Fowler, Coverdell in Close Georgia Race : Senate: Candidates virtually tied in early runoff returns. Clinton had campaigned for the Democratic incumbent.

ATLANTA — Sen. Wyche Fowler Jr. (D-Ga.) battled Republican Paul Coverdell Tuesday in a nip-and-tuck runoff election that was vital to Democratic hopes of widening their majority in the Senate.

President-elect Bill Clinton put some of his political prestige on the line by making an election-eve appearance in Georgia. He said he needed Fowler, a first-term Democrat, to help to “break this gridlock in Washington.”

Republican Sens. Phil Gramm of Texas and Bob Dole of Kansas worked the state Monday with Coverdell, who was President Bush’s Peace Corps director in 1989 through 1991. First Lady Barbara Bush campaigned for him last week.

With 78% of precincts reporting, Coverdell had 432,713 votes, virtually 50%, and Fowler had 428,250 votes, also virtually 50%.

“I’m tired of campaigning,” Fowler said as the votes were still being tallied. “I just want to get back to work.”

Said Coverdell: “We’ve made this a real race.”

The outcome hinged on late returns from vote-rich Atlanta, largely Democratic, and its Republican suburbs. Coverdell showed surprising strength in rural areas, which traditionally are Democratic strongholds.

The election, marked by angry charges of dishonesty on both sides, was the first time Georgia has had to use a law that requires a runoff if no candidate captures a majority of the vote. Fowler and Coverdell fell short of that in a three-way race Nov. 3.

Fowler waged a lackluster campaign leading up to Nov. 3 but appeared to have been shocked into activity by the outcome. In the past three weeks, he crisscrossed the state repeatedly, trying to shore up a liberal constituency he had previously taken for granted.

A Mason-Dixon poll last week showed Fowler favored by 50%, Coverdell by 44% and 6% undecided. But observers said it all depended on turnout, which was certain to be far lower than the 72% of registered voters who took part in the general election.

A Fowler victory would put the Democrats on track to end the year with a net gain of one Senate seat, up from 57 to 58. That presumes victory in a special election in North Dakota on Dec. 4, in which Democrat Kent Conrad is heavily favored.

The runoff campaign was dominated by bitter attacks, scorching ads and charges of dishonesty.

Fowler, 52, a liberal Atlanta congressman for 10 years before winning the Senate seat in 1986, got 49% of the vote on Nov. 3 to Coverdell’s 48%. Libertarian Jim Hudson polled 3%.

Coverdell, 53, used unrelenting attack ads to portray Fowler as a two-faced politician who talked a conservative line in Georgia while voting with the Democrats’ liberal wing in Washington. He accused Fowler of writing bad checks on the House bank while a congressman and voting repeatedly to raise his own pay. Fowler denies he abused his banking privileges, and records from those years have not been released.

Fowler charged Coverdell with running “a campaign of deliberate dishonesty,” and accused him of profiting from votes he cast as a member of the Legislature for 19 years. He also charged Coverdell had been investigated for mismanaging the Peace Corps. A congressional committee is looking into the Peace Corps.

Early in the runoff campaign, Fowler laid claim to a link with Clinton, saying he would vote to help the President-elect enact his program while “my opponent won’t.”

Clinton used the same theme in a rally for Fowler on Monday, saying Republicans in Washington hoped for a Coverdell victory to thwart the new Administration.

Coverdell likewise paraded luminaries of his party through the state, including Mrs. Bush, actor Charlton Heston, Virginia Sen. John W. Warner and Education Secretary Lamar Alexander.