Sen. Harris Wofford scored a Democratic upset in a Pennsylvania race that rehearsed White House campaign issues, while Republican businessman Kirk Fordice ousted Gov. Ray Mabus in Mississippi, in odd-year elections that raised storm warnings for incumbents, now and in 1992.

President Bush, leaving the White House Wednesday morning for Europe, said he was "depressed" that former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh lost in Pennsylvania, but noted that Republicans won big in Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia."Please don't look at the part of the glass that is only half full," Bush said. "It was a political day yesterday and we did very, very well."

Democrat Brereton Jones was elected governor of Kentucky, easily defeating a veteran GOP congressman caught up in the House check-bouncing episode.

In New Jersey, voters angered by hefty tax hikes ended Democratic control of their Legislature and elected Republican majorities in both Senate and Assembly, a turnaround so total that the GOP will have majority margins wide enough to override vetoes.

While voters rejected some of the biggest names on the ballots in the scattered elections of 1991, in Washington state they took the advice of Speaker of the House Thomas S. Foley and voted against a term limit measure that would have been the nation's toughest.

Foley went home to campaign intensively against the measure that would have forced him and the other seven Washington House members to retire in 1994. He said it was an unconstitutional affront to voters.

None of Tuesday's signals was more striking than Wofford's one-sided victory over Thornburgh, converting an appointed Senate seat into a three-year term as the successor to Republican Sen. John Heinz, killed in an airplane crash.

Thornburgh, twice elected Pennsylvania governor, had been the pollsters' favorite by as much as 44 percentage points. Wofford wasn't even the Democrats' favorite at the outset; he was named to the seat six months ago after other prospects, thought to have a better chance of holding the seat in the special election, declined.

Wofford turned it around with a campaign in which he pressed economic issues, urged national health insurance, demanded emergency extension of unemployment benefits and cast himself as the outsider - in effect the challenger for the job he was trying to hold.

In his campaign finale, he said he tried to set a bonfire "to send a message to Washington that we don't need another person satisfied with the way things are." He found a wildfire instead.

"I have a mission from the people of Pennsylvania. We want action on our problems in this country," Wofford said this morning on NBC's "Today." "We've rushed overseas with generosity and resources but we

haven't dealt with problems of our own."

With 95 percent of the Pennsylvania vote counted, Wofford had 1,765,029 or 55 percent of the vote, Thornburgh 1,420,552 or 45 percent.

"The clear loser was President Bush," said Sen. George Mitchell of Maine, the majority leader.

Bush made two Pennsylvania appearances in Thornburgh's behalf. So did Vice President Dan Quayle.

Democratic National Chairman Ronald H. Brown said Pennsylvania was "a preview of next year's presidential race. Americans are ready for a change," he said.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter said the outcome should alert Bush to the strong concerns of a major state. "There are many, many domestic issues that have to be faced," said Specter, who will be running for re-election himself next year.

The Wofford victory also cements the Democratic majority in the Senate at 57 to 43, increasing the odds against a Republican takeover when 34 senators are elected next year.

In Mississippi, Mabus lost a state that has been electing Democratic governors for 107 years.

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"Any incumbent these days is in for a close race," said Mark Gearan, executive director of the Democratic Governors' Association in Washington. "There's a lot of cynicism and anger out there."

Fordice campaigned against racial quotas, criticized welfare and said recipients should work. Those are similar to themes David Duke is using in his campaign for governor next door in Louisiana.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, Fordice had 357,083 votes or 51 percent, to Mabus' 334,208 or 48 percent. An independent candidate had the rest.

In Kentucky, Jones, the lieutenant governor, gained 65 percent of the vote to 35 percent for Rep. Larry Hopkins, a seven-term GOP congressman.

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