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Gerald Connolly ended Leslie Byrne's bid to win back her old seat in Congress in Virginia's most fiercely contested Democratic primary Tuesday.
Connolly, chairman of the Fairfax County (web|news) Board of Supervisors, won about 56 percent of the vote to about 34 percent for Byrne in the Democratic-leaning Capital Beltway district.
Connolly will face Republican Keith Fimian for the seat retiring Republican Rep. Thomas M. Davis has held since 1994 when he ousted Byrne. The first woman elected to Congress from Virginia, Byrne held the seat for one term.
Newcomers Douglas Denneny and Lori Alexander got about 7 percent and 2 percent of the vote, respectively.
Connolly said in an Associated Press interview that he would stay in his county office through the fall campaign and expected Democrats to reunite after the bruising contest.
"It was a hard battle, there were outside interest groups that came in and you can see tonight that that was a big turnoff," Connolly said.
Two incumbent congressmen from the region - Democrat Jim Moran and Republican Frank Wolf - easily won their primaries.
Moran brushed aside a challenge from Democrat Matthew Famiglietti in his quest for a 10th term in the heavily Democratic 8th District.
Wolf breezed past Vern McKinley in the 10th District as he sought a 15th term in very low turnout primary elections held in an unseasonable 100-degree swelter.
In the Democratic primary in the 10th, Judy Feder won a convincing victory over Mike R. Turner, earning the right to challenge Wolf again this fall, just as she did in 2006.
In the night's tightest race, Mark Ellmore won 54 percent of the vote over Republican rival Amit Singh in the 8th District GOP primary. Ellmore challenges Moran in November.
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