Gore sweeps Super Tuesday primaries, seeking Bradley knockout

Wednesday, March 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Al Gore swept past Bill Bradley in Super Tuesday primaries from Maine to California, pushing his rival to the brink of withdrawal in the Democratic presidential campaign. "We need to build on our record of prosperity," the vice president said, turning his focus toward November.

"He won, I lost," said Bradley, all but conceding his challenge was over.

Gore won from New York to Georgia to Ohio to California, and at several stops in between, regularly gaining 60 percent of the vote or more.

Polling place interviews with voters in every region of the country underscored the vice president's strength among core constituencies vital in Democratic primaries.

Blacks preferred Gore over Bradley by a margin of 6-1; and Hispanics by 8-1. The margin among union members was smaller, but a healthy 3-1. Gore also won the vote of independents, a key element of Bradley's electoral strategy, and a group that the Democratic nominee will need in the general election race. The exit polling was conducted by Voter News Service, a consortium of the AP and television networks.

The vice president fashioned his shutout while Texas Gov. George W. Bush was gaining the upper hand in his battle for the Republican nomination, defeating John McCain in several big-state primaries.

Gore defeated Bradley in the New England states of Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, completing a regional sweep that began in New Hampshire's leadoff primary more than a month ago. He triumphed, as well, in Georgia, where he was winning roughly 80 percent of the vote; Ohio, roughly 70 percent; and New York, Maryland and Missouri, roughly 60 percent.

California was his as well, and easily. Apart from the 367 delegates at stake there, California's unique open primary system listed all candidates on the same ballot in a popular vote contest, an early gauge of each party's strength in the state that offers the biggest Electoral College prize in the fall.

Bradley came closest in Vermont, where he was gaining 44 percent of the vote.

In addition to primaries in 11 states, Gore won party caucuses in North Dakota. He and

Bradley also were competing in caucuses in three other states and American Samoa.
In remarks to supporters in Tennessee, the vice president said Democrats were "the party of the mainstream."

He said his approach was the right one to continue the current economic expansion begun under Bill Clinton - the only time he used the president's name. In an unnamed reference to Bush's policies, he cautioned against "wasting the surplus on a risky tax scheme."

Gore challenged his Republican rival to esday, Gene Broussard, a 49-year-old senior systems analyst from Baltimore, said, "I'm pleased with the Clinton regime. You know how they say, 'Don't fix it if it's not broken."'
While Gore and Bradley clashed numerous times, the animosity fell well short of previous Democratic nominating battles. On one issue where Gore seemed vulnerable - his involvement in questionable fund-raising activities in 1996 - Bradley never made a sustained attack.

Gore built his delegate advantage by routing Bradley in the leadoff Iowa caucuses in January, then edging him in the nation's first primary in New Hampshire eight days later. Those triumphs, coming on the heels of seven years of vice presidential service, allowed him to pile up hundreds of pledges of support from convention "super delegates."