Duke Takes 2 States

Gov. Michael S. Dukakis scored runaway victories over the Rev. Jesse Jackson in Nebraska and West Virginia primaries yesterday, continuing his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.

The landslide triumphs left Dukuakis with three-quarters of the delegates needed to lay claim to the nomination, buttressing his image as the party's 1988 choice in all but name.

With 56 percent of Nebraska's precincts reporting, it was Dukakis 65 percent, Jackson 25 percent. Dukakis was leading for 18 delegates, to 7 for his rival.

With 15 percent of West Virginia's precincts reporting in a slow count, Dukakis was gaining 80 percent of the vote to 14 percent for Jackson.

Even as his defeats were sealed by the voters, Jackson was looking ahead to next week's primary in Oregon as well as the final showdown June 7 in California. Campaigning in Portland, he said, "We know the people of Oregon are an independent-thinking people. We expect a tremendous response..."

Vice President George Bush won the West Virginia primary with 89 percent, his customary, uncontested landslide.

Nebraska was something of a different story. Bush was gaining 75 percent of the vote, and campaign dropout Bob Dole from next door Kansas was winning 21 percent.

Dole's enduring regional popularity aside, Bush's relatively low vote total seemed further evidence of the difficulty he might face in farm states in the fall campaign. The vice president lost races in Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota before routing the field to clinch the nomination.

Bush, who has locked up the GOP nomination and has no active opposition in the remaining primary states, looked forward to receiving President Reagan's endorsement tomorrow.

Dukakis, in contrast, was several hundred delegates ahead of Jackson but several hundred shy of the total needed to claim the Democratic nomination.

Aides expressed confidence he would command a nominating majority by the time the primary season ends on June 7 with elections in California, New Jersey and two other states, and Dukakis has begun campaigning with one eye on Jackson and the other on the fall campaign against Bush.

Addressing Quincy House seniors last night, Dukakis campaign manager Susan Estrich said her candidate will be campaigning hard in California and New Jersey and will be courting the remaining "superdelegates," in order to lock up a first ballot victory at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.

In response to a question on who the Massachusetts governor would choose to be his running mate, Estrich said "to talk about the vice presidency in any more detail would be premature... We will be spending most of our time working" to round up the necessary delegates.

ABC said its polling in West Virginia indicated that Dukakis was acceptable to voters across the political spectrum, although nearly 30 percent of the voters said they didn't know how to describe the Massachusetts governor's ideology.

ABC polling analyst Doug Muzzio said a majority of liberals and moderates and a plurality of conservatives said Dukakis' views were "just right" as opposed to too liberal or too conservative.

Muzzio said that 23 percent of Dukakis' primary voters were Democrats who cast ballots for Reagan in 1984.

The popular vote totals on the Democratic side looked like this:

In Nebraska, with 56 percent of the precincts counted, Dukakis had 45,712 or 65 percent, to 17,448 or 25 percent for Jackson.

In West Virginia, with 15 percent of the precincts reporting, Dukakis had 29,363 or 80 percent, to Jackson's 5,005 or 14 percent.

Inthe GOP Nebraska primary Bush had 53,470 or 73 percent to Dole's 16,106 or 22 percent. Inactive candidate Pat Robertson had 3466 or 5 percent.

In West Virginia, Bush had 10,537 for 89 percent of the vote.

The night's returns left the Massachusetts governor with 1540 delegates, to 942 for Jackson. It takes 2081 to claim the nomination.

The week's Democratic primaries offered a breather in the schedule after a rapid-fire series of industrial state contests ending last week in Indiana and Ohio and pointing the way toward contests in Oregon next week and California in early June.

Neither Democratic contender spent much time or devoted much advertising money to Nebraska and West Virginia--and their campaigns were overshadowed by fierce gubernatorial and senatorial primaries.

Neither Dukakis nor Jackson seemed to mind that the presidential race was at a pause. The Massachusetts governor, the nomination seemingly within his grasp, took a weekend off for the first time in months.

Jackson devoted part of his week to campaigning in California, where he plans a costly and intensive effort to slow Dukakis' drive toward the nomination.

Frank E. Lockwood contributed to the reporting of this story.