Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton secured a solid majority to win his sixth straight Democratic nomination. But, like a boxing champion who slipped by on points, he is being asked to explain the lack of a knockout punch. Clinton, 43, was the nation's youngest governor when first elected in 1978 and he has had a stranglehold on the state's Democratic Party ever since. But in last week's primary, he garnered just 55 percent of the vote while Tom McRae, an unpolished campaigner who heads a public policy think tank, earned 39 percent. Four also-rans divided the rest. Clinton, who toyed with the idea of running for the presidency in 1988 and already is talking about 1996, said he saw no cause for concern in the margin of his primary victory. ``I didn't see how I could get 60 percent, knowing the number of people who were saying in the surveys that they thought I was a good governor but were concerned about the tenure issue,'' Clinton said recently. Tenure was summed up repeatedly by McRae as ``10 years is long enough.'' Arkansans grow bored with their politicians sooner than voters elsewhere, Clinton said, in part because politics in the state is so personal. Pumping hands at shopping malls and crawfish festivals is considered as important as running the right television ad. ``I'm just trying to tell people that in business they wouldn't fire a 43-year-old with 10 years of experience who's doing a good job,'' Clinton said days before the primary. Sheffield Nelson, who upset Rep. Tommy Robinson for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, already is jumping on the theme, saying ``Arkansas is ready for a change.'' Clinton, who has focused on improving the state's education system, counters by calling himself the candidate of change. ``Frankly, if you look at what I proposed, compared with the others, it represents more change,'' he said. ``Ten years is an asset, not a liability.'' Clinton lost his first re-election bid in 1980 to Republican Frank White, but won again in 1982, 1984 and 1986, when the gubernatorial term was changed to four years. He has all but promised not to run for the White House in 1992 if re-elected this year. His showing in this year's primary, largely in line with pre-election polls, was the first time since his political comeback in 1982 that Clinton got less than 60 percent of the primary vote. ``I'm sure the governor would like to have made a better showing, but when you're in office 10 years you have a lot of friends and a lot of enemies,'' said Bill Paschall, a Little Rock political consultant. ``I don't think it's a death blow that he made 55 (percent), but it shows him he has to work harder.'' While the biggest complaint against Clinton appears to be that he has been in office too long, the governor also has been accused of being more interested in his national ambitions than state concerns. Clinton's recent troubles with the legislature also have been a sticking point. Twice in 1989 he failed to win legislative approval for proposals to increase taxes. Nelson, who hopes to paint Clinton as a tax-and-spend Democrat, said the primary election results show the governor is on the ropes. ``I'd say against an unknown who never held an office, I think that was low. It probably did make some bells go off in his head,'' Nelson said. Clinton said he would have done better if a large number of traditional Democrats hadn't crossed over to the GOP primary to vote against Robinson. ``We did poorly in areas where I did not campaign; where my supporters, in spite of my best interest, believed the polls and didn't work; and where we did a poor job of telling the people what I had done that affected their lives; and where people knew there was an alternative but didn't know much about what the alternative was,'' Clinton said. Betsey Wright, Clinton's former chief of staff, said the governor's supporters were complacent. ``Bill Clinton is always perceived as being so strong that people find it difficult to believe in calls for such cohesion and tight energies,'' she said of the primary.
Governor Bill Clinton won his sixth straight primary election by 55 votes , a decrease from previous years . He has no cause for concern jokingly citing the " tenure " issue , meaning , " ten years is long enough , " used by his opponent . He counters , " a business would n't fire a 43-year old with ten years of experience who 's doing a good job . " Clinton has focused on improving Arkansas ' educational system and calls himself the candidate of education . He was elected first in 1978 but lost in 1980 . He won again in ' 82 , ' 84 , and ' 86 , when the term was extended to four years . He has implied that if he is elected this year , he will not run for president in 1992 .