Clinton Captures Georgia : Tsongas Leads in Maryland; Buchanan Strong : Democrats: Brown shows surprising strength in Colorado as primary voters hand candidates another mixed message.

WASHINGTON —  Democratic primary voters handed their presidential candidates another mixed message Tuesday, as Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton won a big victory in Georgia while former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas took a solid early lead in Maryland; former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. showed surprising strength in Colorado.

With 70% of the precincts counted in Georgia, Clinton led Tsongas, 61% to 20%. Brown held third place with 8%, Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey had 5% and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin had 2%. In Maryland, meanwhile, Tsongas led Clinton, 40% to 34%, with 30% of the vote in. Brown had 9%, while Harkin and Kerrey each had 5%.

In Colorado, with 2% of the vote counted, Brown had 31%, Clinton 30% and Tsongas 24%. Far behind this trio were Kerrey and Harkin. Exit polling of voters conducted for the major television networks indicated the race among Brown, Clinton and Tsongas was too close to call.

Voters also went to the polls Tuesday in Utah and in three states holding caucuses--Washington, Idaho and Minnesota. Returns from those states were not expected until late Tuesday night.

With 383 delegates at stake, Tuesday’s seven Democratic primaries and caucuses marked the biggest day so far in the party’s presidential race. But the day’s true importance lay in its function as a reality check, a measurement of which candidates appear to have the support to strongly compete in the next--and possibly decisive--round of contests that begins with South Carolina, Arizona and Wyoming on Saturday, continues through the 11-state Super Tuesday balloting next week and culminates with votes in Illinois and Michigan on March 17.

By that measure, Tsongas, Clinton and Brown each could claim a victory. Clinton appeared headed for the big win he needed in Georgia to demonstrate that his Southern base is intact. Tsongas seemed set to gain a victory outside New England that will allow him to contest the “regional candidate” label. And Brown confounded political experts who had written him off as a fringe candidate.

By contrast, Harkin and Kerrey were receiving far bleaker news from the voters.

Kerrey had spent much of his severely depleted campaign treasury and his time over the weekend in Colorado, hoping for a good showing in a state bordering his native Nebraska. Instead, it appeared he barely registered with Colorado’s voters.

In Tucson, where he spoke to students at the University of Arizona, Kerrey insisted his campaign would go forward. “There is growing enthusiasm for the campaign--somewhat slower than I would like, but it is growing,” he said.

Harkin, whose only victory so far came in the largely uncontested ballot in his home state’s caucuses, concentrated his efforts on Tuesday’s caucuses in Minnesota, Iowa’s northern neighbor and a state whose caucuses abound with liberal activists. Still, his poor showing in some of Tuesday’s other contests could hardly offer any encouragement for him, regardless of his showing in Minnesota.

Campaigning Tuesday in Florida, Clinton sought to focus attention on Tsongas, drawing a distinction between their respective economic programs. Tsongas, meanwhile, asserted Tuesday night that his victory in Maryland had made him the “breakthrough kid.”

Clinton fiercely attacked Tsongas’ economic policies, accusing him of being an elitist with no understanding for the plight of working and lower-income Americans. Tsongas’ push for a capital-gains tax cut was an effort to spur economic growth “without fairness,” Clinton told elderly voters at a retirement community in Deerfield Beach.

“We had growth and no fairness in the 1980s,” Clinton said. “What happened? No more fairness and lower growth. It doesn’t work. It’s bad economics.”

In televised remarks Tuesday night, Clinton continued to hammer at Tsongas, saying his rival offered “a refined version of ‘80’s-style trickle down economics.” Tsongas, for his part, touted his lead in Maryland, saying the results made him the “breakthrough kid”--a play on Clinton’s claim two weeks ago that coming in second in New Hampshire had made him the “comeback kid”--and that the Maryland vote proved he had national appeal.

“I’ve been charged with being a regional candidate,” Tsongas said. “If the numbers hold in Maryland, then I think we break through that artificial barrier.”

Tsongas’ spokesman David Eichenbaum was blunter. “Bill Clinton is the regional candidate,” he said. “Paul Tsongas has shown he can run competitively in all regions” while Clinton’s only victory so far has been in the South, he noted.

A jubilant Jerry Brown, meanwhile, basked in his strong showing in Colorado. He told supporters at a rally in Phoenix that he now sees himself as the alternative to Clinton and Tsongas. “The Democratic race is not solidified by any means,” he said.

And while both Clinton and Tsongas gained support they needed, the results underlined weaknesses they must still contend with.

As in New Hampshire, Tsongas’ support in Maryland and Georgia remained concentrated among upper-income, white-collar, white professionals. Despite advertisements over the last few days aimed at black voters in Georgia, Tsongas lost to Clinton among black voters by more than a 6-1 margin, according to exit polling by The Times. In Maryland, the exit polling for the television networks showed Clinton winning black voters 55%-26%.

In Georgia, among white voters, The Times poll showed Tsongas winning among those earning more than $60,000 annually, while Clinton won among those earning less.

A similar economic split fueled Tsongas’ victory in Maryland, where voters tend to be more affluent than in Georgia. Tsongas beat Clinton among whites in Maryland 46% to 27%, the network exit polling indicated.

But while those demographics helped Tsongas in Maryland, they could severely hurt him in some later primaries and in the general election, where blacks and lower-income voters make up the bulk of the Democratic constituency.

“If Tsongas is limited to whites in the $60,000-and-up crowd among Democrats, that’s a pretty small population--investment bankers, lawyers and a few doctors,” said Emory University political scientist Merle Black.

For Clinton, meanwhile, questions about his character clearly continue to weigh on voters’ minds.

In Silver Spring, Md., for example, Sylvia Garberg said she had planned to vote for Clinton until unsubstantiated allegations of marital infidelity surfaced against him. She switched to Tsongas even though, she said, “I don’t know much about his programs.”

In Atlanta, 36-year-old Cynthia Settle said she eventually voted for Clinton, but only after considerable worry over the allegations. “If his wife can forgive him, so can I,” she eventually concluded. “He didn’t do anything anybody else didn’t do,” she said. “He just got caught.”

Asked in the Times exit poll what characteristics led them to pick the candidate for whom they voted, Georgia voters backing Clinton cited compassion, experience and leadership. Those who chose Tsongas picked ethics and strength of convictions.

Tuesday’s balloting ranged from coast to coast and beyond, from Maryland to Washington to Pago Pago, where Democrats from throughout the islands of American Samoa flew to a party caucus at the Rainmaker Hotel to cast their ballots. Those voters choose only six delegates who will share three votes at the Democratic convention in July.

Stakes were far higher in Minnesota, with 78 voting delegates to be chosen, Georgia, with 76, Washington with 71, Maryland with 67, Colorado with 47, Utah with 23 and Idaho with 18.

In addition to those delegates, party leaders and elected Democratic officials from each of those states have guaranteed convention votes as unpledged “superdelegates.”

Entering Tuesday’s voting, Clinton had acquired the most delegates in the race toward the 2,144 needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press delegate tally. The tally showed Clinton with 96, Harkin with 75.25, Kerrey with 22.5, Tsongas with 21, Brown with 8.25 and uncommitted with 213.75.

Times staff writers Cathleen Decker in Deerfield Beach, Fla.; Sonni Efron in Atlanta; Alan Miller in Phoenix; Jonathan Petersen in Tucson; Paul Richter in New York, and Marilyn Yaquinto in Washington contributed to this story.