U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8) held onto the Democratic nomination Tuesday night as he fought off a primary challenge from Andrew Rosenberg, an Alexandria lobbyist. The 14-year incumbent won in every jurisdiction in the 8th district, scoring highest in Alexandria and Falls Church. Moran received 23,964 votes, or 58.53 percent, compared to 16,982 votes cast for Rosenberg, giving him 41.47 percent.
"We've got more work to do but tonight let's celebrate," Moran told about 100 supporters who assembled in Arlington's Clarendon Park. Moran added he wanted to focus on the November election. "I want to get past it," he said. "I had somebody running against me who shouldn't be running in the first place."
Moran faces Republican Lisa Marie Cheney, an Alexandria resident, in November.
This year's primary campaign marked the first time Moran has been challenged from within his own party.
ROSENBERG TOLD supporters at Alexandria's Lyceum that although he was "certainly disappointed," his campaign has put up a good fight.
"We made a lot of noise out there," he said. "We almost pulled off one of the biggest political upsets in history."
Rosenberg did strongest in Reston, which has been a part of the 8th district for only three years.
Allegations of anti-semitism had dogged Moran up until the last weekend of the campaign when a former pollster said he heard the congressman make an anti-semitic remark in a meeting. Moran and others who attended the meeting denied it. The allegation comes a little over a year after Moran sparked outrage when he suggested that the Jewish community in the United States had been pushing the country to war with Iraq.
On Tuesday evening, Moran said the allegation "hurt my feelings" and suggested the pollster was acting on somebody else's behalf.
"I hope he got well paid for it," he said.
In his speech Moran stressed that Democrats in Northern Virginia needed to work to elect U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) to the White House.
"We want to get as many Democrats to turn out to participate in that effort in Northern Virginia," he said. "If we do that we can win Virginia."
"We've got to take this country back. We've got to have a sane foreign policy," he said to cheers and applause.
After giving his victory speech, Moran took questions from reporters but he turned away abruptly and walked off when a reporter for an Arabic language television station started asking a question.
TURNOUT WAS relatively light throughout the district, hovering around 7 percent in Fairfax County and 12.7 percent in Arlington.
Sylvia Sanders, chief election officer at South Lakes High School in Reston, said turnout had been "slow but steady."
Voters interviewed during the day likened the election to a referendum on the incumbent.
"Are we better off as a district with or without Jim Moran?" asked Debra Steppel, a Rosenberg supporter at South Lakes. "We'll be much better off as a district without Moran."
Amy Appelbaum, who voted early in the day at Walter Reed Elementary School in Arlington said Moran had been a good congressman "in spite of everything."
"He talks to everybody; he shows up at things; he has terrific constituent service," she said. "I guess he has a few rough edges."
<1b>—Reporter Brian McNeill contributed to this story