Two-term New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith lost a bitter GOP battle to Rep. John Sununu on Tuesday, while Janet Reno struggled against a surprisingly strong political newcomer in her bid for the Florida Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Smith was the first elected senator to lose a primary in a decade.

Elizabeth Dole, left, gets a hug from her husband, former Sen. Bob Dole, in her hometown of Salisbury, N.C. Dole on Tuesday won the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.

In the race for Jesse Helm’s Senate seat in North Carolina, Elizabeth Dole easily defeated six other candidates to win the GOP nomination. She will face Democrat Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff in the Clinton administration.

In a third crucial race for the fall, Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone and Republican Norm Coleman easily won their primaries in Minnesota.

In Florida, McBride had 523,002 votes, or 47 percent, with 82 percent of precincts reporting; Reno had 461,261, or 41 percent. But tens of thousands of votes still hadn’t been counted in three large South Florida counties Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm beach where Reno hoped to catch up.

“The returns are still coming in. It looks like a long night,” Reno told supporters at a hotel north of Miami Beach.

In New Hampshire, Sununu had 77,320, or 54 percent, to Smith’s 64,273, or 45 percent, with 94 percent of precincts reporting.

In North Carolina, Dole got 339,435 votes, or 80 percent, with 98 percent of precincts reporting. Bowles, a Charlotte investment banker, had 270,672 votes, or 44 percent. His nearest challenger, State Rep. Dan Blue, had 175,685, or 28 percent.

In the busiest primary day of the year, voters in 12 states determined fall lineups for six open governor’s offices, three of the most competitive Senate seats and a few House seats that could influence control of Congress and the shape of the next two years of President Bush’s administration.

There were also races in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Georgia held runoffs.

In an echo of voting problems two years ago, Florida’s polling hours were extended two hours because of widespread voting problems in the first test of the state’s revamped elections system. Polling places opened late, and workers had problems starting up new touchscreen voting machines and running other ballots through scanning machines.

Reno’s campaign warned of the possibility of a post-election battle. “When that many people are turned away from the polls, it raises enough concerns that we’re going to have to take a good, hard look at the legitimacy of the election,” said campaign manager Mo Elleithee.

Former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris won the GOP primary for an open House seat in a safely Republican district.

Reno saw her wide lead in the polls shrink to a too-close-to-call race as McBride won party endorsements and raised more cash.

State party leaders, who had hoped for an aggressive challenge to GOP Gov. Jeb Bush after the 2000 presidential election crisis, said McBride would stand a better chance of defeating the president’s brother in the fall.

Reno had angered many in Florida’s Cuban community, an influential voting bloc, when as Clinton’s attorney general she oversaw the federal raid two years ago that took Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives. The boy was sent back to Cuba with his father.

In New Hampshire, Sununu, a three-term congressman, will face three-term Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who was unopposed.

Sununu is the son of former Gov. John H. Sununu, who was chief of staff to the former President Bush.