Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly won the right to challenge nearly 14 years of Republican control over the 11th Congressional District on Tuesday, decisively defeating opponent Leslie Byrne after a hard-fought Democratic primary campaign.
Connolly claimed about a 20 percent margin over Byrne with a strong showing in Fairfax County that offset neck-and-neck results in the Prince William County portion of the district, where he is less well-known.
The win positions Connolly to stage a Democratic takeover of a district that hasn’t been without a Republican incumbent since 1995, when now-retiring Rep. Tom Davis took office. Two other Democratic candidates, Doug Denneny and Lori Alexander, took single-digit percentages of the vote.
Connolly faces the politically inexperienced but well-financed Keith Fimian in November’s general election. As votes were being tallied Tuesday evening, Fimian announced he had raised more than $1 million.
Byrne, the 11th District’s first representative who lost to Davis after one term, had mounted an all-out assault on Connolly, framing him as a war profiteer for his employment with contractor SAIC and a “pay-to-play” politician who traded influence for campaign contributions.
It was by all measures a more vicious assault than what Republican Gary Baise launched against Connolly during the race for Fairfax County chairman in November, which Connolly won with a similarly broad margin.
While expectations of a slim primary turnout came true, the theory that such a small showing at the polls would benefit Byrne proved false. The turnout figures actually came in far lower than election officials had forecast.
“It’s very, very slow,” said Fairfax County General Registrar Rokey Suleman as he tallied precinct numbers Tuesday afternoon, some of which had seen less than 1 percent of their registered voters come out.
In Virginia’s Eighth District, Democratic incumbent Jim Moran easily fended off a challenge by Matthew Famiglietti. The Republican primary to oppose Moran between Amit Singh and Mark Ellmore was too close to call by press time.
In the 10th, incumbent Republican Frank Wolf handily shot down a challenge by Vern McKinley. He will face Georgetown professor Judy Feder, who beat Mike Turner. Feder lost to Wolf in 2006.
