates on all levels Tuesday, with the exception of George McGovern for President. With 24 of the county's 28 precincts reporting, the presidential race was neck and neck. McGovern received 10,269 votes to Nixon's 10,629. The American Party candidate John Schmitz polled 1 26 votes. County voters cast solid support for Democratic candidates in the remaining national, state and local races. In the race for the U.S. Senate seat vacated bv B. Everett Jordan's retirement, Democrat Nick Galifianakis out-distanced Republican Jesse Helms by a wide margin. With 22 of the 28 precincts reporting, Galifianakis got 9,882 votes to Helms 6.235. The county, when these reports were made at 12 midnight, was thus in opposition to state-wide voter trends in the presidential and senatorial races. At the same hour. Helms received 228.680 votes and Galifianakis 203,1 71 of the 33 percent of state-wide precincts reporting. In the presidential race. Nixon led McGovern by 338.227 votes to 146,247 with 37 percent of state-wide precincts reporting. The Governor's race in Orange County, with 15 of 28 precincts answering, showed Democrat Skipper Bowles with 5,755 votes to 4,861 for Republican Jim Holshouser. Incumbent L.H. Fountain held a strong lead over Republican challenger Erick Little in the race for the 4th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives vacated by Nick Galifianakis, With 22 of 28 county precincts reporting, Fountain received 9.047 votes to Little's 5,977. ironiF more President Nixon would be working with a Republican or Democratic governor. "My first interests would be the people." he said, when asked if he could work with a Republican governor. Both Holshouser and Bowles professed optimism in their contest, but Holshouser faced the largest obstacles. The state's voter registration shows Democrats outnumbering Republicans by more than three to one and the last Republican to win the governorship was Daniel Russel in 1896. In addition, Bowles scored a strong victory in the primary and conducted one of .the state's most professional and Please turn to page 3, column 1 early CBS predicted victory for Nixon at 9:15 EST and that victory drew only polite applause. At 1 1 :30 p.m. a telegram from President Nixon was read to the crowd, saying "This victory certainly gives us all reason to celebrate." Gubernatorial candidate Jim Holshouser and 4th District Congressional candidate Jack Hawke were cautious, too, but for a different reason. At 1 a.m., both still trailed narrowly in their races and neither had been seen in the hall since early in the evening. However, state GOP chairman Erank Rouse continued to predict victory for the pair, saying "When Nixon came to North Carolina and put his hand on the backs of Holshouser and Helms, it had to help." At its fullest, the Hilton Inn ballroom held approximately 2,000 people, the members of the "old party" crowd, dressed in formal attire, milling around the ballroom and rejoicing in the strongest Republican showing in North Carolina in 100 years. However, the crowd was quiet and composed, - fi - f tow i tight GO Conntty volte Democrats lead in local Jesse overcomes Nick's early lead United Press International RALEIGH - A strongly conservative television editorialist, Jesse Helms, appeared headed for victory in a Senate battle Tuesday night in North Carolina, which has not had a Republican Senator since 1903. Helms, 51, a thin, bespectacled man who has never held elective office higher than a City Council post in Raleigh, was jubilant shortly before midnight Tuesday as he appeared at his headquarters, but did not claim victory. With 42 percent of the precincts in North Carolina counted, Helms had 295,279 votes or 54 percent, while young Rep. Nick Galifianakis, D-N.C, who scored an impressive win over veteran Sen. B. Everett Jordan, D-N.C, in the primaries, had 265,1 1 1 or 46 percent. "During the campaign it was rumored that Jesse Helms was a conservative," Helms said at his headquarters just before midnight. "I'm being just a little conservative tonight because not enough precincts are in." "So far, it's been a glorious night," said Helms, who moved ahead in the vote counting in the early evening and maintained a margin of around 53 percent. President Nixon had about 70 percent of the vote, sometimes moving up as high as 71 percent during the evening. He carried just about every county in the state. Helms was asked whether the President's big margin had helped him, and he said "I don't know how to measure coattails. P faces apparently