From Staff & Wire Reports

Campaigning as the man to preserve popular Gov. Zell Miller’s legacy, Democrat Roy Barnes won the right to do just that Tuesday, beating Republican Guy Millner in the Georgia governor’s race.

Barnes defeated Millner with 53 to 44 percent. Barnes, a longtime state legislator, has the backing of current Gov. Zell Miller, who is retiring as one of the most popular to hold the office. This was the third attempt at statewide office for Millner, a multimillionaire businessman.

At mid-evening, Barnes said he was ”cautiously optimistic” but not ready to claim victory yet. ”I want to see some metro counties and suburban counties.”

The vote climaxed the most expensive election contest in state history, paced by Atlanta millionaire Millner who dipped heavily into his own pocket to finance a relentless TV attack ad war that Republicans hoped would break a 126-year history of Democratic governors.

Exit interviews with voters indicated the black voter turnout for Barnes stood to be the strongest for a Democrat in Georgia since 1988. Millner, the interviews indicated, was not faring as well with suburban voters as in his two previous losses.

Georgia is the only Southern state that has not elected a Republican governor since Reconstruction.

In the race for lieutenant governor, Democrat Mark Taylor appeared to be a clear winner over Republican candidate Mitch Skandalakis.

Taylor, who sued his opponent for slander for implying he has a lingering cocaine problem, held a strong lead early this morning. Taylor led with 57 percent to Skandalakis’ 38 percent.

The battle between Taylor, a state senator from Albany, and Skandalakis, the chairman of the Fulton County Commission, was the state’s first north-south matchup in more than a decade.

In the U.S. Senate race, Republican Paul Coverdell lead Democrat and cookie magnet Michael Coles with 41 percent of precincts reporting at about 12 a.m. today.