DOLE BANDWAGON TAKES OFF\Senator wins all 8 primaries.

Byline: Richard L. Berke The New York Times

Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., won eight state primaries spanning New England, the Rockies and as far south as Georgia on Tuesday, leaping far ahead of his rivals in the biggest test thus far of the Republican presidential primary season.

In a string of triumphs in politically and geographically diverse states that he said demonstrated his ability to unite the Republican Party, Dole handily won in Georgia, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island.

The results apparently claimed two casualties, Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and former Gov. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Aides to both said they would announce their withdrawals from the race today.

Two of Dole's rivals who have never held elective office - Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes - vowed to press on even though they competed for a distant second or third place in most of the contests Tuesday.

At a boisterous victory rally Tuesday night on Capitol Hill, Dole set his sights on President Clinton rather than dwell on the intramural competition. After buoyantly reciting state after state where he had won, Dole declared: "Tonight we're proving the pundits wrong - and pretty soon we're going to unite and beat Bill Clinton in 1996."

Calling on the party to rally around him only weeks after his lead seemed to be jeopardized by chaotic early primaries, the Kansas senator added: "All my life in politics, I've been trying to bring America together. And I'll do the same as the Republican nominee. And I'll do the same as the president of the United States."

Dole claimed a majority of the 208 national convention delegates that were selected Tuesday; 996 are needed for the nomination.

In light of the daunting numbers, Alexander met with his closest advisers Tuesday night to consider his future course. He canceled campaign events scheduled in Florida today and aides said he planned to travel home to Nashville and pull out of the race. This was not a complete surprise because Monday he had vowed to withdraw if he did not defeat Dole in Florida on March 12, when that state and Texas are up for grabs. In Tuesday's voting, Alexander was a distant third or fourth.

Lugar, who had barely managed to register in the voting results from earlier contests, also planned to announce that he would drop out, campaign aides said.

"I have no Don Quixote idea here of competing endlessly with no prospects," Lugar told reporters in Vermont earlier in the day.

Buchanan vowed that he would fight all the way to the convention in San Diego, but he acknowledged while campaigning Tuesday in New York state: "We hope to do well up here in New York. We know it's an uphill battle here. It's an uphill battle everywhere."

Forbes' fortunes have alternately plummeted and soared, as he lost the first votes and then won a few smaller contests. In theory at least, he can run as long as he wants, if he is willing to keep spending from his personal fortune.

Forbes made clear Tuesday night that he had no plan to drop out. Referring to Harry Truman's saying if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen, he said: "This chef has no intention of leaving the kitchen."

According to surveys of voters leaving the polling places Tuesday, economic issues were foremost on voters' minds. Either the economy and jobs or the deficit were more frequently selected as the most important issue. Dole drew most of those votes, as well as among voters for whom taxes was the overriding concern. For example, a fifth of the voters in Massachusetts selected taxes of the most important issue, and a third of them voted for Dole, compared to 4 in 10 for Forbes.

Dole scored his success Tuesday night by drawing from a broad-based Republican coalition.

He also made inroads into Buchanan's natural constituency. Surveys of voters leaving their polling places Tuesday conducted by the television networks and the Associated Press found that Dole did well among self-described religious conservatives and among voters who said the nation's most serious problems were moral rather than economic.

In addition to breaking ground in Buchanan's core base of support, Dole continued to do well among mainstream Republicans, including those who say they are concerned about the deficit and those who are looking for a candidate who can defeat Clinton in November.

Buchanan, by contrast, was not able to build on a narrow base of support among the most conservative voters. Most of his supporters described themselves as very conservative and said they supported a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion. And Buchanan failed to make inroads with other groups, like self-described moderates.

Explaining Dole's performance after his jolting losses in the New Hampshire, Delaware and Arizona primaries, Scott Reed, his campaign manager, dismissed polls that showed the senator had not inspired the Republican electorate. Instead, he pinned the blame on Forbes, the publishing magnate, and his television advertising.

"I'll tell you exactly what happened," Reed said in an interview Tuesday night. "We moved out of the states where Steve Forbes had spent $25 million running negative ads tearing Bob Dole down. He almost got us."

While the candidates competed in a mix of primaries spanning the South, New England and the West, the heaviest competition was in Georgia, with the day's biggest trove with 42 delegates. Dole's advisers said they were most concerned about that state, which had led the senator to add to his schedule an election-eve visit to Atlanta on Monday.

Also on Tuesday, Republicans in Minnesota and Washington began selecting more delegates in party caucuses.

The voting in Georgia was a particularly harsh setback for Alexander, who has staked his campaign on performing well in his native region. Even before the polls opened Tuesday, he said he would withdraw if he did not beat Dole in Florida next Tuesday.

As Alexander and Buchanan concentrated in the South, Forbes chased hopes of an upset in Colorado, while Lugar pinned his chances with the tiny state of Vermont, where he had campaigned for days.

From the day that Dole announced his candidacy last April, he was widely viewed as the candidate to beat for the Republican nomination. In addition to raising millions of dollars early, he amassed the most extensive ground organization and roster of endorsements, including those of most Republican governors. And for months, he held a commanding lead in the polls.

But Dole received a scare in the Iowa caucuses, when Buchanan placed a close second. And his campaign was knocked completely off balance a week later when Buchanan defeated him in the New Hampshire primary. Dole stumbled further when Forbes beat him in Delaware and Arizona.

But Dole regained his footing when he decisively won the South Carolina primary Saturday.

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(color) Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas celebrates with his wife Elizabeth after being declared the GOP's winner in eight primaries Tuesday. Associated Press DELEGATE TOTALS