3 in N. Dakota Vie for Burdick Seat in Last Senate Race of Year

BISMARCK, N.D. — The nation’s last U.S. Senate race of 1992 on Friday pitted Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad against a Republican lawmaker and an independent anti-abortion candidate.

The three are vying to succeed the late Sen. Quentin N. Burdick.

Conrad, state Rep. Jack Dalrymple and Darold Larson were competing to serve the two years left on Burdick’s term. Burdick, a Democrat, died Sept. 8 at age 84 after a 32-year Senate career.

With a light voter turnout expected, Conrad and Dalrymple said they were working to get supporters to the polls.

“We have made more of an emphasis in this campaign because of the unusual nature of this election,” Conrad said.

A Dalrymple upset would be the second in as many weeks in the Democrats’ Senate majority, which stood at 57-43 going into Friday’s election. Incumbent Sen. Wyche Fowler Jr. (D-Ga.) lost a runoff election last week to Republican Paul Coverdell.

Larson, a 50-year-old minister of a small church he founded in Minnesota, had drawn the most publicity of any of the candidates for his anti-abortion television ads, which included graphic depictions of aborted fetuses.

Conrad, a 44-year-old Senate freshman, shocked North Dakota Democrats in April when he declared that he would keep a 1986 campaign promise and not run for a second term. He said he would not seek another six-year term if the federal budget deficit were not slashed. U.S. Rep. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) replaced Conrad on the ticket and defeated Republican Steve Sydness on Nov. 3.

But Conrad reconsidered after Burdick’s death and said he would run to serve out the term. He argued that his earlier pledge applied only to his own seat.