FIRST OFF...

Political analysts--dredging through post-election debris from Tuesday’s California and New Jersey primaries in search of voting trends--ought to crunch on the numbers Home Box Office racked up last weekend during a national presidential call-in poll. Held Saturday throughout a 3-hour airing of “Tanner ‘88” episodes, viewers were asked to register their votes via a toll-free hot line for George Bush, Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson or Jack Tanner, the fictitious Democratic presidential contender created by Garry Trudeau and Robert Altman and portrayed by actor Michael Murphy. A whopping 40,144 votes were registered, an HBO spokesman said Tuesday, “a turnout that surprised even us.” The results: An unsurprising win for Tanner with 38%; a surprising second for Bush, with 22%, narrowly edging out Jackson, who received 21% of callers’ votes. The supposed leading Democratic contender, Duakakis, brought up the rear with 19%.