savoring the prospect of long-awaited victory. Jim Gardner, Republican gubernatorial candidate in 1968 who was narrowly defeated by Holshouser in this year's primary, circulated around the hall in a white velour shirt, smiling and shaking hands, apparently well-pleased with the election results. Johnny Walker, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, who was trailing Democrat Jim Hunt badly through the evening, did not appear as pleased. He roamed the hall looking for someone to talk to after fielding an initial onslaught of two reporters. Walker did make a statement to the audience, however. "It isn't the old party crowd that's putting us in," he said. "It's the young crowd, the swinging crowd. They're going to kick out the people who have run the government for one hundred years and they're going to put us in. "If we don't do a good job, they'll kick us out next time." The two Democrats, Flo Garrett and Richard Whitted, led Republicans John Gastineau and Phil Rominger by solid margins in the race for the two vacant seats on the Orange County Board of Commissioners. With 10 of the county's 28 precincts in, Garrett polled 3,613 votes, Whitted 3,360, Gastineau 1,196 and Rominger 2,071. The county's voters registered similar support for Democrats in the race for two State House of Representatives' seats from the 17th District (comprising Orange and Chatham Counties). With 10 of 28 precincts reporting, Trish Stanford, (D) polled the most votes with 3,767 votes. Democrat Ed Holmes ran second with 3,607 votes. Barry Burns (R) ran third with 1,838 votes and Republican Elmer Hughes fourth with 1,638 votes. Democrats also enjoyed comfortable margins over Republicans for the two seats in the 16th District of the State Senate (comprising Orange, Moore, Chatham and Randolph Counties). With 12 of Orange County's 28 precincts reporting. Democrat A.B. Coleman led the pack with 4,973 votes. Fellow Democrat Bill Saunders followed with 3,810 votes. Republicans P.H. Craig and Dave Drexel trailed with 2,542 votes and 2306 votes respectively. American Party candidate Mary Jones got 46 votes. Chapel Hill poll tenders reported especially large voter turn-outs. Officials at the Woollen Gym and East Franklin polling places said at 6 p.m. that record numbers of voters had cast ballots. Both precincts reported that nearly 90 percent of their estimated registrants voted. The precincts both contain a very large number of student registrants. Founded February 23. 1893 year 0 9 "I think it is more of a conservative thing - they had a clear cut choice in North Carolina," he said. Helms, who ran on campaign slogans reading "Give 'Em Helms" and "President Nixon Needs Helms," appeared to be the most serious Republican threat in North Carolina since the last Republican senator left office in 1903. Helms was a frequent critic of both Nixon and Galifianakis in his daily editorials carried over a Ra!eigh television Please turn to page 3, column 2 Returns dictated the mood by Mary Ellis G ibson Staff Writer RALEIGH Democrats were alternately glum and excited as early elections returns came into the party state headquarters in here last night. In a tight governor's race, the general feeling was guarded optimism as the returns showed Democrat Skipper Bowles leading Republican Jim Holshouser by a slim margin. At an II :30 p.m. news conference, a jubilant Bowles predicted a Democratic victory in the gubernatorial race. "As I see it now, without equivocation, we are going to win," Bowles said. When Eastern North Carolina comes in, we'll start rolling." The candidate did not. expect victory by a wide margin. "I'll settle for one vote," he said. "It's hard to admit, but Nixon's coattails are pretty broad." In the Senate race, even the most optimistic Democrats were beginning to realize that North Carolina could have its first Republican senator in years. "It's got me very sad that Helms will probably win," said Voit Gilmore, a former state senator. "I'm not willing to think that the CBS prediction is true, but I'm afraid it is." Jake Eroelich, Bowles' campaign manager, predicted a "comfortable Democratic margin" in the governor's race. Support for Bowles should be consistent throughout the state, and especially strong in the east, Eroelich said. Predicting a possible narrow defeat in the Senate race, Froelich added, "The consequences for North Carolina of Please turn to page 2, column 4 Jkeavy tallies
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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