Norton carried the other six wards and won 40 percent of the vote compared to 33 percent for Kane. Norton's vote, 46,620, was 4,426 more than Sharon Pratt Dixon's total for the Democratic mayoral nomination.

Late Friday, someone anonymously faxed to news organizations a document indicating that Norton and her husband were delinquent on $10,755 in D.C. income taxes from 1982. With penalties and interest, the document stated, Norton and her husband, Edward Norton, owed $25,381.80 as of Jan. 18, 1989.

David V. Crow, 71, a retired Air Force man who said he voted for Norton, applauded the way Norton handled the disclosure of her tax problems. "She had her husband by the ear and said, `Come on out here with me,' " he said.