Ex-Football Coach Loses Primary Race in Nebraska

OMAHA, May 10 -- Football coach-turned-congressman Tom Osborne tried -- and failed -- to take down Gov. Dave Heineman on Tuesday in the Republican primary for governor of this football-crazy state.

In the nation's only other primary Tuesday, Sen. Robert C. Byrd handily won the Democratic race in West Virginia and will face businessman John Raese, who beat out five other Republicans. Byrd, 88, an outspoken Iraq war critic seeking a record ninth term, is a major target of the GOP this year.

In Nebraska, with 86 percent of the precincts reporting, Heineman received 50 percent of the vote to Osborne's 44.

Osborne was initially considered a strong favorite because of his three national championships at the University of Nebraska. In his three congressional races, Osborne never received less than 82 percent of the vote. But recent polls showed Osborne and Heineman virtually tied and Omaha businessman Dave Nabity in single digits.

Osborne decided not to seek a fourth term in Congress to campaign for the gubernatorial nomination.

In West Virginia, Byrd easily defeated the token opposition he faced on the Democratic side from musician and political novice Bill Hendricks Jr.

With 1,592 precincts out of 1,961 reporting Tuesday, Byrd had 86 percent of the vote compared with 14 percent for Hendricks. On the GOP side with 1,585 precincts reporting, Raese had 59 percent, and National Guard Capt. Hiram Lewis had 23 percent.

In New Jersey, a former Rhodes Scholar became Newark's first new mayor in two decades. Cory Booker, 37, beat state Sen. Ronald L. Rice in the nonpartisan race to lead the struggling city of 280,000. Mayor Sharpe James, 70, announced in March that he would not seek a sixth term.

Booker had 72 percent of the vote to Rice's 23 percent.