Rep. Mickey Edwards (Okla.), the fourth-ranking House Republican who wrote 386 overdrafts at the House Bank, was defeated for renomination in yesterday's Oklahoma Republican primary, while Rep. Mike Synar was forced into a runoff with Democratic challenger Drew Edmondson.

Bill Price, a prominent former U.S. attorney from Oklahoma City, and state Rep. Ernest J. Istook of nearby Warr Acres - who hammered Edwards over the bank scandal, congressional pay raises and the budget deficit - ran ahead of Edwards in Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District, with 37 percent and 32 percent, respectively, of the total vote.

Edmondson, Synar's chief challenger in the northeastern 2nd District, is a former Muskogee County district attorney. Edmondson claims that Synar has lost touch with his district, while Synar contends that Edmondson was "soft on crime" as a prosecutor and that he is a tool of special interests.